Normative Evaluation on Judicial Governance in Korea: Focusing Standing Issue

南韓司法治理的規範評價--以訴之利益為中心

這篇文章透過南韓最高法院在2006年所提出的行政訴訟法修正案,來介紹與評論南韓司法治理的現象。在該法案中,南韓最高法院企圖透過改變行政訴訟中「訴之利益」的概念,來擴張它的權力範圍。本文主張該法案不但違反了權力分立原則,也阻礙了代議制民主內部的動能。民主程序將被迫重新開啟,並落入無止境的循環。本文認為在多元社會中,應該由立法機關,而非法院,來協調彼此衝突的價值。

This essay introduces and evaluates the phenomenon of judicial governance in South Korea by the example of Amendment Bill to the Administrative Litigation Act proposed by the Korean Supreme Court in 2006. In this bill, the Korean Supreme Court attempts to expand its own power by changing the standing requirement for an administrative lawsuit from having a statutory interest" to having a legally just interest." Invoking the institutional capacity of courts, this essay argues that this bill not only violates the principle of separation of powers, but disrupts the inner dynamics of representative democracy by allowing courts to reconsider defeated proposals. The democratic process will then be forced to reopen and become an endless cycle. It is the legislature, rather than courts, that is better equipped to coordinate conflicting values in a plural society.