우리나라 법치주의 및 의회주의의 회고와 전망

Abstract

The violent candle-light riots in the center of the capital city Seoul had

nearly paralyzed not only the traffic flows but also the normal functions of the

newly inaugurated governments for months in early 2008. And the National

Assembly had not been even convened until the middle of August. Naturally the

riots gave rise to a nationwide debate on the topic of the rule of law, particularly

its necessity as the prerequisite for democratic process and the market

economy, versus the constitutionally provided freedom of speech and assembly

and the principle of popular sovereignty. They had caused observers to give

serious thoughts as well to the state of parliamentary government in Korea.

The republic of Korea (South Korea) was established in 1948 on the basis of

the free democratic Constitution whose features included both the rule of law

and the principle of parliamentary government. As compared with the performance

of Japanese judicial review of legislation institution, Korean judicial

review has been extremely active, particularly since 1987 when Korean society

become finally democratized. During the authoritarian phase in 1960s, 1970s and

early 1980s, there existed a gap in Korean society between the formal written

free democratic constitutional norms and the political practices which were

autocratic. The take-off stage of Korean economic development overlaps the

authoritarian phase, however. In any case, the political practices now came to

live up to what the formal constitution provides, particularly political freedoms...