CONCLUSION
In this chapter, I have attempted to give an explanation of various issues regarding Korean civil procedure. Basic features of the Korean civil proceÂdure, such as its history, guiding principles as well as the court system were illustrated.
Then, the main features of civil procedure were explained in sequence, from the commencing of the litigation through pre-trial and trial stages, and finally to the judgment and appeals. Korean civil procedure shares certain general features and elements prevalent among civil law jurisdictions.In concluding the chapter, I would like to add a few possible changes that are likely to take place in the near future.
The first would be an emphasis on oral communication between a judge and parties. Recent efforts that have been made by the Supreme Court in fostering an â€?oral proceeding’ are part of this. In the past, documents were at the center of the procedure. Judges were more focused on reviewing docuÂments to understand the case, instead of heeding oral arguments. However, courts are endeavoring to do away with this practice. They are growing more supportive of the oral proceeding, and to enhancing communication with the parties. In doing so, the Supreme Court even encouraged all the judges to film their own trials and review them, with the help of communication experts if necessary, in order to improve their communication skills.
The second would be the shift of the focus from a judge to counsel in the procedure. In practice, especially when there are parties without any legal counsel, the court tended to step deep into the process in its efforts to find out the substantive truth and come up with a just outcome. In some sense, cultural and historical features may explain this. The history of the Korean judiciary reveals that the judge, mostly local government authorities, was regarded as almost omnipotent in adjudicating the case.
Furthermore, the Confucianism filtered into the minds of people so intensely that it was taken for granted to obey and follow what the government authorities performed on behalf of the King. Although this is not always the case nowadays, this long-standing tradiÂtion might have implicitly influenced the position and the role of the Korean judge even in modern days. However, this is changing. There are more and more lawyers participating as counsel in civil litigation. In addition, the new law school system is about to be implemented from the year 2009. This will perhaps result in a much higher number of lawyers. More people will have access to legal services to support litigation. With this change, a judge will be less required to step into the procedure of behalf of parties. Instead, the true spirit of the adversary system will be fully realized.These changes reflect what is going on in a modern Korean society, namely a power shift from the public to the private. What this huge trend will bring to the Korean civil procedure scheme in the future remains to be seen.
2.