The first constitutional complaint filed against the laws that provided the basis for establishing the Prosecution Office and the Serious Crimes Investigation Office was dismissed by the Constitutional Court. The petition did not proceed to a merits review and ended at the procedural requirements stage.
According to legal sources on the 22nd, the Constitutional Court the previous day dismissed a constitutional complaint filed by Lee Ho-seon, a professor at Kookmin University Law School, seeking confirmation of unconstitutionality of Article 4(1) and Article 56 of the Prosecution Office Act, and Article 3(1), Article 6, Article 2(2), and Article 43(3) of the Serious Crimes Investigation Office Act. A dismissal is a decision that concludes a case without a merits judgment on the grounds that the petition does not meet the filing requirements.
Professor Lee has argued that the Prosecution Office and Serious Crimes Investigation Office laws effectively concentrate the powers to initiate and conclude investigations in the police, and that the structure placing the Serious Crimes Investigation Office under the Minister of the Interior and Safety undermines the independence of and checks within the criminal justice process. The petition contended that protections under the principle of due process and the warrant requirement, as well as the right to a trial, are structurally infringed.
The Prosecution Office and Serious Crimes Investigation Office laws at issue passed the National Assembly plenary session on the 20th and 21st of last month and were promulgated on the 24th. The laws strip the prosecution's direct investigative function to separate investigation from indictment, and assign the Prosecution Office to exclusively handle the filing and maintenance of indictments. The Serious Crimes Investigation Office is established as an agency under the Minister of the Interior and Safety and is designed to handle six major crime categories: corruption, economic crimes, defense industry crimes, narcotics, sedition, foreign exchange crimes, and cybercrimes.
With this decision, the first constitutional complaint surrounding the Prosecution Office and Serious Crimes Investigation Office laws has been concluded without a merits judgment. However, because the legal dispute over the constitutionality of the laws has not been fully settled, there remains a possibility of further attempts at other forms of constitutional complaints or referrals for constitutional review of statutes.