韓國의 司法制度改革의 動向과 課題

The recent debates over the reforms of the judicial institutions in Korea have been accelerated since the Kim(Y.S) Administration took its departure in 1993. However, the introduction of the American_style law schools into Korea, one of the major tasks of the judicial reforms had been thwarted due to the hostility of legal circles. The Kim(D.J) Administration continued to unfold the judicial innovation, being at a standstill without reaping any fruits. Subsequently, a tenacious debate on the judicial shakeup has developed during the Roh Mu Hyun Administration, resulting in passing the bill of introducing American-style law school into Korean legal education arena in 2007 for the first time in its history. Over the past ten years, the discussions on the judicial reorganizations have been showing that there are many complicated problems to be solved, one of which is a compelling argument of authorizing the number of law schools and total law students, arbitrating between the legal circles and academic circles including various citizenry. The purpose of this article is to spot contemporary issues and suggest some tasks in the field of executing a policy of judicial renovation in Korea. Then, it discusses the tendency and contours of the judicial reformation in the last decade, focusing on the history of Korean judicial system and the gist of the results of endeavor by the now government including the decision-making process of introducing the law school system as a part of the judicial reforms. After that, I emphasize that the Korean Constitutional Court, as a guarantor of constitutional law, has played an important role in the development of rule of law, in protecting fundamental rights despite of incipient skeptical perspectives. Finally, I suggest that the far-reaching discussion should be set forth beforehand to make the new reform of judicial system take roots in the soil of traditional legal cultures in Korea.