원전과 지방자치: 삼척 10·9 주민투표의 법적 성격과 효력

The Samcheck city hold the local referendum on whether to concede or to revocate the request for the nuclear power plant positioning (hereinafter referred to as “the nuclear power request”) at Octo. 9, 2014.(hereinafter referred to as “the 10ㆍ9 local referendum”). The poll shows that the overwhelming number of the residents prefer to pull back on the nuclear power request rather than to maintain. The Samcheck Mayor has requested since the referendum that the Samcheck residents’s collective opinion represented through the 10ㆍ9 local referendum should be taken seriously by the central government, and thereby the administrative action for designating ‘Prearranged Area for Electric Source Development Business (hereinafter referred to as “the PAESDB action”) be repealed ex officio. I examined the three legal questions raised from the 10ㆍ9 local referendum. First, whether under the existing Residents Voting Act(hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) the 10ㆍ9 local referendum, voting matter of which was whether to withdraw the nuclear power request or not, is lawful or not. Second, whether a local referendum de facto, which was held pursuant not to the Act but to the mayor’s discretionary political or policy determination, is to be permitted or not. Lastly, if the nuclear power request could be pull back on, when will be the deadline? And the what are the effects of the withdrawal of the request on the PAESDB action. The conclusions drawn from the examination to the questions above are that ⑴the nuclear power request itself is to fall within the category of autonomous affairs capable of being determined by the local government even though it may be incorporated in the administrative process of nuclear power development project. When if the nuclear power request is autonomous affair, so may be said about the withdrawal thereof simply because they are two sides of the same coin. Therefore, the matter of whether to withdraw the request or not is eligible to the voting matter of local referendum according to the Act. ⑵The 10ㆍ9 local referendum as de facto local referendum would be permitted provided that there is no Acts or provisions that make it unlawful. ⑶In light of balancing interests over the PAESDB action, the nuclear power request could be withdrawn before the PAESDB was established irrevocably by the permitting nuclear power development project plan. By the withdrawal of the nuclear power request made at Sep. 22. 2014 the PAESDB action has became revokable.