Rule of law and law reform in Korea

Abstract

As a theater of historical experimentation, Korean society merits special attention. Economic and social transformations that unfolded over two centuries or more in Western societies and over more than a century in Japan have exploded in a far shorter time in Korea. Various features of Korean society are radically heterogeneous in origin: some echo feudal structures of the pre-modem Chosun Dynasty, which lasted through the 1890s. Others stem from institutions of Japanese colonial rule(1905-1945), from the American military occupation of 1945-1948, from the corrupt autocracy of Syngman Rhee(1948-1960) or from the "developmental dictatorships" that ruled Korea by military decree from 1961 until only a few years ago. In the quasi-pluralistic Korean society of today, a commerce-centered network of relations interacts with oligarchical structures deeply rooted in recent as well as remote history. Confronted with unprecedented challenges, internal and external, Korea presently is in a period of transition, groping its way toward democratization while trying to maintain momentum for sustained economic development.