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The Two Modes of Foreign Engagement by the Constitutional Court of Korea
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 October 2021
Abstract
The Constitutional Court of Korea (CCK) has engaged with foreign law and practices in two distinct manners. While the CCK has interacted with foreign constitutional adjudicatory organs outside the courtroom, it has also developed comparative law practices inside the courtroom. This article aims to examine the interaction between the CCK's two modes of foreign engagement. The chronological inquiry, substantiated by the interviews with former and current legal practitioners of the CCK, demonstrates the gap between the CCK's two modes of foreign engagement. The CCK's evolving extrajudicial activities have provided the repositories of information adequate for the deliberation of individual cases. However, the CCK's rigid structure for comparative law practices, which was established in its initial years to learn from traditionally influential jurisdictions, restricts these repositories from being fully utilised inside the courtroom. The CCK's failure to fully incorporate its developments in its extrajudicial activities into comparative law practices disallows the CCK to grasp an evolving picture of foreign constitutional adjudicatory organs.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the National University of Singapore
Footnotes
*
Constitutional Rapporteur Judge, Constitutional Court of Korea. An earlier version of this paper was submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the LLM degree at the London School of Economics. I would like to thank Jo Eric Murkens, Yoon Jin Shin, and Fabian Duessel for their valuable comments.
References
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18 Interview with Official C, former or current constitutional researcher with the CCK (Seoul, 10 Dec 2020); Interview with Official D, former or current CRJ with the CCK (Seoul, 15 Jun 2021).
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22 ibid.
23 ibid; Interview with Official D (n 18).
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28 ibid.
29 88 Hun-Ka 6, 1 KCCR 199 (8 Sep 1989).
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33 Res (2002) 3, preamble.
34 As of December 2020, non-European Member States included Algeria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Israel, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Tunisia, and the United States.
35 Interview with Official B, former or current CRJ with the CCK (Seoul, 18 Dec 2020).
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42 ibid.
43 Kang-kook Lee, ‘Keynote Speech’ (International Symposium in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Constitutional Court of Korea, Seoul, 1–4 Sep 2008).
44 Constitutional Court of Korea, Twenty Years of the Constitutional Court of Korea (Constitutional Court of Korea 2008) 143.
45 ibid.
46 Interview with Official B (n 35).
47 ibid. For the CCK's strategic reasons in taking initiatives in the creation of an association of constitutional courts in Asia, see Law (n 3) 975; De Visser, ‘We All Stand Together’ (n 1) 115–116.
48 Interview with Official B (n 35).
49 ibid; Interview with Official C (n 18).
50 99 Hun-Ba 74, 13-1 KCCR 250, 266 (22 Feb 2001).
51 2008 Hun-Ma 385, 21-2(B) KCCR 647, 662 (26 Nov 2009).
52 2012 Hun-Ma 409, 2012 Hun-Ma 510, 2013 Hun-Ma 167 (consolidated), 26-1(A) KCCR 136, 144 (28 Jan 2014).
53 2013 Hun-Ma 142, 28-2(B) KCCR 652, 663 (29 Dec 2016).
54 2011 Hun-Ba 379 and 27 other cases (consolidated), 30-1(B) KCCR 370, 409 (28 Jun 2018).
55 Interview with Official B (n 35).
56 De Visser, ‘Patterns and Cultures of Intra-Asian Judicial Cooperation’ (n 1). See also Law (n 3) 974.
57 AACC, ‘The History of AACC’ (n 41).
58 AACC, The Statute of the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts and Equivalent Institutions, art 3.
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65 Law (n 3) 976; De Visser, ‘We All Stand Together’ (n 1) 118; Shin (n 5).
66 Hanchul Park, ‘Keynote Speech on International Standards for Social Integration’ (The Third Congress of the World Congress on Constitutional Justice, Seoul, 28 Sep to 1 Oct 2014).
67 The Third Congress of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice, ‘Seoul Communiqué’ (The Third Congress of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice, Seoul, 28 Sep to 1 Oct 2014).
68 Shin (n 5) 271.
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72 Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, ‘Visit of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Korea to the Federal Constitutional Court’ (30 Oct 2015) <https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2015/bvg15-079.html> accessed 27 Dec 2020 (in German).
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75 See Law (n 3) 1007; De Visser, ‘Patterns and Cultures of Intra-Asian Judicial Cooperation’ (n 1).
76 Interview with Official C (n 18).
77 See Ilwon Kang, ‘The Constitutional Globalization in Korea’, in Seoul National University Asia-Pacific Law Institute (ed), Global Constitutionalism and Multi-layered Protection of Human Rights (Constitutional Court of Korea 2016) 250.
78 2013 Hun-Da 1, 26-2(B) KCCR 1 (19 Dec 2014).
79 Kang (n 77) 249.
80 Interview with Official A (n 21).
81 Interview with Official B (n 35). For similar observations concerning the domestic population, see Shin (n 5) 272.
82 Interview with Official C (n 18).
83 ibid.
84 Shin (n 5) 272.
85 Interview with Official D (n 18).