일본 형사입법 절차에서 ‘법제심의회 형사법부회(部会)’의 역할과 중요성에 관한 검토

Recently, criminal legislation has been enacted at a rapid rate, causing various problems such as a decline in legislation quality, weakened legal stability and credibility, overlapping regulations, and system failures due to hasty, excessive legislation and politicization. Criminal legislation is particularly problematic because it directly affects people's fundamental rights. Therefore, careful preparation and review by experts are essential. However, the phenomenon of experts, such as academics, not being fully involved has been repeated. Although Korea and Japan have different political systems, one being a presidential system and the other a parliamentary system, in Japan, if the Minister of Justice recognizes the need for legislation, he or she requests the Legislative Council, a group of experts, for advice, and the Legislative Council (or the Special Temporary Subcommittee) then organizes and reflects the opinions of various sectors, including academia and practitioners, and systematically and concretely considers the bill. The process and results of such discussions are all published on the Ministry of Justice website, which has the advantage of ensuring the expertise, transparency, and credibility of legislation. Korea also has a similar system, such as the Legal Advisory Committee under the Ministry of Justice, but it has not been substantially activated, and so there is a need to improve the system to ensure the expertise, transparency, and reliability of criminal legislation in the criminal legislation preparation process. Currently, there is a problem with the public hearing system being operated as a formality at the government and parliamentary legislation stage, so there is a need for improvement measures such as making public hearings mandatory, but this has practical limitations such as amendments to the National Assembly Act. Therefore, in order to establish and operate a permanent advisory body like Japan's Legislative Council, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation with a national policy research institute specializing in criminal Justice.