In Korea, few litigants settle with rulings in the lower courts. In many cases, they appeal through the three-trial system to the highest court.
According to figures from the Supreme Court, the number of appellate cases registered with it in 2010 reached 36,418, nearly doubling from 18,960 a decade earlier. That means an average 8.3 cases per day have to be handled by each justice, making it nearly impossible to closely examine cases one by one. Of the 14 members of the top court, the chief justice and the minister of court administration are exempt from deliberating cases.
This condition, in turn, leads many litigators to complain of delays in trial of their appeals for years. A simple growth in the number of justices would not be a solution to the problem, with the Supreme Court arguing that the settlement of cases requiring a majority consensus from the bench could become more difficult if the head count of justices is increased.
A more effective method might be a more thorough and substantial review in lower courts, which would help reduce the number of cases appealed to higher courts.
The Supreme Court now hopes that a new scheme for recruiting judges will result in ensuring strengthened examination by district courts.
Under the system recently unveiled by the top court, judiciary benches will be filled with those who have at least three years of experience in other legal professions, such as lawyers, prosecutors and law professors, from next year. The mandatory period is set to be extended to five years in 2018, seven years in 2020 and eventually 10 years in 2022.
The first graduates from law schools, who began their legal career this year with some gaining jobs as court clerks, will thus have the opportunity to sit on the bench as early as 2015.
The new scheme, based on the model adopted in Britain and the U.S., will overhaul the method of recruiting judges, which has little changed since the current judiciary system was introduced with the establishment of the government in 1948 three years after the country was liberated from Japan’s colonial rule.
Currently, most of judges are recruited from a pool of high-scoring graduates from the Judicial Research and Training Institute, which holds a two-year course for those who pass the state-administered bar exam.
Novice judges usually in their late 20s or early 30s, armed with little prior legal experience and unaccustomed to public sentiment, have often had difficulty gaining confidence from litigators.
It can be expected that there will be fewer complaints against lower court rulings when judges have at least 10 years of legal experience. The Supreme Court plans to abolish the hierarchical personnel system to encourage more judges to serve their job until their legal retirement age.
What holds the key to the success of the new system, however, will be whether and how to ensure the fair and transparent process of recruiting judges. Experience in legal professions does not necessarily guarantee the ability and moral standards required for a place on a judicial bench.
In recent years, some judges have stirred controversy with ideologically-biased rulings and misdemeanors in court or their private life. The Supreme Court will have to do its utmost to work out recruiting standards and procedures to ensure thorough scrutiny into each applicant’s personality, values and morality as well as competence. Cronyism, which has permeated every corner of society, should be kept out of the recruitment process.
What is also needed is a well-structured program to equip new judges lacking court experience with skills to proceed with trials smoothly.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
