By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The Constitutional Court marked its 20th anniversary Monday as dozens of the world's renowned jurists and constitutional commissions participated in an international symposium here.
The four-day forum, ``The Separation of Powers and Constitutional Adjudication in the 21st Century,'' attracted about 100 jurists and legal experts from 30 countries and six international constitutional commissions runs until Thursday at Lotte Hotel in Seoul.
``We see this event as a good opportunity to share and promote our constitutional experiences with the world. We will try to have our constitutional adjudication system recognized as a new model in the world, setting a new direction and criteria for constitutional adjudication,'' said Lee Kang-kook, president of the court.
In a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary, Lee reaffirmed the court would maintain its political independence and neutrality despite a series of political and social conflicts stemming from diverse ideologies and interest groups being put before the court.
``The Constitutional Court is the last resort for protecting the spirit and worth of the Constitution, which guarantees the basic rights of its citizens,'' Lee said in a commemorative speech. ``Many political and societal issues caused by ideological and social conflicts are being funneled into the Constitutional Court, calling for an increased sense of our mission and duties. Seeing this, I would like to renew the promise of political independence and neutrality of the Constitutional Court.''
President Lee Myung-bak also praised the country's rapid achievement in judicial independence. ``Korea accomplished in 20 years what it took the United States 200 years to accomplish,'' he said. President Lee called on the Constitutional Court to play a pivotal role in unifying people once split by ideologies and other personal beliefs.
Diane P. Wood, an appeals judge at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; Jutta Limbach, former president of the German Federal Constitutional Court; and Isao Imai, justice of Japan's Supreme Court were to share their own experiences in managing the tension between politics and justice and ensuring individual liberty, officials said.
The Constitutional Court was founded in 1988, one year after massive nationwide street protests forced the ruling military regime at that time to introduce direct presidential elections.