Constitutional Court rejects PPP’s petitions against prosecution reform bill

Mar 24, 2023, 08:01 am

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Constitutional Court of Korea judges, including Chief Justice Yoo Nam-seok, are seen at the courtroom in Seoul on March 23, 2023./ Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporter Kim Im-soo

South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Thursday judged that the deliberation and voting rights of lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) have been partially violated in the process of passing the prosecution reform bill, better known as a “complete deprivation of the prosecution’s investigative power”, led by the main opposition Democratic Party, the main opposition that holds a majority of seats in the National Assembly, last year.

However, the court rejected petitions seeking to nullify the bill, allowing the bill to remain effective.

The Constitutional Court partially approved the request by the ruling People Power Party (PPP) lawmakers in a 5-to-4 ruling for a power dispute against the chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee in relation to the revised Prosecution Service Act and the Criminal Procedure Act. The court believes that the chairman of the judiciary committee deviated from the neutral position of the meeting chairperson in the process of passing the bill and created conditions for approval in advance, and that the mediation plan was approved without any actual mediation review.

At the plenary session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the court judged that it violated the principle of majority voting under the National Assembly Act and the Constitution by not providing opportunities for discussion to the PPP lawmakers. In the course of the bill passage, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee appointed DP lawmaker Min Hyung-bae as a member of the agenda coordination committee after learning that he had left the party in an apparent attempt to neutralize the opposition’ attempt to block the bill’s passage.

However, the Constitutional Court rejected all claims made by the PPP against the Speaker of the National Assembly and requests for confirmation of invalidity of the act of declaring the bill. This is because there are no related regulations banning short sessions, so it cannot be considered unconstitutional or illegal, and even if the right to deliberate and vote was violated by the Judiciary Committee, the plenary session was legally conducted.

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