By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Unlike as in previous years, Korean judicature has become the center of social change this year. Courts here have led the restructuring by making a series of landmark rulings, introducing unprecedented legal systems, and setting new criteria on sensitive issues.
With 2008 drawing to a close, The Korea Times selected five iconic legal issues, including landmark rulings, this year.
A jury system debuted in February. The new system, named ``Citizen's Participation in Criminal Trial,'' was introduced to boost public confidence in judicature by allowing citizens to participate in criminal trials as jury members. The historical change in court ruling procedure has drawn keen international attention, especially from Japan, which is considers adopting a similar system.
Despite such attention, its performance over the past year was unimpressive.
The Supreme Court initially expected more than 100 jury trials to be held this year. However, the number of cases judged under the jury system reached only 56 so far. In addition, verdicts handed down by ``civilian judges,'' in many cases, failed to meet expectations of either the prosecution or the accused, resulting in a ratio of appeals higher than that under the non-jury trial system. The Supreme Court plans to upgrade the system next year.
A provincial court last month allowed the removal of a respirator from comatose patients with apparently no chance of recovery, the first ruling of this kind here, which rekindles the debate over ``passive euthanasia'' between the medical circle ㅡ which advocates the suspension of what they call ``meaningless'' treatment for patients in a persistent vegetative state ㅡ and religious groups ㅡ which claim humans have no right to infringe upon the right to live of the terminally ill. The case is now pending at an appellate court.
The Constitutional Court ruled in July that the law banning doctors from revealing the gender of fetuses was unconstitutional. But the law will remain active till Dec. 31 2009, when new legislation is enacted.
The previous legislation was enacted in 1987, when gender-specific abortion was rampant mainly due to male-dominant Confucianism, which still prevails in Korean society.
But the court ruled it was unconstitutional, saying the age-old preference for boys has decreased and the law violated pregnant women's right to know, while restricting the freedom of doctors and nurses. Currently, similar restriction exists in India and China.
The Constitutional Court ruled in October that the law that punishes extramarital affairs is constitutional, meaning regardless of nationality, those having sex with a married person here are to be punished. Violators can face up to two years in prison.
The anti-adultery law was introduced about five decades ago to protect women in a male-dominated society. However, the call is growing to scrap the law, which critics say no longer fits a modern country with a modern civil and family court system.
Previously, there were three petitions against the regulation in 1990, 1993 and 2001. Over the last three years, about 1,200 people have been indicted annually on charges of adultery.
The Constitutional Court ruled last month that the law levying heavier taxes on owners of highly-priced homes was partially unconstitutional, a ruling which makes the regulation, introduced by President Lee Myung-bak's liberal predecessor Roh Moo-hyun, toothless, as a large portion of wealthy homeowners are to be exempted from the tax.
The Roh administration revised tax law in 2005 to curb then-rampant real estate speculation by imposing heavy taxes on those who owned houses worth 600 million won ($465,100) or more, while the current administration has sought to ease the regulations to lighten the burden on long-term property holders and boost the ailing construction industry.