The Korean Judiciary System
There are three levels of courts. The District Court, which included a specialized Family court, is the court of original jurisdiction -- akin to trial court. Next up is the High Court, which is the intermediate appellate court. High Court is the court where an appeal from a District Court case is heard. Finally, there is the Supreme Court, the highest court in Korea.
District Courts and High Courts are divided into geographic districts. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is appointed by the President with the consent of the National Assembly, and this term lasts for 6 years. The remaining Supreme Court Justices are apponted by the President upon the recommendation of the Chief Justice with the consent of the National Assembly. All other judges are appointed by the Chief Justice with the consent of the Conference of Supreme Court Justices. This means the judges tend to stick together and protect their turf. The terms of judges last for 10 years. Both the Supreme Court Justices and other judges may be reappointed.
There is a separate Constitutional Court system which is NOT part of the regular judicial system. This system has jurisdiction over the following issues: 1) the constitutionality of a law upon the request of the courts; 2) impeachment; 3) dissolution of a political party; 4) competence disputes between state agencies, between state agencies and local governments, and between local governments; and 5) constitutional complaints as prescribed by law.
It is very important to note that the Korean judicial system emphasizes statutory interpretations instead of the judicial decisions following the civil law tradition. This means that there is no similar American judicial system of court precedents, and lower courts are free to interpret certain stututory provisions differently than higher courts. Furthermore, a decision of the Korean Supreme Court does not have the binding force of precedent in future cases of a similar nature. It merely has a persuasive effect, just like decisions of the High Courts on District Courts. However, the interpretation of a law rendered in a particular case by the Korean Supreme Court DOES have a binding effect on a lower court when the case is remanded to the lower court. In practice, however, the decisions of higher courts are followed diligently by lower courts.
Said writer believes that in order for the Korean judiciary to develop into a more meaningful and useful system, the American-style of a court precedent system should be effected, particularly because Korean statutes are even more vague than American statutes. Often times, many of the Korean court decisions, which said writer has read, do not make any sense while judges appear to have too much discretion and reach different conclusions on the same issues. Said writer also believes that the precedent cases system will force Korean judges to be more clear and rational in their decisions.