The Supreme Court of Korea () is the highest ordinary court in the judicial branch of South Korea, seated in Seocho, Seoul. Established under Chapter 5 of the Constitution of South Korea, the Court has ultimate and comprehensive jurisdiction over all cases except those cases falling under the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court of Korea. It consists of fourteen Justices, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea. The Supreme Court is at the top of the hierarchy of all ordinary courts in South Korea, and traditionally represented the conventional judiciary of South Korea. The Supreme Court has equivalent status as one of the two highest courts in South Korea. The other is the Constitutional Court of Korea.
History
The original constitution during the First Republic established 'Supreme Court' and 'Constitutional Committee' () in Chapter 5. The Supreme Court was established as the highest ordinary court but lacked the power of constitutional review, which was conferred upon the Constitutional Committee, a sort of constitutional court. This distribution of judicial power inside judiciary was never fully realized under rule of South Korea's first president Syngman Rhee, whose dictatorship hampered the committee's function and eventually left it unable to re-constitute itself. Though the Supreme Court had no power of judicial review, it enjoyed judicial independence under the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 'Kim Byung-ro' (), from 1948 to 1957. Renowned for his ardent participation in Korean independence movement during the Japanese colonial rule, Chief Justice Kim Byung-ro famously defended the independence of the judiciary from Syngman Rhee.
However, after Kim Byung-ro's retirement in 1957, the Supreme Court fell to autocratic influence. By giving the death sentence to Park's political contender Cho Bong-am in 1959 and also by sentencing death on the defendants of People's Revolutionary Party Incident in 1975 under Park Chung Hee's era, the Supreme Court gained notorious reputation for judicial murder () as obediently sentencing capital punishments over spy scandals fabricated by dictators. After the April Revolution, the Constitutional Court was established to replace the Constitutional Committee, but the Supreme Court remained largely unaffected by the changes. After Park Chung Hee's 1961 coup, the Second Republic was dissolved and, after a nominal transition to civilian rule from a military junta, the Third Republic was established in 1962. The Constitutional Court, itself never formed because of the coup, was abolished while the power of judicial review was conferred on the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court retained its deference towards the ruling dictator. In 1971, the Supreme Court resisted the oppressive rule of President Park Chung Hee and declared Article 2 of the National Compensation Act () unconstitutional, a statute that limited state liability for injured soldiers during service. President Park retaliated by refusing reappointment of Supreme Court Justices, which had been a formality. The Fourth and Fifth Republics would endow a new, differently-formed Constitutional Committee with the power of constitutional review but on the condition that a court first formally submit a request before the committee could hear a case. This extra procedural hurdle was meant to nullify the committee, since the Supreme Court would never authorize such requests, while allowing the Park Chung Hee regime to maintain the pretense that it granted the Committee full constitutional-review power. It effectively allowed the military junta to act with impunity. Following 1987 democratization, the Constitutional Court was restored in the Sixth Republic, with the power of constitutional review. To prevent the president from undermining the judiciary again, the 1987 constitutional amendment, which established the Sixth Republic, allows citizens to file a constitutional complaint directly with the Constitutional Court, even if courts refuse to do so.
In 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ranked the South Korean ordinary judiciary to be one of the most efficient in terms of trial length and trial costs.
Composition
Justices
The composition and appointment of Supreme Court justices () are governed by a combination of constitutional provisions and statutory regulations. While the current Constitution of South Korea does not specify the precise number of Supreme Court justices, this matter is addressed by the Court Organization Act, a statute that outlines the structure of ordinary courts in the country.