The President of the Constitutional Court of Korea (Korean: 헌법재판소장; Hanja: 憲法裁判所長; RR: Heonbeopjaepansojang) is the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of Korea. As presiding judge of Full bench composed of nine Justices, the President represents the Constitutional Court of Korea.
The President of the Constitutional Court of Korea is regarded as one of two equivalent heads of judicial branch in Government of South Korea. Another is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Korea. The equivalent status of the President to the Chief is guaranteed by article 15 of Constitutional Court Act.[1] The current President of the Constitutional Court of Korea is vacant (occuped by the acting president of the court Lee Eun-ae)
Appointment
Under chapter 6, article 111(4) of Constitution[2] and article 12(1) of Constitutional Court Act, the President of the Constitutional Court of Korea is appointed by the President of South Korea from among the nine Justices of Constitutional Court, with the consent of the National Assembly of South Korea.
Since the President is selected among nine Justices, and the article 112(1) of Constitution states that the 'term of the Justices shall be renewable six years' yet does not precisely state the exact lenghth of a President's term, the Presidents who were newly appointed as both Justice and the President at the same time can serve full six year term, though the Presidents who were appointed while serving as a Constitutional Court Justice can only serve the remainder of their six year term as Justice.[3] It is noteworthy that no President has tried to renew their term because it could harm the independence of the Court and judiciary. Under article 7(2) of Constitutional Court Act, President cannot be older than age 70 as other Justices.
Duties
The President's main role is participating in judgment of the Court as one of nine Constitutional Court Justices. According to article 22 of Constitutional Court Act, every cases shall be assigned to the Full bench (Korean: 전원재판부) composed of all nine Constitutional Court Justices in principle. In this case, the President becomes presiding judge following article 22(2) of the Act. However, some cases can be dismissed in pre-trial stage, due to lack of claim upon which relief can be granted. Whether or not to dismiss in pre-trial stage is called 'prior review (Korean: 사전심사)' under article 72(1) and 72(3) of the Act and is decided unanimously by a panel (Korean: 지정재판부) which consists of three Constitutional Court Justices. As there are three panels in the Court,[4] the President is also part of one panel
Another role of the President is to supervise judicial administration inside the Court. Since the Constitutional Court of Korea has no lower courts, as it is designed to be the one and only court to rule on important constitutional cases including judicial review, its volume of administration tasks is smaller than that of Supreme Court Chief Justice. Likewise, the President has no power to intervene in the appointment of other Constitutional Court Justices, while the Supreme Court Chief Justice can intervene in appointments due to his power to recommend candidates for Supreme Court Justices. This difference attenuates the hierarchical aspect within the Constitutional Court, granting more substantial power on Council of Constitutional Court to the Justices (Korean: 재판관회의) rather than the President.
The President serves as Chair at the Council of Constitutional Court Justices, composed of all nine Constitutional Court Justices including the President, which supervises administrative tasks of the Court under article 17 of Constitutional Court Act.
The President appoints Secretary General and the Deputy of Department of Court Administration (Korean: 헌법재판소사무처) with consent of the Council under article 16(4) of Constitutional Court Act, which supervises administrative tasks inside the Court under 17 of the Act.
The President also appoints every Rapporteur Judges (Korean: 헌법연구관, who has a similar role as french Conseiller référendaire) and court officials above grade III with consent of the Council under article 16(4) of Constitutional Court Act. Otherwise, appointment of court officials below grade III does not necessarily require consent of the Council.
The President present written opinions to the National Assembly, on enacting or revising laws related to administration of the Constitutional Court, under article 10-2 of Constitutional Court Act.
^For example, the fifth President Park Han-chul served shorter than six years as President as from April 2013 to January 2017, since he started his term as Constitutional Court Justice earlier in February 2011. See "Former Justices". Constitutional Court of Korea. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
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