국회 법제사법위원회의 체계․형식․자구심사권 - 법제사법위원회에 의한 법률안의 실질적․정책적 심사 가능 여부 검토 -

The National Assembly of Korea recently legislated ‘shut-down’ program which prohibits minors' internet-game playing during the night. During legislation process, the core contents of ‘shut-down’ program had been decided in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, not the Gender Equality and Family Committee which proposed the first draft of the program. However, this activity of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee has been criticized because the legal provisions of the National Assembly Act does not permit the Committee to examine or decide the contents of legislative bills. According to the Article 37 and 86 of the Act, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee has the power to examine systems, forms and wordings of legislative bills. If these articles are interpreted as the Legislation and Judiciary Committee can do a constitutionality test of bills, the Committee can take a substantive․policy test on bills and it is natural for the Committee to decide the core contents of bills. However, the positive interpretation of related provisions of the Act depending on historical documents and legal system of Korea indicates that the Legislation and Judiciary Committee has to do only a formal and supplementary review on bills which contents should be finally decided by the related committee. Given this positive interpretation, a better legislation process requires the Committee to understand and respect the meaning of the related provisions.