의약법(Pharmaceutical and Public Health Law)과 행정법 ― 의약품등의 분류지정과 전환지정 ―

This study aimed at defining the research area of Korean pharmaceutical and public health law', and, as a concrete subject, legal problems were analysed about the classification of nonprescription drugs and quasi-drugs and their switching in Korea. Food and drug law, and administrative law were closely related in American legal history. Recently public health law has been developed in close relation with administrative law. In this article, it has been suggested that ‘pharmaceutical and public health law’ must be studied, in Korea, as a special public law area, that unifies drug law and public health law in the U.S. Nonprescription drugs have been gradually decreased, and prescrption drugs, to the contrary, have been increased in Korea, since separation of drug prescribing and dispensing, and self medication became difficult. Under the current drug classification categorization, Korean government, as an alternative to these problems, has enlarged the kinds of quasi-drugs by reclassifying and switching nonprescription drugs without any concrete legal procedure. Due to the regulatory defect about classifying the quasi-drug and its switching, lots of legal problems remain unsolved until now, and this study was conducted to find concrete answers and suggest alternatives. Study of administrative law scholars will be able to contribute much to solving legal problems of ‘pharmaceutical and public health law’ in Korea.