지방분권 논의와 지방의회 역할강화 방안 모색 -미국 지방의회제도와의 비교법적 검토를 통하여-

It is now 28 years since local autonomy was implemented. In its initial implementation stage, it was an explored idea to grant ‘self-governing power’ to local self-governing bodies in Korea which had maintained a centralized administrative system. Thus, even though the powers of the local self-governing body were set forth, they were only perfunctory, and the smooth transfer and distribution of the powers was barely performed. In 2004, the 「Special Act on Decentralization」 was enacted and enforced to realize ‘grassroots democracy’ through local self-governing bodies. However, the powers were expanded only to a certain extent because of limitations by the Constitution and law. The current government presents ‘federal state-type decentralization’ as a slogan and specifies the full realization of resident autonomy in a bill for amending the Constitution. In particular, local councils retain their greatly expanded powers to enact municipal ordinances, as well as legislative powers such as powers of self-governing, self-organizing and self-financing. Besides, with the change of the term ‘local self-governing body’ to ‘local government’, it is being attempted to grant the same role and position as those of subnational governments of the US. However, the US is a typical dual sovereign state in which the national and subnational governments have their respective sovereignties (the powers of sovereignty) and the roles of Congress and the state legislature are independent from each other, whereas Korea is a country that recognizes only a single sovereignty. Thus, it will be not reasonable 270 法學論叢 第42卷 第4號 to grant the local councils of Korea the powers similar to those of General Assembly of the US. For these reasons, this study intends to develop measures that enable local councils representing their respective residents, who are the holders of self-governing power stated in a bill for amending the Constitution, to fulfill their roles as a representative body. In this respect, it will be more appropriate to carry out the one-point amendment of the Constitution from “within the scope of the law and regulations’, which excessively restricts the scope of the power to enact municipal ordinances under the current Constitution and the 「Local Autonomy Act」, to ‘within the scope of not violating the law’. In addition, measures to realize ‘grassroots democracy’ by expanding the powers of local councils, which can be promptly implemented through the revision of related laws such as the 「Local Autonomy Act」, include 1) revision of Article 9 (2) of the 「Local Autonomy Act」 in light of ‘Dillon’s Rule’ and ‘Home Rule’ as the operating principles of local autonomy under the Constitution and laws of the states of the US, and 2) alleviation of the requirements for the enactment, revision, and abolition of municipal ordinances by local residents currently in operation, so as to encourage the participation of local residents and enable local councils to fulfill their roles as a representative body for the residents.