The Republic of Korea

Abstract

This chapter studies judicial review in South Korea. There are several explanations for the origins and growth of South Korean judicial review. First, judicial review emerged in South Korea for rights from wrongs reasons because of human rights abuses due to three hyper-presidentialist dictatorships. Second, judicial review emerged in South Korean because the separation of power between the unicameral legislature and the president required a judicial umpire. Third, judicial review emerged in South Korea because, according to Professor Tom Ginsburg, two relatively coequal political parties wanted it for reasons of insurance and commitment that fundamental rights would be protected when they were out of power. And, fourth, by the 1980s, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and global trading partners had all come to associate regimes with judicial review of legislation as being less corrupt and more prone to observe the rule of law than were regimes without this institution. There has thus been a lot of borrowing of judicial review by various countries in modern times. As such, borrowing is also part of the explanation for the origins of judicial review of the constitutionality of legislation in South Korea.