새로운 헌법의 모색과 방향: 87년 체제의 극복

The Constitution of the Republic of Korea was established in 1948. It was revised 9 times during 40 years. Instability of constitution reflects directly instability of constitutional reality. The current constitution revised in 1987 is the outcome of a calling for democracy. During last 20 years, Korea achieved both industrialization and democratization. We have experienced two peaceful transitions of government. Nevertheless we must establish new constitution to assure real protection of fundamental rights, checks and balances of powers, and rule of law. If we consider the constitutional norms and the constitutional reality in Korea, it is inevitable that we should apply or amend the constitution in favor of a dual executive government unless we amend the constitution to adopt the pure presidential system of the United States. Nevertheless, the dual executive system still needs to be clearly defined. A comparative constitutional analysis of the dual executive system as an independent, third-type government system would effectively solve such problem. This is the time for political wisdom to minimize problems or confusion in state governance by minimizing possible political conflicts that may arise from the existing constitutional norms, and the basic direction of revision is to comply with the sovereign will of the people.