It has been confirmed that judges representing courts across the country pointed out procedural problems in the process of drafting the Supreme Court’s amendment to the Rules of Criminal Procedure, which allows judges to interrogate suspects before issuing a search and seizure warrant. In response to these issues, a bill was passed at the National Judicial Representative Meeting on the 10th to recommend that the National Court Administration request opinions from the representative meeting when enacting or revising important Supreme Court rules and trial rules in the future.
The National Judicial Delegation Meeting, composed of 124 judges from courts across the country, announced that it had held a regular meeting in the first half of 2023 at the Judicial Research and Training Institute in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, and voted on the bill. The originally proposed draft contained the content that ‘the court administration should request an opinion from the representative meeting prior to legislative notice’, but was amended to ‘recommend’ in the discussion process. This agenda was jointly proposed by a total of 12 people, including one judge who proposed it, and was discussed at the representative meeting that day.
It is said that the judge who proposed the agenda pointed out procedural problems in the process of revising the rules of criminal procedure. The proposal contained the content to the effect that ‘a problem occurred in which the opinions of the judge in charge of the actual warrant were not sufficiently collected in relation to the legislation, such as the criminal procedure rules related to the search newspaper.’ It was criticized for the fact that the rule revision was promoted without asking the opinion of the person in charge.
As a result, it was found that the proposal included the opinion that ‘it is desirable to listen to the opinions of the judge representative when revising and amending the Supreme Court rules or trial rules as such problems may arise in the future’.
The representative meeting decided to continue the discussion by referring the detailed opinion request procedure and whether or not the Supreme Court rules were reflected to the deliberation of the subcommittee.
The Supreme Court plans to hold a joint academic conference on June 2nd to discuss the overall ‘current situation and improvement plans for seizure and search warrants’. Accordingly, the enforcement date of the amendment to the Rules of Criminal Procedure, originally announced on June 1, is expected to be delayed somewhat.
On the other hand, Daejeon District Court Chief Judge Park Won-gyu (57, Judicial Research and Training Institute 26th class) and Seoul High Court Judge Kim Gyu-dong (45th, 34th class) were elected as the chairman and vice-chairman of the Judicial Representative Meeting on this day. A proposal to recommend Hwang Seong-gwang (44th and 34th class) as the chief judge of the Uijeongbu District Court was passed as the next Supreme Court judge candidate recommendation member.
Reporter Kim Ja-hyun zion37@donga.com
