Young-jun Kwon

This informative book provides an overview of the law and judicial institutions pertaining to litigation in Korea, as well as a selection of important court decisions.

The Republic of Korea (hereinafter Korea), commonly called South Korea as opposed to North Korea, is a highly homogeneous, yet intensely dynamic nation. Located in East Asia on the southern half of the Korean peninsula, and neighboured by China to the west and Japan to the east, Korea has a population of over 48 million people in a territory of just 100,032 square kilometres, which is similar to the size of Portugal. As two-thirds of the land is mountainous terrain, Korea is one of the most dens

The Republic of Korea, commonly called South Korea as opposed to North Korea, is a highly homogeneous, yet intensely dynamic nation. This dynamism can be witnessed in its struggle to accept Western legal system and its doctrines and creatively modify it by instilling Korean substance. This paper, while giving general account on Korean legal system, legal history as well as its modern trends, focuses on the constant efforts to bridge the gap between Korean substance and Western form. This tension

Following many years of attempts to fundamentally change the legal education scheme in Korea, a graduate-level law school system was finally introduced in 2009. This comprehensive yet controversial educational reform has brought about tremendous changes to legal education as well as to many aspects of the Korean legal system. Such legal education reform that is currently ongoing will shape the future of the Korean legal system. Along this line, this article portrays detailed features of the rece

Korea has long maintained a unique system of contractual leasehold that does not require periodic rent payments, called Chonse. Under this system, a lessee makes a one-time deposit of a large sum of money (Chonsegeum) with the lessor at the beginning of the lease, does not pay rent for the duration of the lease, and receives Chonsegeum back at the expiration of the lease. This unique system has been the most prevalent form of leasehold in Korea for decades and is not found outside Korea.This art

In general, pure economic loss is understood as economic loss without antecedent harm to plaintiff person or property. Traditionally, pure economic loss was only a topic of interest in the limited number of countries such as Germany, England or the United States. Recently, pure economic loss began to be discussed intensively in the context of the harmonization of tort law, particularly in Europe. Finding out some common principles and rules regarding pure economic loss has been the most essentia

This chapter examines two closely connected issues in defining the contents of contracts in Korea: first, the approaches adopted in interpreting the meaning of agreed contractual terms and, second, the extent to which additional terms are implied to supplement the express terms. It discusses the underlying philosophy of interpretation with regard to the dichotomy of ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ approaches; it details the various interpretative aids, such as customs, usages, the commercial backgr

대법원 2023. 1. 12. 선고 2021다201184 판결(이하 ‘대상판결’)은 유신 정권 긴급조치로 인한 국가배상청구권의 소멸시효가 완성되지 않았다고 본 판결이다. 대상판결은 긴급조치로 인한 국가배상책임을 인정한 대법원 202 2. 8. 30. 선고 2018다212610 전원합의체판결의 후속 판결이다. 대법원은 대상판결에서 불법행위에 관한 소멸시효 특칙인 민법 제766조에도 권리를 행사할 수 있는 때로부터 소멸시효가 진행한다는 민법 제166조 제1항이 적 용된다고 전제한 뒤, 원고의 국가배상청구가 사실상 불가능한 상황이 장기간 지속되어 왔음에 주목하여 원고가 가지는 국가배상청구권의 소멸시효 기산점 을 뒤로 늦추었다. 이로써 대상판결 사안에서 소멸시효 완성은 부정되었고 피해자의 권리보호 가능성이 확장되었다. 긴급조치라는 역사적 과오에 대한 실질적인 피해 회복도 구현할 수 있게 되었다. 판결 사안에 드러난 피해자와 가해자의 상호관계, 이들이 처해 있던 상황과 이들 각각에 대한 비난