As the Constitutional Court nears the conclusion of President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial, the nation is intently eyeing what has already become the lengthiest deliberation process in the history of South Korean presidential impeachments.
The justices on the current eight-member bench are reportedly reviewing the case every day except for most weekends, even doing so during the March 1 Independence Movement Day holiday.
According to the memoir of the top court's former chief justice Kim Yong-jun, "Looking Into the Oral History of the Constitutional Court," justices deliberate in a closed-off area that no one else — not even judicial researchers — can enter. Wiretap detection devices are installed in the room where the judges sit at the round table and debate the matter, which Kim says is without a strict format.
This debate can sometimes become heated, but, according to former justice Hwang Do-yun, it never becomes a source of conflict among the justices.
Judicial researchers are not given access to discussions, but they play a crucial role in providing information related to the matter at hand and legal precedents set, sometimes in other countries. The researchers are usually appointed among judges, but outstanding public officials can also be appointed to serve for a fixed term of up to three years.
A task force of 10 judicial researchers is aiding the Yoon impeachment case. They will help draft the provisional verdict, which is amended multiple times in the deliberation process.
Final statements are conducted in the reverse order of the judges' tenures at the Constitutional Court, with the most recently appointed justice speaking first, according to ex-justice Chung Kyung-sik.
A final vote determines the verdict if a unanimous agreement is not reached. An impeachment ruling can be confirmed with the approval of six or more Constitutional Court justices, and dissenting judges can include their rationale in the ruling as a minority opinion.
Even in the case of a unanimous decision, a justice can state their opinion through supplementary comments.
Although the current court has eight justices with one seat vacant, the six-vote threshold remains to confirm Yoon's removal from office.
As the deliberation process wraps up, the court publicly announces the date of the verdict in advance. The announcement is made after the defendant is confirmed to have received and checked the date.
In the case of past presidential impeachment cases of former leaders Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye, the dates of their rulings were announced three and two days before, respectively.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
