The Conflict between Power Politics and Legality at the Wartime -on the Collaboration Trials and Massacre against Civilians in the Korean War(1950~1953)-

Whether and how can the value of the rule of law be alive at the wartime? The Korean War was really a total, and multinational war, which caused millions of soldiers and civilians to be killed and damaged. The value of human dignity at the time of massacre might as well be endangered much more than usual times. At the wartime, legislative laws might face the challenge from, or be overcome by, the emergency ordinances enforced by the executive, or the military. Now, my interest lies in the conflict between the executive orders and the legislative laws, and its implication to the rule of law in Korea. I reveal such conflict by the analysis of The Special Ordinance for Measuring the Specified Crimes under the Emergency Period[Hereinafter, called the Ordinance], The Act for Punishing Collaborators at the Wartime [Hereinafter, called the Collaboration Act], and The Act for Prohibiting Private Lynch[Hereinafter, called the Lynch Act]. The final purpose of this paper is to evaluate the judicial-legalized killings, and the killings as abuses of power by the military and para-military organizations. 1. The Ordinance came into force on June 25, 1950, at the very date when the Korean War broke out. The purpose of the Ordinance was to punish severely, and promptly, the anti-state or anti-humanistic crimes under the state of emergency. Under the Ordinance, the penalties from death to imprisonment not less than ten years should be imposed upon the offenders in..