배심조정의 절차적 지위와 전망 - 민주적 정당성의 관점에서 -

The procedural rule of the Court has been changed according to the changes on the meaning of procedural justice and the role of the Court. For the promotion of democratic legitimacy, the Supreme Court of Korea has discussed the possibilities to introduce the citizen participatory trial, which resembles jury trials except the effects of verdict, to civil procedural rules of Korea. As the result of the discussion, ‘jury mediation’ was declared to introduce by the “Judicial Reform Committee With People”, which had been established in the Supreme Court of Korea to research and discuss the judicial reform in 2018. Jury mediation, which was invented for recognizing the participation of citizens into trial in Korea, has its own distinct nature: It proceeds according to the citizen participatory trial in the courtroom, but it is governed by the Judicial Conciliation of Civil Disputes Act, which intends to settle civil disputes according to a simple procedure based on the mutual concession between the parties, common sense and actual circumstances by providing rules for the judicial mediation that does not have binding effects without the party consent. Jury mediation was created with the efforts to promote the citizen participation in the judicial activities without the legislative action in that the support of the Legislature is hardly expected while the demand of citizen participation in the judicial activities is substantial and urgent. Nonetheless, jury mediation would not contribute to the promotion of the democratic legitimacy of the Judiciary unless there is no proper legislative action. This paper explores the meaning of the democratic legitimacy of the Judiciary, followed by the issues regarding the democratic legitimacy of jury mediation.