일제강점초기(1910~1915) 총독부재판소의 의병판결과 그 성격

Abstract

Since Japan occupied Korea, they proclaimed ‘Joseon Criminal Order’ under the name of improvement of the Korean punishments which had been too strict compared to those in Japan. However, they retained some articles of ‘Criminal Law Statue’ with the rationale of the special characteristics of the Korean security situation. One of the typical articles was robbery rate. Japan assessed the old Korean law as the severe punishment while they utilized the robbery rate in ‘Criminal Law Statue’ which could oppress the remaining army raised in the cause of justice efficiently because the degree of punishment was harder than the Japanese one. With this, Japan could secure the legitimacy and treat them juridically. As a result, lots of the army were punished on charges of robbery. There were so many cases to be sentences as the robbery charges in most of the territories except for Choongchung Province. With respect to the distribution of sentences, the most common sentence was not more than 10 years of imprisonment followed by not more than 5 years of imprisonment. Death penalty which was the hardest sentence was not infrequent. To these charges by Japan, the generals of army raised in the cause of justice considered as unfair law enforcements and reacted them with a variety of ways such as legal battles to request to apply ‘rebellion’ charge rather than robbery or petty offenders since they were political group. Criminal law is enforced based on the punishment right of the nation to keep the public order and to realize public interests. Yet, Japan suppressed those who were against Japan using the criminal law by the jurisdiction they seized from the Korean occupation and used it as a tool to justify their reign, therefore, the sentences to the army raised in the cause of justice showed the violent colonization process without justification.