환경정보공개제도의 법률상 및 운영상의 문제에 관한 법적 검토

The disclosure of environmental information is one of the critical rising issue in Korea. It is because we already experienced, through the accumulation of experiences on the environmental issues relating to source of pollution, that it is hard to solve the environmental problems in a way of central controling method, and thus informing accurate information to the local residents regarding risk information based on the participation of various people of all social stratum, always admitting the access to the information and an effective process for delivering such information to the person who needs it became very important. In such a series of processes, the environmental information disclosure system plays an important role. In Korea, Official Information Disclosure Act was enacted in 1996 and has been enforced since 1998. Since we have adopted generalized form of information disclosure system, we do not have intensified environmental information disclosure system in special areas so environmental information is disclosed based on each individual environmental laws. This paper is trying to identify each operational and legal issues of the Environmental Information Disclosure in Korean legal system after analyzing how the Environmental information disclosure system is operated under general information disclosure system in Korea and draws improvements in the conclusion. The evaluation of the environmental information disclosure system in Korea was discussed in terms of comparing American system which is highly evaluated as having successful cases for leading information disclosure system in the area of risk communication. The United States is a country where the information disclosure system is carried out most thoroughly by introducing the concept of risk communication since the mid-1995. They provided the information in the user stand, and it has firmly established risk information management system, constructed the ease of access to information through data consolidation and strictly limited the closed information, which brought the country as the most successful country in environmental information disclosure system. Compared to the United States, the level of our environmental information disclosure system is identified as staying in the initial step in providing information. We should realize the necessity of applying elements of risk communication to the environmental information disclosure system and bring about available tasks that can be carried out in each level of risk communication through the environmental information disclosure system.