A Study on the Participation of Judges in Judicial Administration (법관의 사법행정참여에 관한 연구)

Kim, Bong-Cheol (김봉철)

A Study on the Participation of Judges in Judicial Administration

Legal Theory & Practice Review
Abbr : LTPR
2020, 8(3), pp.57-83
Publisher : The Korea Society for Legal Theory and Practice Inc.
Research Area : Social Science > Law
Received : July 31, 2020
Accepted : August 22, 2020
Published : August 31, 2020

Kim, Bong-Cheol ¹

¹사법정책연구원 연구위원

Candidate

ABSTRACT

An independent court as a judiciary has independent judicial administrative power. The exercise of judicial administrative power by a minority can lead to abuse of judicial administrative power through judicial bureaucratization, which can damage the independence of judges and eventually undermine the public's trust in the judiciary. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate the closeness of judicial administration and enhance the transparency and democracy of judicial administration through the participation of judges in judicial administration. The current Court Organization Act, the Judicial Disciplinary Act and the Supreme Court rules give individual judges or judges the opportunity to participate in judicial administration. The judicial administrative participation organization of such judges include Council of Judges, the Personnel Committee of Judges, National Conference of Judiciary Representatives, the Advisory Council on Judicial Administration, the Court Administration Division Committee, and the Disciplinary Committee of Judges. However, despite the significance of participation in judicial administration through the representative organization of judges, the final decision on judicial administration in principle lies with the judicial administrator, so legislative measures are needed to reflect judges' opinions on judicial administration substantially. Meanwhile, in the case of the judicial participation organizations except for the National Conference of Judiciary Representatives, the judicial administrator is allowed to concurrently serve as the ex officio chairman or chairman, or appoint or commission members. Through this, judicial administrators can exercise their influence over the judicial participation organization. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a way in which members of the participation organization can elect mutually or elect a chairman internally. It is also necessary to adopt a method in which judges elect judges, who are members of the committee. Furthermore, it is necessary to add more judges to the judicial administrative participation organization, and it is necessary to define it in the law in consideration of the status and role of the National Conference of Judiciary Representatives. Judges' participation in judicial administration needs to be further activated, which calls for expanding judges' access to judicial administrative information and adjusting the burden on judges participating in judicial administration. Of course, such judges should also consider ways to integrate the opinions of their fellow judges and effectively reflect them in the judicial participation organization.

KEYWORDS

Judicial Administrative Power, Judicial Administrator, Organization for the Participation of Judges, National Conference of Judiciary Representatives, Council of Judges, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Abuse of Judicial Administrative Power.

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