개정 형사소송법상 ‘검찰의 직접수사권’에 대한 고찰

Since 2000, prosecution reform has emerged as the main theme of society in our society. As a major issue of the prosecution reform, “adjustment of prosecution and police investigation” began to be discussed in earnest. The debate on prosecution reform is based on the fact that excessive powers were concentrated in the prosecution and that the prosecution exercised its powers biasedly. It is also based on the fact that political power has a close relationship with the prosecution’s abuse of power using prosecution power. At the academic level, the need to check the right to prosecution has also been raised. The point of the prosecution reform is to decentralize the powers of the prosecution. The prosecution’s powers are largely divided into investigation and prosecution. The prosecution reform, including the right to prosecution, is the prosecution’s unique power, so the main object of the prosecution reform is investigative power. With the revision of the Criminal Procedure Act in 2020, the prosecution’s rules for investigation were removed. The police were granted the right to terminate the investigation in cases where the allegations of crime were not recognized. However, even though the investigation and prosecution were separated and the right to conduct investigation was abolished, the prosecution’s direct right to investigate in certain areas still exists. According to the criticism that the direct prosecution power is the background of excessive prosecutorial power, it has been evaluated that the adjustment of the investigative power has actually failed due to the existence of the direct prosecution power. Accordingly, this paper examines whether it is reasonable to recognize the prosecution’s right to investigate and whether the scope of the direct investigation is appropriately set.