This paper will briefly discuss the criminal justice system in South Korea. Topics within this discussion will include the overall political system, the court system, the police force, and the corrections system.
South Korea has a tradition of criminal law, based upon Chinese legal codes and Confucian philosophy, going back to the 7th Century A.D. Under this tradition, the central government was the source of all power and the norms followed by all citizens. The criminal codes were very detailed, defining all offenses possible and providing additional laws which incorporated exceptional cases. Features of the criminal law included differentiation between intentional and accidental acts, consideration of the accused's mental capacity, and punishments which took into account the defendant's social class and political status.
This system began changing in the 1890s as the country underwent westernization and modernization. From 1910 to 1945, the Japanese imposed their own legal system, based upon the German codes enacted after 1871, as part of the occupation. In 1948, with the founding of the Republic of Korea, the Judiciary and the courts were established as a separate and independent branch of the government, patterned after the provisions in the U.S. Constitution. Similarly, a modern criminal code and code of criminal procedure was enacted in the early 1950s.
In spite of a nominally democratic constitution and form of government set up in 1945, modern South Korea rarely experienced true democracy until 1987. From 1945 to 1960, one man ruled the country, Syngman Rhee. His popularly elected successors were overthrown by the military in 1961 and from then until his assassination in 1979, General Park Chung Hee ruled South Korea. After Park's assassination, General Chun Doo Hwan took over the government and declared martial law, suspending most civil rights. The independence of the judiciary from the influence of the executive bra...