The 2007 Revision of the Korean Criminal Procedure Code

Abstract

The Judicial Reform Committee [JRC] was organized under the Supreme Court on October 28, 2003, which submitted final recommendations for the revision of the Criminal Procedure Code [CPC] on the last day of 2004. On December 15, 2004, the Presidential Committee on Judicial Reform was established to implement the 2004 recommendations of the JRC, and submitted a bill for the revision of the CPC after a period of heated discussions and debates. On December 21, 2007, the bill passed in the National Assembly. The 2007 revision of the CPC was made as a comprehensive solution for the task. The introduction of the jury trial by the 2007 Act for Civil Participation in Criminal Trials in 2007 was also a drastic change to the Korean criminal justice. It was a result of both the rapid growth of political democracy and the distrust of judicial integrity. It will strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the justice system, enhance its transparency, and bring about peoples trust in and respect to the system. This twenty year old reform after the 1987 Constitution may be called the Korean criminal procedure revolution.