Chief justice nominee famed for conservative rulings
This Oct. 8 file photo shows Lee Gyun-ryong speaking during a National Assembly session as head of the Daejeon High Court at the National Assembly in Seoul. Korea Times file
Seoul High Court Judge Lee Gyun-ryong, nominated as the new Supreme Court chief justice on Tuesday, is known to be a representative conservative judge in the judiciary and a master of international legal systems.
Lee, born in the southeastern county of Haman in 1962, began his judicial career at the predecessor of the Seoul Central District Court in 1990 after graduating from the Seoul National University School of Law.
He has since served at many district courts nationwide and worked twice as a judicial researcher at the Supreme Court before being appointed as the head of the Seoul Southern District Court in 2017. He then served as chief of the Daejeon High Court and moved to the Seoul High Court in February this year.
The 61-year-old Lee has gained a reputation for making many decisions in defense of the rights of the disabled and socially underprivileged. He is also known as a master of comparative legal analysis due to his extensive knowledge of foreign legal systems. In particular, he has had many exchanges with Japanese counterparts since attending an overseas study program at Keio University in Japan in 1994.
Still, Lee's nomination can be seen as exceptional, as he is set to become the fourth judge to head the Supreme Court without having previously served at the top court as a justice. The nation has so far produced 14 Supreme Court chief justices, and only three of them, including incumbent Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su, don't have any experience as Supreme Court justices.
President Yoon Suk Yeol was a one-year senior to Lee at Seoul National University School of Law, and they are said to be well acquainted with each other. (Yonhap)