President of the Constitutional Court of Korea

Under chapter 6, article 111(4) of Constitution[3] and article 12(1) of Consitutional Court Act, the President of the Constitutional Court of Korea is appointed by the President of South Korea from among the nine Justices of Consitutional 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 only as 'term of the Justices shall be renewable six years' yet do not precisely states about exact term length of the President, 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 Constitutional Court Justice can only serve remaining of six year term as Justice.[4] It is noteworthy that none of Justices and Presidents tried to renew their term because it could harm independence of the Court and judiciary. Under article 7(2) of Consitutional Court Act, President cannot be older than age 70 as other Justices.

The President's main role is participating in judgment of the Court as one of nine Constitutional Court Justices. According to article 22 of Consitutional Court Act, every cases shall be assigned to the Full bench (Korean: 전원재판부) composed of all nine Consitutional Court Justices in priciple. In this case, the President becomes presiding judge following article 22(2) of the Act. However, some of 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 in Panel (Korean: 지정재판부) which consists of three Constitutional Court Justices respectively. As there are three Panels in the Court,[5] the President also composes one the Panel.

Another role of the President is supervising judicial administration inside the Court. Since the Constitutional Court of Korea has no lower courts, as it is designed as one and only court to rule important constitutional cases including judicial review, its volume of administration task is smaller than that of Supreme Court Chief Justice. Likewise, the President has no power to intervene in appointment of other Constitutional Court Justices, while the Supreme Court Chief Justice can intervene in appointment by exercising power to recommend candidates for other Supreme Court Justices. This difference attenuates hierarchichal aspect inside the Constitutional Court, granting more substantial power on Council of Constitutional Court 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, which has 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, as appointment of court officials below grade Ⅲ does not necessarily require consent of the Council.

• The President present written opinion to the National Assembly, on enacting or revising laws related to administration of the Consitutional Court, under article 10-2 of Constitutional Court Act.

• Judiciary of South Korea
• Constitutional Court of Korea

• Official english website of Constitutional Court of Korea
• CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA, Korean Law Translation Center, Korea Legislation Research Institute
• CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ACT, Korean Law Translation Center, Korea Legislation Research Institute