개정 형사소송법상 조서의 증거능력 규정 논의 경과

Recently, many parts of the Criminal Procedure have been amended and among very important parts amended lies the Evidence Law for the investigative protocol. The discussion on the amendment of the Evidence Law has been made in connection with the so-called " trial -priority principle" The leading group of the Presidential Committee on Judicial Reform(PCJR), which prepared the govenment's amendment draft of the Criminal Procedure, and the several judges in the Supreme Court insist that the principle require to admit as evidence only the oral evidence made in front ofthe judge and not to admit the statements of investigative stage by anyone, including defendant. But the Public Prosecutors understand the principle as one for the transparency of the trial and for the control of the people over the process in which the Court find the fact and decide the sentence. Therefore, as contents of the principle, public trial, orality, concentration of the trial are most important. The principle does not requre the exclusion of the pre-trial statement and does not deny the admissiblity of the investigative protocol. The National Assembly came to know the distortion of the draft and modified many provisions. As a result, New Criminal Procedure says the orality, concentration of the trial and make the investigative protocol and the pre-trial statement admissible. Therefore the incorrect notion and the distortion of the leading group of PCJR and several judges were overcome. Notwithstanding the modification of the National Assembly, there are provisions, which include the indefinite words and give broad room for interpretaion of the Court. In the future, the Court should interpret the Code in the appropriate way and throw the incorrect notion of the principle which it has distorted.