뇌물죄 자진신고자에 대한 특례

Bribery is criminalized to protect the people's trust in the integrity of the government employees. Continuing efforts have been made to eradicate bribery in the dimension of corruption prevention. So far, criminal punishments, the last and ultimate resort, have been used, imposing more disadvantages than the profit gained by bribery. However, there have recently been certain movements to cut off the temptation for even more serious corruption through voluntary reporting by the bribee. In other words, it has been proposed to grant immunity to any government officials who voluntarily report bribery. This study is intended to explore the justifiability of the immunity for voluntary reporting as proposed to eradicate bribery as well as any possible alternatives: In this text, a total of three proposals are reviewed. The first is to introduce mandatory mitigation and remission as opposed to the arbitrary mitigation as set forth in general provisions. The second is to determine the possibility of imposing certain restrictions on public prosecution, which public prosecutors have exclusive authority to exercise in Korea. The third is to confer the exclusive authority to file formal accusations with the Public Prosecutor's Office upon a certain entity. Provided, however, that the introduction of such system should first be proved warrantable, since it requires substantial expertise and/or technicality. The most critical question to ask in weighing these alternatives would be, especially in consideration of the feloniousnature of bribery, whether preferential treatment for the voluntary reporter granted to eradicate it meets the principle of equity with respect to other crimes or criminals.