2023-12-15 13:42:00
Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae is giving a greeting at the National Chief Justice Conference held at the Supreme Court conference room in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 15th./News 1
Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae of the Supreme Court held his first national meeting of court chiefs since taking office on the 15th. All 34 court presidents from high courts, district courts, patent courts, administrative courts, and family courts across the country attended the meeting.
In his greeting, Chief Justice Cho said, “We must come up with ways to solve the biggest challenge facing the judiciary, ‘trial delay,’ from various angles.” He added, “In particular, I ask the chief justices of the courts to take the lead in the judiciary’s efforts to realize ‘speedy trials.’ “He said. Chief Justice Cho said, “At today’s meeting, I ask the court chiefs to pool their wisdom and experience,” and the court chief justices discussed ‘measures to guarantee the right to a speedy trial’ and the ‘court chief candidate recommendation system.’
Chief Justice Cho is diagnosing that the ‘trial delay’ reached a serious level under the regime of former Chief Justice Kim Myung-soo, which is violating the rights of the people and adding to their suffering. The court president candidate recommendation system is considered the main cause of ‘trial delays.’
In this system, when district court judges recommend multiple candidates for court president through voting, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court appoints one of them as president of the court. It has been pointed out within the court that in order to become a court president, one must be conscious of the reputation of junior judges, and that following becoming a court president, one cannot say “trial on time” even if there is a delay in the trial because he is concerned regarding the judges who elected him. It was also pointed out as a problem that the Chief Judges of the High Court, who had the most skills and experience as judges, were excluded from the personnel of district court chiefs.
Graphics = Jiwon Lee
It is known that Chief Justice Cho will completely reform the ‘Court Chief Justice Recommendation System’ to the point of abolishing it. Instead of electing candidates for the chief court for each local court, candidates for the chief justice are recommended at the national level and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court makes the final appointment. It is a structure in which the evaluation of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is more influential than that of front-line judges. During the hearing, Chief Justice Cho said, “I will look for talented people everywhere and take a close look at judges who work quietly and hard.”
Chief Justice Cho appears to have gauged the mood in the front-line courts regarding the changes he seeks through the National Court Chiefs’ Meeting that day. After the meeting that day, the Supreme Court issued a press release saying, “We shared opinions on the need for the chief justices to play a leading and central role in handling long-term unsolved cases.” He said, “The court chiefs exchanged various opinions on how to operate the court chief candidate recommendation system.”
According to this paper’s coverage, there was a lot of discussion at the meeting on this day regarding ways to change the recommendation of the court president on a national basis. A court official said, “There was no atmosphere of outright opposition to the overall tone of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.”
In the legal world, many predict that “the ‘Cho Hee-dae system’ will be relatively stable as it was launched with the goal of ‘resolving trial delays’ amid growing distrust of the judiciary.” However, some legal experts said, “Now, only the head of the court has changed to ‘Cho Hee-dae,’” and “there may be resistance.”
In fact, at the meeting that day, some court presidents reportedly discussed the merits of the current court president candidate recommendation system. All 34 current court presidents were appointed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myeong-soo. One legal expert said, “Twenty of the district court chiefs became court chiefs through the court chief candidate recommendation system. “There will be resistance to actually abolishing that system,” he said.
Ahead of the national court presidents’ meeting, some front-line judges posted articles on the court’s internal network opposing the reform of the court president candidate recommendation system. Nam In-su, Chief Judge of the Seongnam Branch of the Suwon District Court, wrote a post saying, ‘The recommendation system cannot be seen to have caused trial delays,’ while Judge Ryu Young-jae of the Namyangju Branch of the Uijeongbu District Court posted a negative post regarding the system reform. They are known to have been evaluated as supporting ‘Kim Myung-soo’s judicial policy’ or as members of the International Human Rights Law Research Association, which emerged as the mainstream under the Kim Myung-soo regime.
A district court chief judge said, “There is not much of a reaction to the two judges’ posts, as there are not many comments. However, Chief Justice Cho will also have to make efforts to expand consensus with front-line judges.”
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