제헌헌법 전문(前文)의 "대한민국"은 무엇을 지시하는가: 전문 삽입과정과 당대 정치현실을 중심으로

The purpose of this paper is to show how the word “Daehanmingook”(the Republic of Great Korea)” in the preamble of the Korea’s Founding Constitution was stipulated ambiguously without setting its exact meaning and specifying its clear referent and that it was thus understood and utilized variously by key political leaders. To do this, first, this paper traced the process in which the phrase related to the legitimacy of the provisional government of Korea was inserted into the preamble of the Founding Constitution. It was founded that the insertion was made by the initiative of Syng-man Rhee who was a speaker of the National Assembly, but that the phrase was stipulated as Daehanmingook in such an ambiguous way as to confuse what it really referred to among various provisional governments. Then the paper examined diverse ways in which important political leaders perceived and utilized Daehanmingook, the new state of Korea, by dividing them into three positions. It showed that diverse political forces utilized the legitimacy of the provisional government to enhance their own legitimacy by interpreting Daehanmingook to fit into their own political ends.