The Rule of Law and Parliamentarism in Korea: Retrospection and Prospect

The violent candle-light riots in the center of the capital city Seoul had nearly paralyzed not only the traffic flows but also the normal functions of the newly inaugurated governments for months in early 2008. And the National Assembly had not been even convened until the middle of August. Naturally the riots gave rise to a nationwide debate on the topic of the rule of law, particularly its necessity as the prerequisite for democratic process and the market economy, versus the constitutionally provided freedom of speech and assembly and the principle of popular sovereignty. They had caused observers to give serious thoughts as well to the state of parliamentary government in Korea. The republic of Korea (South Korea) was established in 1948 on the basis of the free democratic Constitution whose features included both the rule of law and the principle of parliamentary government. As compared with the performance of Japanese judicial review of legislation institution, Korean judicial review has been extremely active, particularly since 1987 when Korean society become finally democratized. During the authoritarian phase in 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, there existed a gap in Korean society between the formal written free democratic constitutional norms and the political practices which were autocratic. The take-off stage of Korean economic development overlaps the authoritarian phase, however. In any case, the political practices now came to live up to what the formal constitution provides, particularly political freedoms..