By Lee Kyung-min
The Constitutional Court concluded, Thursday, that it cannot review Supreme Court rulings, grounds under which the former is unable to nullify the latter's rulings. It also said a clause in the law on the Constitutional Court, which bans such review, is constitutional.
The court dismissed a petition filed by a former pro-democracy activist to cancel a Supreme Court ruling that had not accepted his claim for state compensation.
"Court rulings can be reviewed at the Constitutional Court in very limited cases where the courts violated people's basic rights by applying laws already ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court," judges said. "The petitioner's ruling in this case was made in accordance with the Supreme Court's interpretation, and thus is not subject to a petition to the Constitutional Court."
Baek Ki-wan, director of the Center for Unification Studies, filed for the petition in 2015.
Baek, who was convicted in 1973 for violating "emergency administrative measures" sanctioned and administered under the former dictatorial Park Chung-hee administration, sought a re-trial in 2009, after the Constitutional Court ruled the emergency measures were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled him not guilty in 2013.
Then he filed a suit to demand state compensation, but the Supreme Court ruled against him, saying the state did not have civil responsibility for the act of the state. Baek then filed the petition with the Constitutional Court, demanding it annul the Supreme Court decision. He also claimed the clause was unconstitutional.
In a unanimous decision, the Constitutional Court ruled the clause was constitutional.
The ruling dismissed the power struggle between the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, which have vied over the nation's "top court" position.
Recently it was found that National Court Administration (NCA) officials under former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae drafted ways to "rein in" the Constitutional Court from making rulings at odds with theirs.
A Supreme Court judge dispatched to the Constitutional Court wrote a report to the NCA after obtaining meeting minutes of a full-panel discussion that leaned toward findings against the government in civil suits.
The strategy was part of judiciary abuse in which Yang sought to trade politically sensitive rulings for an establishment of a de facto Second Supreme Court under now ousted and jailed former President Park Geun-hye administration.
The Supreme Court ruling on Baek was considered as Yang seeking to help Park Geun-hye glorify and legitimize his late father Park Chung-hee by limiting the government liability in civil suits where victims sought compensation for state violence and human rights violations.
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