법관지배형 사법행정의 분권주의적 기초 : 미국연방사법행정의 현황과 역사

South Korea and the United States have a common point in that their judicial administration systems are being controlled by judges. Why then the United States does not seem to have chronic disease similar to what the Korean judiciary has recently revealed? American society has a deep-rooted tradition of federalism, decentralization, and individualism. The introduction of federal judicial administration agencies such as United States Judicial Conference (1922) and Administrative Office of the United States Courts (1939) was achieved by centripetal forces towards national and unified judicial administration, but as a compromise with centrifugal forces of federalism and decentralization. Efforts for judicial reform by attorneys general during the pre-1939 years were largely in vain and have resulted in the transfer of judicial administration power from the Department of Justice to the Judiciary. Despite of continuing trends toward centralization since then, centrifugal forces of federalism, decentralization, and individualism are still robust in the structure of federal courts and judicial administration system. In a long-standing bureaucratic culture in the judiciary like that of South Korea, judges’ control of judicial administration seems to raise the possibility of infringement on judicial independence from inside. Korean society has to meet the requests for more decentralized judicial administration system and more secured guarantee of the status of judges.