The Constitutional Court System of Korea: The New Road for Constitutional Adjudication

Abstract

Over the course of its relatively short history, the Republic of Korea Constitutional Court has broken the mold of its precursory bodies and has enlarged its role and significance in the country system of judicial review. The success of the Court progressive activity and efforts of its surrounding environment to remove the obstacles hindering its rightful function has brought about the just scrutiny of public power by independent constitutional authority. Its fourteen years of recorded achievement have become one of the most important sources of scholarship and teaching in the discipline of law. It has injected the necessary doses of reality often absent in the application of Korean legal dogma. As an introduction to the articles that follow, this article provides a general overview of the encouraging example the Constitutional Court system has set in Korea: from the background of its precursory bodies, implementation, structure, and jurisdiction to its impact and significant activity since its implementation.