Yoon Suk-yeol's nomination for the presidency of South Korea's Constitutional Court is still unclear whether it will be approved by the National Assembly
□ Wang Gang, correspondent of this newspaper in South Korea
On November 11, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol nominated Chung Hyung-sik, president of the Daejeon High Court, as president of the Constitutional Court. After the resignation of Yoo Nam-suk, the previous president of the Constitutional Court, it is unclear whether and when Jung Hyung-sik's appointment will be passed in the National Assembly. However, legal professionals have pointed out that the prolonged vacancy of the post of president will seriously affect the day-to-day operation of the Constitutional Court, and the hearing of a number of cases has been postponed.
The nominee has a long history of service in the judicial system
Kim Dae-ki, director of the Secretariat of the President of the Republic of Korea, briefed a press conference on the nomination of the new president of the Constitutional Court at a press conference on the 16th. Born in 1961, Jung Hyung-sik has been the presiding judge of the Seoul High Court and Suwon High Court for 1988 years since he became a judge at the Seongnam Branch of the Suwon District Court in 35, and has been widely praised for his profound legal knowledge and impartial trials, Kim said. Chung Hyung-sik is a man of moral integrity and moral integrity and is highly respected in the legal profession, and is considered a competent candidate for the post of president of the Constitutional Court.
Previously, on November 11, Liu Nanshuo held a resignation ceremony. At present, there are many cases pending before the Constitutional Court, including the trial of the unconstitutional law of the inheritance share system. Owing to the vacancy of the post of President of the Constitutional Court, the hearings had to be postponed.
The Constitutional Court of Korea was established in September 1988 as a judicial body established in accordance with the amended Constitution of the Republic of Korea. The Constitutional Court of Korea is responsible for adjudicating on issues related to the Constitution through the establishment of a special constitutional adjudication procedure to protect the Constitution and safeguard the fundamental rights of the people. The Constitutional Court has the judicial power to decide on the impeachment of the President, the Prime Minister and judges, to dissolve political parties, to review the consistency of legislation with the Constitution, to resolve disputes over competence between State organs, between State organs and local governments, or between local governments, and to adjudicate complaints related to the Constitution. The Constitutional Court is composed of nine judges who serve for a six-year term and can be re-elected. The most notable moment of South Korea's Constitutional Court in recent years was undoubtedly March 9, 5, when the Constitutional Court ruled that the president's impeachment case was upheld, and Park Geun-hye was summarily removed from office, making her the first president in South Korea's history to be ousted.
He has tried a number of highly controversial cases
After Jung Hyung-sik's nomination, South Korean media reported that Jung Hyung-sik had been in charge of trying cases involving Lee Jae-yong, the helmsman of Samsung Electronics, and former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook. These cases have attracted a lot of attention in South Korea, and the outcome of the trial has also caused controversy.
According to South Korea's "Kyungxiang News" and other media reports, when Jung Hyung-sik was the presiding judge of the 15th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court, he was in charge of the second trial of Lee Jae-yong's suspected bribery case. The special prosecutor in charge of the case of Park Geun-hye's "cronies meddling in politics" at the time pointed out that Lee Jae-yong not only asked then-President Park Geun-hye to support the Korean Winter Sports Talent Center run by Choi Seo-won (formerly known as Choi Soon-sil) in order to smoothly realize the inheritance of Samsung, which constituted the crime of bribery by a third party. The relevant court found Lee guilty in the first instance and sentenced him to five years in prison. In the second instance in charge of Jung Hyung-sik, Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to 5 years and 2 months in prison with a 6-year suspension. According to the verdict, Lee Jae-yong was released after being arrested and detained for 4 days. At the time, Mr. Chung said in his verdict that Mr. Lee was "a victim of coercion by former President Park Geun-hye" and that "there is no problem of collusion between government and business." At that time, it was the current President Yoon Suk-yeol who was in charge of the investigation of the case. After the second-instance verdict was released, it caused controversy in South Korean society.
During his tenure as presiding judge of the 6th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court, Jung Hyung-sik sentenced former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook (who served as prime minister during Roh Moo-hyun's administration) to two years in prison in the second instance on suspicion of receiving illegal political funds. During the trial, the court of first instance held that the case was unreliable because there was only one confession from the president of a certain company, so it acquitted Han Myung-sook. However, in the second instance, Chung Hyung-sik overturned the verdict, and the verdict of the second instance was later confirmed by the final judgment of the Supreme Court of South Korea.
It is precisely because Chung Hyung-sik has tried the above cases that after he was nominated as the president of the Constitutional Court, he has aroused widespread attention and discussion in all walks of life in South Korea.
The vacancy of the President affects the normal functioning of the Court
It is worth mentioning that for the first time in South Korea, the president of the Supreme Court and the president of the Constitutional Court are vacant at the same time. Kim Myung-so, president of the Supreme Court of South Korea, stepped down in September this year, and the nomination of the new president Lee Jun-ryong was rejected by the National Assembly, and the president of the Supreme Court is still vacant. After Yoo Nam-seok leaves office, it is unclear whether and when Jung Hyung-sik's appointment will be passed in the National Assembly.
Due to the vacancy of the president of the Constitutional Court, the Constitutional Court of South Korea will not be able to conduct monthly rulings in November. The Constitutional Court usually rules on cases such as unconstitutional trials and constitutional petitions in the last or fourth week of each month. Not only the adjudication of the case, but even the hearings and hearings of some cases will have to be postponed.
It is reported that all cases heard by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Korea are heard and adjudicated by all nine constitutional judges. Although the Constitutional Court Act stipulates that the number of judges hearing a case shall not be less than seven, which means that a case can be heard even if an individual judge is absent, in judicial practice it is difficult to make a decision in some major cases without the President of the Constitutional Court. For particularly important cases, such as whether a law or provision is unconstitutional, a judgment on a constitutional complaint, or a judgment on the impeachment of a senior government official, the approval of more than six constitutional judges is required to pass the case. There are also concerns in the legal profession that if it is not a verdict attended by all the judges of the Constitutional Court, it is likely to raise questions about the verdict.
During this year's National Assembly surveillance, both the ruling and opposition parties in South Korea criticized the Constitutional Court for delaying the verdict in some cases. However, there are also voices that the National Assembly did not push forward with the congressional personnel hearing of the president of the Constitutional Court as soon as possible, so the National Assembly is the main reason for the delay in the release of the relevant ruling.
A relevant person from the Constitutional Court of South Korea told the media that the long-term vacancy of the post of president has seriously affected the daily operation of the Constitutional Court, and the vacancy of the president of the Constitutional Court and the time for the acting president to exercise his powers should not be too long.