earticle

영어

Korea recently enacted "The Civil Participation in Criminal Trials Act" that allows citizens to participate in criminal trials as the jury. This new act aims to improve democratic justice and transparency in judicial procedures. Based on the American jury system in which the jury decide on one's guilt or innocence, The Korea's participatory trial system also introduced an element of the German ‘Schöffengericht’ in which the jury suggest the intensity of sentences to the judge. In this sense, the act can be called "the Korean-style trial by jury."
First, this study investigates the effect of the enacted participatory trial system on the criminal judicial system. Second, this study evaluates the key contents of the participatory trial system such as the selection of the jury, civil participation, the validity and justice of verdicts, cases applied to the jury system, and the selection of the accused. Throughout these procedures, this study aims to find development plans for the participatory trial system.