Lawyer Ahn Byung-chan(安秉瓚)'s philosophy and Independence Movement

Abstract

Lawyer Ahn Byung-Chan was a lawyer during the Korean Empire Era. As a junior official of Department of Justice, Ahn Byung-Chan was a strong-willed young man who insisted on execution of the ministers who signed the Eulsa Treaty. Ahn Byung-chan served as a prosecutor in Pyeongan-do and steadfastly corrected the corruption of the local landowner forces. After that, he served as a lawyer and tried to protect the sovereignty of Korea by petitioning to prevent the use of Japanese chronological era in the trial process. Ahn Byung-chan tried to defend the Ahn Jung-Geun case, but failed to achieve it due to the opposition of Japan. In the case of Lee Jae-Myung, who attempted to kill Lee Wan-Yong, he became a laywer and claimed the innocence of the accused. Ahn Byung-chan was a first-generation human rights lawyer, a symbol of prosecutors, a law educator, and a steadfast junior official of Department of Justice. As a lawyer during Korean Empire Era, he insisted on “sovereignty” within the institutional system. After losing Korea s sovereignty by Japan in 1910, Ahn Byung-chan became an independence activist. His career as a lawyer had influenced greatly his becoming an independence activist. In particular, his attempts to defend the patriots such as Ahn Jung-Geun and Lee Jae-Myung had a great influence on his becoming an independence activist. Ahn Byung-Chan, as an independence activist during the Japanese colonial period, was a patriot who shouted “independence” outside the institutional system. Ahn Byung-chan served as both a prosecutor and an laywer. Ahn Byung-chan could have power as a prosecutor and accumulate property as a lawyer. Although he was able to achieve his own success as a vested rights power, he committed himself to the independence movement and also made an armed fight against Japan. In his later years, Ahn Byung-chan became a communist and died in confrontation with the Shanghai party. It is a pity that he did not receive much attention compared to his achievements and importance in the history of Korean law and independence movement.