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7 - Rights Claiming through the Courts

Changing Legal Opportunity Structures in South Korea

from Part II - Institutional Mechanisms for Rights Claiming

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2021

By
Celeste L. Arrington
Edited by
Celeste L. Arrington  and
Patricia Goedde
Celeste L. Arrington
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington DC
Patricia Goedde
Affiliation:
Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul
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Summary

Examining changes in the legal rules and procedures that render the courts more or less attractive for rights-claiming helps answer a core question: To what extent and how has civil litigation become an institutional mechanism for rights-claiming in South Korea? The concept of legal opportunity structures pinpoints the relatively stable but not static rules and statutes related to access to the courts, adjudication procedures, and judicial remedies that affect whether individuals and groups will use private litigation to try to enforce rights. This chapter’s analysis indicates that Koreans have benefited from a liberalizing structure of legal opportunities and improved potential for rights protection via the courts in the past two decades. I illustrate how claimants and lawyers are recognizing and using legal opportunities, and sometimes even prying open new opportunities, in pursuit of rights.

Keywords

Civil litigationlegal opportunity structurelegal mobilizationdamagesburden of proofaccess to justicestandinglegal reform
Type
Chapter
Information
Rights Claiming in South Korea , pp. 151 - 171
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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