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영어

The executive power granted by law should be exercised throughout the entire process of criminal justice in accordance with the procedures and guidelines prescribed by law, and the laws governing such power shall be enacted withing the framework of the Constitution. It is true that the criminal justice system of the Republic of Korea has been used as a tool for oppressing citizens, and it has been customary in the practical operation of the system to accept investigation reports submitted by investigation agencies, including special judicial police and the Central Intelligency Agency, as they are, in determining guilt. Since the citizens' resistance in June 1987, constant efforts have been made to improve the Constitution of the Republic of Korea and its criminal justice system to substantive norms for the guarantee of human rights. In particular, the Constitutional Court established under the Constitution of 1987 have practically enforced the guarantee of fundamental human rights declared by the Constitution through its decisions on constitutional issues related to the criminal justice system, and judges and judicial officers have endeavored to realize the systems that they have learned from the United States and other advanced countries in judicial systems. As a result, the awareness that a judicial reform, as well as a political reform, was required had spread farther since 2003, discussions on the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act had actively continued since the Act is the basis of the criminal justice system, and consequently the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act of 2007 and an act on jury trials were passed by the National Assembly. It can be said that such improvements in the criminal justice system have contributed to the removal of public distrust in the judicial system, which citizens have experienced under the military dictatorship and authoritative rule and then in the course of overall democratization of society, and the advancement of the judicial system up to the international level. Nevertheless, in order to do away with citizens' distrust in the criminal judicial process, it is still required to make efforts to secure transparency in the criminal judicial process, change the paradigm "from criminal justice for people to criminal justice by people," and improve the system in the direction coherent with "constitutional criminal litigation."