The Codification of Administrative Law in South Korea

Abstract

The author starts this article with the background of the codification in Korea. Since Korea is heavily influenced by the civil law countries, the legal system of Korea including administrative law is very much familiar with codification. Although enacted with great systematic codification, the codes often do not contain the basic administrative law principles. The most influential source of law affecting the general principle in administrative law is the Constitution itself. However, like many other constitutions of developed countries, the clauses of constitution of Korea are still quite abstract and vague. Therefore, the contents of the general principles cannot be defined by the Constitution itself and need to be amended by legislative enactments, judicial decisions, and academic opinions. The interpretation of the codes can be divided into two key sources: the judicial decision and the academic opinion. In the later paragraph of this article, the author makes a short review of the discussion on ALPA revision in 2012.

This research was done with the help of SNU law institute research assistance program.