한국 대통령의 항목별 법률안거부권 불허의 역사적 기원: 제헌국회의 ‘수정거부권’ 논쟁을 중심으로

This study deals with the historical origin of Korean institutionalization of presidential veto power, especially line-item veto or what was called ‘revision veto’ in the first national assembly of Korea (1948-1950). Very few studies address the highly-charged debates on what power was involved in the presidential veto in the assembly. These debates show how the assemblymen came to accept the president’s line-item veto at the beginning of the assembly but later rejected it. The dramatic change in their position on the veto power was not just based on any constitutional theory but driven by urgent political situations and the power struggles between the president and the assembly. Muddling through several rounds of such veto power exercises, both sides came to learn that the revision veto would lead only to politically dangerous immobility in which neither party would win. This early highly important historical learning led Korea to ban the line-item veto in the constitutional amendment of 1962. Even though the first Korean constitution adopted the presidential veto power in general with reference to the US constitutional system, Korea has remarkably built up political consensus on the issue of line-item veto based on its own historical learning unlike the USA, in which there is still no consensus on the issue.