IT행정에서 자동화행정행위에 관한 일반적 고찰

Due to industrialization, informatization, complication, and diversification following the advances in science and technology, the living environment of people in today’s world is changing rapidly. Administrative services are also required to respond to such environmental changes by establishing scientific and practical administrative systems, with a particular urgency in the development of flexible administrative laws regarding the utilization of information and communication technologies. First, to implement a properly integrated electronic administrative system, it is necessary to specify regulations regarding automated administrative activities and to support them via legal authorities. Another requirement is to create detailed criteria for automated administration programs depending on their characteristics, such as whether they are based on machine learning technology or deep-learning technology. In addition, a standard to ensure the objectivity of data collection, as well as sustained management procedures for the collection of data, must be established and disclosed to prevent bias in the collected data and to ensure a fair automated collection of data. Therefore, given that automated administrative activities are endowed with legal effects and a fair and sustained management standard is created to ensure their objectivity and predictability, completely automated administrative activities can be allowed in a limited manner depending on their technological levels. The literal interpretation of Article 17 and Article 24 of the Administrative Procedures Act is that applications for disposition to an administrative agency or the method must be in writing, and the law does not allow applications using electronic documents. However, this is allowed if there are special provisions in other laws. As the Administrative Procedures Act is the basic law on administrative procedures, and considering the rules and the structure of the integrated electronic administrative system, it is more appropriate to regulate electronic documents the same way as paper documents when they are used to apply for disposition to an administrative agency or as a method thereof. According to Article 15 of the Administrative Procedures Act, the delivered document becomes effective “upon arrival of the relevant document to the person to receive the service,” and Article 21 of the same law stipulates that prior notice of disposition shall be given “to such parties” referring to people who are affected by the disposition. The issue, then, is whether the meaning of “to such parties” points to individuals receiving the disposition or the location of such individuals. Considering that the legislative intent of the Administrative Procedures Act is to protect the rights of citizens by ensuring their participation in the administrative process, it will be more appropriate to amend the phrase in the law to mean the moment at which the administrative documents or the like are delivered to parties that are affected by the disposition of the government agency. In the same way, the time at which the recipient of the electronic document confirms the receipt should determine the effectuation of dispositions delivered electronically, in order to meet the objectives of the electronic government, which is to enhance the citizens’ administrative service convenience. Access to the public sector via the information and communication network is a crucial right for people living in the contemporary era. Such a right to access information is deduced from the access rights when discussing the freedom of expression in constitutional theory; there must also be no discrimination on the basis of the region, economic status, or physical condition of an individual. Therefore, such elements must be incorporated into the basic principles on the establishment of the electronic government system. Thus, the Electronic Government Act should be amended to make it mandatory to consider enhancing the right to access information for socially marginalized groups or such groups of people, thereby bringing a related impact to other laws. The right to information self-determination held by data subjects is a basic right not enumerated in the constitution; it guarantees that data subjects may determine for themselves the scope and limitation regarding the use of their personal information. This is not an inviolable and absolute right, and in comparison, with other rights or values (publicness in the community), the scope and details of its protection is limited. To implement this concept in practical terms, the concepts of personal information must be categorized, and personal information agreement policies must be improved. In other words, personal information should be divided into information that can be used to identify an individual—such as name, resident registration number, and image—and information that cannot be used to identify an individual on its own but can do so in combination with other types of information. The agreement to use the former type of information should be made simpler and more practical by policy, while the use of the latter may be preemptively controlled by requiring advance certification by the Personal Information Protection Commission, along with introducing an opt-out policy to establish a harmonized regulatory system. Despite the advent of automated devices harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and information and communication technology in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the lack of a corresponding legal system causes an imbalance in the establishment of the rapidly evolving electronic administrative system. Under such practical issues, delays in the development of rules specifying the legal matters regarding automated administrative activities are hampering the objectives of the electronic government. Therefore, the administrative law system must undergo a transformation to organize common items required for administrative activities and establish advanced administrative procedures that can accommodate the challenges of this age of artificial intelligence.