공판절차상 범죄피해자 참가제도의 도입에 관한 검토

During the past 20 years, in Korea, the efforts to let criminal victims find its’ place as one of the axes of criminal justice system. As a result of the efforts, it comes to be an undeniable fact that a criminal victim has become an important subject in criminal process. Furthermore, it is time to consider introducing a victim participation system in order to strengthen criminal victim’s status. As a matter of fact, it is a world trend that a victim’s right is taken seriously and a victim’s voice is heard as much as possible. The 2005 Criminal Victim Act recognizes victim’s right to participation in court processes of various kind. Korean constitutional court interpreted an intention of korean constitution article 27th section 5th as a victim’s fundamental judicial right to a claim of proper exercise of punishment power of a judge. The decision has a persuasive power to justify a victim’s direct participation in criminal process. This system of a victim’s participation let a victim become a new agent of importance in adversarial criminal process which a prosecutor and a defendant have long dominated, to guarantee a victim’s right to participation in criminal process as much as possible. In the sense that all policies should face an issue of choice and concentration, the cases of a victim’s participation should be limited to serious crimes, such as violation of life, body, etc. and a participating victim and his lawyer should be endowed with as broad power as possible. And also, as a right to general legal assistance can be considered to other types of ordinary victims, so as to effectively protect a victim and strengthen a victim's status.