The Seoul High Court held a second plenary judges' meeting to discuss criteria for forming panels dedicated to insurrection cases and the basic principles for allocating judicial duties.
The Seoul High Court said on the 29th that it held the second plenary judges' meeting at the main building of the Seoul Courts Complex and discussed plans to operate dedicated panels following the enforcement of the Special Act on Criminal Procedures for Crimes of Insurrection, Treason, and Rebellion.
The Seoul High Court had previously decided at the first meeting on the 15th to establish two dedicated panels. In line with the meeting, the court said it set a standard that "the number of cases received, the workload of the dedicated panels, and other factors will be considered, and additional dedicated panels may be created by resolution of a future plenary judges' meeting."
Regarding the method of designating dedicated panels, the Seoul High Court said it would first constitute all criminal appellate divisions by considering efficiency and propriety of trials, expertise, previously assigned work, fairness, seniority balance, and continuity of work under the relevant regulations and the court's basic principles on allocation of judicial duties, and then designate the dedicated panels from among them.
Dedicated panels will be selected from among criminal appellate divisions composed of presiding judges or high court judges of the Seoul High Court with at least 17 years of legal experience and at least 10 years of service as a judge. The court said that, to ensure swift, fair, and thorough proceedings in the target cases, any division that the Judicial Duty Allocation Committee deems to have reasons that make handling the case difficult, such as grounds for disqualification, will be excluded from designation.
If the number of candidate divisions exceeds two, the dedicated panels will be chosen by lot at the next plenary judges' meeting. The main opinion drafter on a dedicated panel will be selected from judges other than the presiding judge at a ratio of one-half.
If, due to regular judicial personnel moves, a target case is filed before a dedicated panel begins work or other unavoidable circumstances arise, Criminal Division 20, whose presiding judge is the senior presiding judge, will handle pre-merits interim tasks such as record management and incidental rulings until the target case is assigned to a dedicated panel.
The Seoul High Court said it will hold a third plenary judges' meeting at 1:30 p.m. on the 5th of next month at the Seoul Courts Complex for further discussion.