국가적 법익 중 내란, 외환, 국기, 국교에 관한 죄의 개정방향

In April to August 2024, the Fifth Division of the Criminal Act Revision Study Group reviewed the necessity of amending the Criminal Act based on the 2010 Review Committee (draft) of the Korean Criminal Law Association, on the premise of reviewing the “crimes against national existence” (Chapters 1 to 4 of Part 2 of the Criminal Act). It is regrettable that the 2024 revision study did not discuss the “basic framework for a complete revision of the Criminal Act” which would have been the premise for the revision. If there had been an agreement on how to change the current Criminal Act's system of chapters, arrangement of articles, and method of article composition, the amendment would have been more useful. For example, although it is heterogeneous in our legal system, if the method of arranging the basic elements in the main clause and the aggravating and mitigating elements in each sub-clause is adopted, as is the case in the United States and Germany, it will be easier to absorb the elements of individual laws and special laws into the Criminal law in the future. The following is the work performed in the review of this amendment. First, we tried to reduce the possibility of abuse and to make the concepts as specific as possible in the crime concerning insurrection. Second, in the crimes concerning foreign aggression, outdated provisions were deleted and the crime of espionage was separated into a separate chapter. Third, in the crime of espionage, the crime of espionage is more clearly defined, but the concept of espionage is expanded based on recent discussions. Fourth, we integrated Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 to create a crimes concerning the national flag and crimes concerning foreign relations, and clarified the composition requirements in consideration of the criticisms.