문재인 대통령발의 헌법개정안에 대한 헌법적 검토- 국가권력의 분배와 행사의 측면에서-

President Moon initiated a constitutional revision on March 26, 2018, to implement a referendum on the constitutional amendment concurrently with the local elections held on June 13, 2018. The President’s proposal proposes to add some basic rights, to strengthen local autonomy, to introduce a direct democratic system such as the National Recall System and the National Initiative System, and to introduce the four year, the consecutive two-term presidency system while maintaining the form of a government based on the presidential system. The President’s proposal proposes to strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the presidency, to introduce the national initiative system to participate directly in the national policy decision. According to the President’s proposal, while the presidential term and the term of the National Assembly are four years, the will of the people can be reflected in the national government every two years by varying the timing of the presidential election and the assembly election. The President’s proposal proposes the long-term governmental tasks can be pursued by adopting the consecutive two-term presidency. But it seems to be very insufficient in terms of eliminating the concentration of power to the president and the distribution of presidential power. The national consensus is to reform the imperial presidential system. The four–year, two-term presidential system will strengthen the political status and power of the president. Whereas recognizing only the National Assembly recall system will weaken the political status of lawmakers and the National Assembly. the President’s proposal maintains the Prime Minister, which was invented to make the Presidency to become a superior agency over the Assembly(Legislature) and the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court(Judicature) in korean presidential government system, instead of adopting the vice president. According to the President’s proposal, the president’s power to organize supreme court and constitutional court is not substantially reduced. It does not contain substantive and meaningful content that strengthens the independence of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, such as increasing the term of the Justices and Judges or granting budgetary rights to them. For this reason, the President’s proposal does not seem to solve the problem of imperial presidency of the current presidential government system. In addition, the President’s proposal adopts the consecutive two-term presidency. This would lead to protract the imperial presidency. It should be considered that a full review of the President’s proposal is necessary.