A Shallow View On The Korean Constitutional Review

Constitutional review is a scale which could measures a country's implementation of the constitutional government. South Korea suffered from a long-term authoritarian rule, but a few years later after the reform of constitutional review, it has developed into an internationally accepted democratic constitutional state and its constitutional court system has arisen abroad attention among the worldwide scholars. Although the existing Korean mature constitutional review system is worthy learning, its late development and reform process in the period of transition has to be more worthy of research.This dissertation attempts to make a longitudinal study on the historical evolution of Korean constitutional review system through a historical perspective in order to macroscopically grasp the law of development of the constitutional review system, and also wants to study on the main body, the object and the procedure of Korean constitutional review system in order to find the differences in microcosmic aspects and finally bring up some assumptions about how to construct constitutional review system being appropriate for our national conditions.This dissertation is divided into six parts. In the first part, I give a main introduction to the history course of Korean constitutional review system. For clues as to time, combining the constitutional backgrounds in different periods, introduce those different forms which are formed in the periods of the establishment, development and maturity of Korean constitutional review system, including the form, nature, mode of organization, authority boundaries, procedure, sentence means of the constitutional review body. In the establishment stage, I first introduce the historical background of constitutional review system. Due to continued resistance against foreign aggression and oppression, especially against Japanese colonialism and after independence the detest for the United States, the whole society is full of an obviously strong spirit that the people want to fight for the democratization. On the other hand, western countries attempt to transplant the western value system to Korea. Just in this context, constitutional review syetem is introduced into Korea. Next I give an analysis of the theoretical basis of Korean constitutional review system. Constitutional review system formed during the process of western countries' constitutional practice enriches its theoretical construction and also provides a good opportunity for Korea to learn. It's inevitable that constitutional review system is introduced into Korea. Finally I make an analysis of the characteristics and meaning of Korean constitutional review system in the period of the First Republic. The establishment of Korean Constitutional Law Committee marks the establishment of Korean constitutional review system, and from that time, Korean democratic constitutional government enters into a new historical stage. In the development stage, I focus on the changes of constitutional review system during the different periods from the Second Republic to the Five Republic. Through dynamic comparison, we can see in the development of the constitutional review system, Korean people continually pursue the democratic constitutional idea with heavy and solid pace.In the second part. I make a detailed analysis of six aspects including the establishment background, nature, mode of organization, authority boundaries, procedure, sentence means of the Constitutional Court. The successful operation of Korean Constitutional Court can not be separated from the scientific construction of the system, the authority and the procedure.In the third part, I summarize some characteristics of Korean constitutional review system formed in its developing process, such as the roads having twists and turns, abroad using the experience of other countries for reference, constructing high-level judge team, emphasizing the independence of the review department, enlarging the boundary of constitutional review and so on.In the fourth part, I make an overall evaluation on Korean constitutional review system, divided into two aspects. The first aspect mainly summarizes the value of Korean constitutional review: raising Korean citizens' awareness of the rights, accelerating the constitutional building and promoting the development of democracy. The other aspect mainly points out the deficiencies in Korean constitutional review system and the direction of reform: the judge'appointment of Constitutional Court, strengthening the independence of Constitutional Court, the solution of competence conflicts between Constitutional Court and common court, the expansion of the boundary of the review, the improvement of the social environment for running the system and so on.In the fifth part, on the basis of understanding historical evolution of Korean constitutional review system, summarizng its characteristics and analyzing experience and lessons, I put forward the realistic significance of Korean constitutional review for China. I also give some assumptions about constructing the constitutional review system being appropriate for our national conditions through comparing with Korean system, consisting of the reform course, the foundation of review department and the procedural safeguards etc. In the end, the epilogue sums up the intention of this dissertation.