Newsletter/Webzine

| 1. Current Status and Preservation History of the Written Judgments of Civil Cases in Modern Korea

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Gugyeok Hanguk geundae minsa pangyeolmun (Korean Translation of Written Judgments of Civil Cases in Modern Korea), published by Minsokwon, consists of the written judgments of civil cases from the Gabo Reform (1894-1897) and Korean Empire (1897-1910) periods that were digitally transcribed and translated from Chinese characters into Korean by Professor Lee Seung-il (History Department, Hanyang University) with research funding received from the Academy of Korean Studies in 2015. Due to the high number of written judgments, the project was divided into two stages. The results of the first stage, which covers about 5,000 written judgments produced between 1895 and February 1908, was published in 2021. The second stage, which covers about 3,600 written judgments produced between March 1908 and December 1909, is currently under progress. 

The original materials were produced through the “Law on the Composition of the Courts” (Jaepanso guseongbeop) No. 1 of March 25, 1895 and the “Regulations of Civil Litigation” (Minhyeong sosong gyujeong) of July 1895. Although no title was officially assigned to the written judgments by the courts of the Gabo Reform and Korean Empire periods, they were collectively named the “Written Judgments of Civil Cases of the End of Late Joseon” (Gu Han mal minsa pangyeolmun) by the Legal Records Repository (Beobwon Girok Bojonso) where the relevant materials were stored. However, because the relevant written judgments include the written judgments of all levels of courts established from 1895, the phrase “end of late Joseon” (gu Han mal) is not suitable to use. Furthermore, the relevant materials not only include written judgments produced at the Korean courts, but also those produced at the courts of the Local Administrative Office (Isacheong), the Ministry of Justice (Beommuwon) of the Japanese Residency-General (Tonggambu), and the courts of the Japanese Residency-General. The written judgments produced the process of Japanese consular trials include mutual disputes between Japanese, as well as many disputes processed between Koreans and Japanese. Accordingly, Professor Lee’s research team assigned a new title for the collection, namely “Written Judgments of Civil Cases in Modern Korea” (Hanguk geundae minsa pangyeolmun). 

The collection’s materials first passed through the courts of the Korean Empire and the Japanese Residency-General before being transferred to the courts of the Japanese Government-General of Korea directly following Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910. During the period of colonial rule (1910-1945), the records were stored in the courts of the Government-General. Upon liberation in 1945, the records were received and managed by each of Korea’s district courts. This was the case until December 1973, when the “Regulation on the Management of Preserved Court Documents” (Beobwon bojon munseo gwalli gyuchik; Supreme Court Regulation No. 0546 of December 12, 1973) was enacted. According to this regulation, permanently preserved documents, documents preserved at each court level for 30 years, and documents from before 1945 were to be relocated to Management Offices for Preserved Court Documents (Beobwon bojon munseo gwalliso). At the time of January 1, 1974, three such management offices were established in the Seoul, Daegu, and Gwangju districts. In 2005, the Supreme Court Library published 52 volumes of the Collection of Written Judgments of Civil Cases of the End of Late Joseon (1895-1908) (Gu Han mal minsa pangyeolmun jip). 

Thereafter in 2008, upon the new construction in Seongnam of a preservation library of the Legal Records Repository, all of the written judgments of civil cases prior to 1945 that were preserved separately on the level of each district were gathered for central management at the Legal Records Repository. Currently, based on the compiled books, there are about 406 books kept in the Legal Records Repository. Among these, the original texts of 14,538 judgments in 151 books have been made publically available online since 2009 through a digitalization project conducted in 2008. However, not only are the original texts of the other 255 books not digitized, but they are stored at the preservation library of the Legal Records Repository without an inventory. Thus, in order to vitalize future research, action must be taken to make the remaining written judgments more accessible.

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| 2. The Value of the Written Judgments of Civil Cases as Historical Materials

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The judicial process typically reveals the everyday life and legal consciousness of private individuals. Accordingly, precedents show the aspects of “living law” in action and are of extremely precious value in the research of the history of legislative systems and the history of the sociology of law. Furthermore, such precedents are a true research “repository” in the study of the early stages of the adoption of Western legal ideas and judicial systems. Thus, the official publication of the Korean Translation of Written Judgments of Civil Cases in Modern Korea (Minsokwon Publishing Company) serves as groundbreaking turning point for the promotion of the research on the history of legislative systems. 

Korea acquired a modern judiciary system through the enactment in April 1895 of the “Law on the Composition of the Courts” No. 1 and its subsidiary codes, such as the “Regulation on Civil Litigation.” Modern civil litigation refers to the national judiciary procedure for resolving disputes that occur between private individuals in the legal relations of private law. However, the judiciary procedure of the Korean Empire was a transitional private law system that did not in reality fully separate administration and private law. However, despite its inadequacies, modern elements gradually spread, such as the establishment of courts at various levels, the adoption of the multiple instance trial system (simgeup jedo), the enactment of legal regulations on litigation, the opening of public trials, the modernization of written judgments, and the hiring of full-time judicial officers. Accordingly, the judicial precedents of this period are extremely useful materials that shed light on how the judiciary system responded to the diverse courtroom disputes and conflicts amidst the coexistence and interaction of new and old customs. Also, by looking at the written judgments of civil cases before Western legislative and judiciary systems were actually enacted, one can concretely understand factors such as the manner of the trials and the instances of the application of legal norms. 

Along with this, as foreigners began residing in Korea following the opening of the ports in 1876, they conducted economic activities and purchased houses and land needed to expand their economic encroachment. This process saw an increase in disputes between Koreans and foreigners around the protection and infringement of rights. In particular, there were many disputes related to debts (chageum) and real estate. Foreigners strongly demanded that the Korean government legalize the possession and transaction of real estate. And in the process of various trials, extraterritoriality was utilized to achieve their interests. Through the negotiation incidents included within the written judgments of civil cases, we can vividly understand what influence the extraterritoriality obtained by foreigners had on Korean private law. 

Accordingly, the “Written Judgments of Civil Cases in Modern Korea” reflect in detail the aspects seen in the mutual blending and colliding between Korea’s traditional legal notions and the modern law of the West, as well as the influence that the introduction of modern private law systems had on Koreans’ legal culture. They also minutely record how the modern legal concepts and systems of the West were accepted by Korean society after the opening of the ports and how these same Western legal concepts changed Korean society. Furthermore, they are extremely important materials in understanding colonial modernization and the changes in the legal system seen after Japanese judiciary officials were appointed in full force to Korean courts from 1908. 

Additionally, research on the “Written Judgments of Civil Cases in Modern Korea” fills the gap in research concerning the histories of civil law, the legal profession, and the sociology of law, which had remained lacking among research on the legal history of modern Korea. This research greatly contributes to the understanding of the overall character of Korean law in the early modern period. Going forward, these materials will be highly useful across various fields, such as research on the history of legal sociology during Korea’s modern transition period; research on the modernization of Korean law and the process of the establishment of colonial legal institutions, as well as the legal systems for civil law and the customs of civil cases and trading companies; and research on the history of private law systems Thus far, focus was placed on the differences with Western legal culture, with reasoning explained through the continuation of traditional neo-Confucian legal culture, colonial rule, and certain experiences of modernization. In this context, these materials provide new perspectives and knowledge in understanding the matter of how Korea’s traditional legal culture responded to the modern conditions.