Civic groups publicly voiced opposition, saying the ruling camp's push to set up a "treason-only court division" is a path to creating a bench tailored to the political world's taste.
The National Court Administration held a public hearing titled "Judicial system reform for the people: direction and tasks" with Law Times at Cheongsim Hall in the Seoul Courts Complex in Seocho-dong on the 9th, and in Session 1 it held presentations and discussions under the theme "The current state and problems of our trials."
At the event, attorney Jeong Ji-ung, who serves as the Citizens' Legislative Committee chair at the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice, raised issues with both the Supreme Court justice expansion and the treason-only court division in the judicial reform plan being pushed by the Democratic Party of Korea.
Jeong said of the so-called "treason-only court division," "If you create a panel composed of judges of a particular bent to handle a specific political case, the public will find it hard to accept the trial as the fair judgment of the law."
Jeong went on, "If a treason-only court division is allowed this time, next there will be demands for divisions dedicated to election offenders and major disaster cases, and the judiciary could degenerate into a 'political subcontractor' that forms benches at the political sector's behest," adding, "The priority for judicial reform is not expanding the number of Supreme Court justices, but greatly increasing fact-finding judges and bolstering trial support staff."
On the debate over adding Supreme Court justices, Jeong said, "Right now our judiciary is suffering from arteriosclerosis, but the political world is pulling out the wrong prescription." Jeong added, "The bottleneck in trial delays is not the Supreme Court but the first and second instances, that is, the fact-finding stage," and said, "If only the number of Supreme Court justices is greatly increased in this situation, the talent drain from the lower courts will worsen, and first-instance panels will be filled with less-experienced judges, lowering the quality of trials."
Meanwhile, Ki U-jong, a judge on the Incheon panel at the Seoul High Court who gave a presentation, said, "Through the mid-2010s, the speed of our civil and criminal trials was high by global standards, but recently trial delays have become the most urgent task." According to Judge Ki, the average processing time for first-instance civil collegial cases increased 49% from 293.3 days in 2017 to 437.3 days last year, and first-instance criminal collegial cases rose 31% from 150.8 days to 198.9 days over the same period.
Judge Ki cited the aftereffects of COVID-19, an increase in high-difficulty and high-dispute cases, and reduced processing efficiency due to the rising average age of judges as causes of trial delays. He said, "Because most cases closely tied to people's lives are concluded at the fact-finding stage, eliminating trial delays must be a prerequisite for judicial trust," and proposed as alternatives legislation to make cases that flooded collegial panels due to higher statutory penalties for crimes like voice phishing "single-judge jurisdiction," a senior judge system, and expanding the scope of work for judicial assistants.
Kong Du-hyeon, a Seoul National University law school professor who joined as a discussant, examined changes in the judicial personnel structure. Kong said, "As legal experience qualifying for judicial appointment increased sharply in 2018–2019, new appointments plummeted, while in the 2020s retired judges surged," adding, "Almost the only way to resolve trial delays is to steadily increase the number of judges." Kong added that the courts should diversify procedures for new judicial appointments and "make the courts a more attractive workplace" so top talent applies and can stay long term.
Kim Gi-won, senior vice president of the Seoul Bar Association, also said, "To ensure swift and fair trials, we need to increase the judicial headcount to reduce the workload per judge," and added, "We should drastically improve compensation so top talent can apply for and endure in judgeships, while if someone fails to maintain fairness or meet competency standards, it is also necessary to remove them from trial duties and encourage reassignment to other roles or dismissal."
The public hearing runs for three days through the 11th.