Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T00:18:49.181Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Death Penalty in Korea: From Unofficial Moratorium to Abolition?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2015

Kuk Cho*
Affiliation:
Seoul National University College of Law

Abstract

The death penalty is one of the most contentious issues in Korea. In contrast to other Asian countries, the issue of whether the death penalty should be abolished has been actively debated and reviewed at governmental levels and in civil society. It is important to note that it is not just civic organizations that have begun to favor abolition of the death penalty but also state organizations including the National Assembly and the National Human Rights Commission. The Constitutional Court has invalidated some disproportionate provisions in relation to the death penalty. Since President Kim Dae-Jung took office in February 1998, there has been an “unofficial moratorium” on executions.

This article provides an overview of the legal regime governing the death penalty and the ongoing debate on the death penalty in Korea. It begins by briefly reviewing international treaties that call for the abolition of the death penalty, contrasting them with the retentionist trend in most Asian countries. It then reviews the major decisions of the Korean Supreme Court and the Korean Constitutional Court. It also discusses recent moves in the National Assembly and the National Human Rights Commission to abolish the death penalty. It suggests that the Korean death penalty debate has potentially significant implications for its retentionist Asian neighbours grappling with similar issues.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boxer, John TChina's Death Penalty: Undermining Legal Reform and Threatening National Economic Interest” (1999) 22 Suffolk Transnat'l L Rev 593.Google Scholar
Cho, KukTension between the National Security Law and Constitutionalism in South Korea: Security for What?” (1997) 15 Boston U Int'l LJ 125.Google Scholar
Cho, KukKorean Criminal Law: Moralist Prima Ratio for Social Control” (2001) 1 J of Korean L 77.Google Scholar
Clammer, JohnFraming the Other: Criminality, Social Exclusion and Social Engineering in Developing Singapore” (1997) 31 Social Policy and Administration 136.Google Scholar
Dando, ShigemitsuToward the Abolition of the Death Penalty” (1996) 72 Ind LJ 7.Google Scholar
Davis, Michael CConstitutionalism and Political Culture: The Debate over Human Rights and Asian Values” (1998) 11 Harv Hum Rts J 109.Google Scholar
Engle, Karen, “Culture and Human Rights: The Asian Values Debate in Context” (2000) 32 NYUJ Int'l L & Pol 291.Google Scholar
Galliher, John F & Gaylord, Mark SDeath Penalty Politics and Symbolic Law in Hong Kong” (1994) 22 Int J Soc L 19.Google Scholar
Gupta, Subhash C Capital Punishment in India (New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications, 1986).Google Scholar
Harring, Sidney LDeath Drugs and Development: Malaysia's Mandatory Death Penalty for Traffickers and the International War on Drugs” (1991) 29 Colum J Transnat'l L 365.Google Scholar
Herrmann, JoachimThe Death Penalty in Japan: An ‘Absurd’ Punishment” (2002) 67 Brook L Rev 827.Google Scholar
Hood, Roger The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective, 3d ed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).Google Scholar
Hor, MichaelThe Death Penalty in Singapore and International Law” (2004) 8 SYBIL 105.Google Scholar
Johnson, David TJapan's Secretive Death Penalty Policy: Contours, Origins, Justifications, and Meanings” (2006) 7 Asian Pac L & Pol'y J 62.Google Scholar
Joseph, Sarah, Schultz, Jenny & Castan, Melissa The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 2d ed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).Google Scholar
Pannick, David Judicial Review of the Death Penalty (London: Duckworth, 1982).Google Scholar
Schmidt, Petra Capital Punishment in Japan (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreiber, Ariane MStates That Kill: Discretion and the Death Penalty - A Worldwide Perspective” (1996) 29 Cornell Int'l LJ 263.Google Scholar
Tittemore, Brian DThe Mandatory Death Penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean and the Inter-American Human Rights System: An Evolution in the Development and Implementation of International Human Rights Protection” (2004) 13 Wm & Mary Bill Rts J 445.Google Scholar
West, James M & Baker, Edward JThe 1987 Constitutional Reforms in South Korea: Electoral Process and Judicial Independence” in Shaw, William ed, Human Rights in Korea (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991).Google Scholar
Wohlwend, RenateThe Efforts of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe” in The Death Penalty: Abolition in Europe (Strasbourg: Council of Europe. 1999)Google Scholar