Judiciary of South Korea
Military courts, on the other hand, are organized only in the first instance of a three-level hierarchy at peacetime.
[citation needed] As influenced from European judiciaries[4] such as the Austrian judicial system and German judicial system,[5] the contemporary South Korean judiciary divides its role of highest court into two apex courts.
Before South Korea adopted the American law school system (법학전문대학원) in 2007, South Korea trained its legal professionals mainly by the Judicial Research and Training Institute (JRTI, 사법연수원).
[citation needed] Another route for legal professionals was direct recruitment by the South Korean Armed Forces as Judge Advocates (군법무관).
After the 2007 reform, all legal professionals in South Korea (except paralegals such as judicial scriveners) have since been trained by the American-style three-year law school system.
[6] The ordinary courts (일반법원 or 법원), of South Korea are established by Chapter 5 of the Constitution.
Thus, enacting some cases outside of the Constitutional Court's jurisdiction as available with only one chance of appeal or no chance of appeal is constitutionally valid in South Korea unless such cases are finally ruled in the Supreme Court.
[8][clarification needed] The statutory ground for the hierarchy of ordinary courts, including a three-tiered instance system for typical cases, is defined by the Court Organization Act of South Korea.
However, no Justices have tried to renew their term in the Sixth Republic since it could harm the independence of judiciary by increasing the influence of the president.
The function of seconded Judges in Supreme Court is similar to law clerks in ordinary courts; they serve about 2 years as judicial assistant for Justices, yet not all seconded Judges are not individually attached to one of Justice, as some of seconded Judges serve in research groups or panels to assist decisions of whole Supreme Court.
Specialized courts (전문법원) also exist for family, administrative, bankruptcy and patent cases.
Prior to reform, all Judges were appointed just after finishing a two-year training program in the JRTI.
Judges in South Korea are protected from external political pressure under Article 106(1) of the Constitution.
Judicial Assistant Officials (JAO, 사법보좌관) are Judge-equivalent officers who have limited power to rule over several procedural matters under the supervision of Judges.
Law clerks in South Korea are recruited by each of the six High courts, though some of top-tier graduates are appointed as Judicial Researchers at the Supreme Court—a law clerk for Supreme Court Justices.
It is noteworthy that law clerks in South Korea are not recruited by individual Judges and Supreme Court Justices.
Military Courts rule over criminal cases when the accused is a member of the Armed Forces.
The permanence of the Military Courts, even in peacetime, has created various problems, as South Korea runs a mandatory conscription system.
[3] This system was newly established in the Sixth Republic to reinforce protection on fundamental rights and democracy against potential rise of authoritarianism.
Rapporteur Judges serve longer than Justices in the Constitutional Court, while Research Judges serve shorter terms than Justices in the Supreme Court; this is designed to ensure continuity of constitutional adjudication in South Korea.
The head of the department is the Secretary General and is appointed by the President of the Constitutional Court.
Under Article 107(2) in Chapter 5, the ordinary courts, including the Supreme Court, have ultimate jurisdiction over reviewing constitutionality of sub-statutory decrees, regulations, or actions made at the administrative level.
