최근 5년간의 주요 재산범죄 판례의 동향

This article reviewed the major property criminal cases(i.e. larceny, fraud, embezzlement, and Breach of Trust) in recent five years. As a continuing trend since 2000, One of the important trends is that the criminal laws keep its distance from civil cases in order to prevent Criminalization of Civil Cases and guarantee the functions as last resources. This trend can also be seen in embezzlement and Breach of Trust. Although It’s important that the criminal laws do not intervene too much in private domains such as civil cases, It is necessary to interpret and apply strictly the elements of crime in view of the principle of nullum crime in order that Law–abiding citizen may predict whether each crimes will predict Criminality of each crimes. However, The question now arises as to whether the criminal laws judge independently apart from other laws, extend the range of elements of crime, admit the elements unstipulated in the text so that the laws apply analogical interpretation which is against the principle of nullum crime, or expand requirements of crime. Therefore, although the independent interpretation is needed, it would be desirable to limit range of punishment at a minimum by respecting principle of Subsidiarity or the principle of nullum crime. Also, Whether the elements of property is defined clearly should be carefully studied. If needed, Legislative efforts to continuously rearrange the elements is essential.