The Seoul High Court said on the 22nd that it held a general judges' meeting and resolved to increase the number of criminal panels by two or more in next year's case allocation. Judges agreed to add at least two criminal divisions to set up dedicated panels to handle nationally important cases such as insurrection.
The Seoul High Court held the general judges' meeting for 30 minutes from 6:15 p.m. that day. Of the 152 judges, 122 attended.
At the meeting, judges were briefed on the purpose and details of introducing a dedicated panel for intensive hearings in insurrection cases discussed at a criminal judges' roundtable in Sep., as well as the main points of a Supreme Court administrative rule currently under advance notice. They also said they explained the contents of a special bill on criminal procedures for crimes such as insurrection, foreign exchange offenses, and rebellion that is currently before a plenary session of the National Assembly, and the preparations related to the dedicated panel.
Based on the outcome of the meeting, the Seoul High Court plans to decide the specific number of dedicated panels, and the procedures and timing for their formation, at a future case-allocation committee.
In addition, regarding the law to establish a dedicated panel for insurrection cases, the Seoul High Court said, "If it passes the plenary session, the procedures to form dedicated panels are expected to proceed through the general judges' meeting and the case-allocation committee, depending on when it takes effect." Earlier, the Seoul High Court said, "We plan to form a total of 16 criminal panels and designate two to three panels as dedicated panels."
To ensure fairness in forming and designating the dedicated panels, the Seoul High Court plans to identify whether there are grounds for disqualification or recusal among judges. It then plans to conduct random assignment after excluding panels deemed unsuitable to handle the cases.