장애 차별에 대한 구제조치: 법원을 통한 구제를 중심으로

Since April 2008, the Disability Discrimination Act has been put into enforcement in South Korea. The NGOs specialized in disability rights have long been struggling for enacting a comprehensive law prohibiting disability-based discrimination. They found the U.S. law, particularly, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 efficient, thus launching the campaigns for legislation, modeled after the ADA. The Korean society has witnessed a substantial increase in the number of the complaints on disability-based discrimination since the birth of the new law. The National Human Rights Commission, which is the primary institution of monitoring and enforcing the Disability Discrimination Act, has especially been quite busy to handle those complaints and disputes. There, however, have been no cases in the courts in these matters even though they possessed an extraordinary powers, including the injunctive remedies by the Act. A main purpose of this article is to reveal the shortcomings of the remedies in case of using the court for redress. The article examines some representative cases decided by the U.S. courts on permitting injunctive measures in this respect. It also tries to advocate the extraordinary effectiveness of those injunctive measures for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities. In conclusion, the article calls upon the Korean judiciary to utilize the injunctive powers vested by the Act for the prevention and redress of disability-based discrimination.