Rights In Korea Research Articles

Disputes over Burial Mountains

This article examines legal decisions in lineage property disputes from the Korean Empire period (1897–1910) to the first two decades of the Japanese colonial rule to trace the effect of Japanese efforts to implement property rights reforms in colonial Korea. Lineage properties were heavily concentrated in the mountains in the form of communal burial sites; thus, to ease acceptance of colonial rule, such Japanese objectives as forest cultivation needed to accommodate long-established Korean practices of mountain burial. In addition, Japanese perceptions of Koreans as primitively collective in their property relations led to initial suppression of the rights of heirs over lineage property. The colonial court's subsequent gradual and uneven invocation of the principle of exclusive individual property rights became a source of both legal and physical conflicts. The case of how lineage property rights were reorganized in colonial Korea shows the compromised nature of the colonial property regime as it sought to balance traditional claims and modern concepts of property ownership, with long-term consequences for property rights in Korea.

Shabbat and Shattered Dreams: Religious Accommodations for Public Exams in South Korea

Abstract Today in South Korea, individuals of certain faiths are unable to take a wide range of state-administered qualifying examinations due to their religious convictions. The Constitutional Court of Korea has repeatedly refused their request for religious accommodations, such as an alternative test date for Sabbath or holy day observers who are unable to take exams on their original dates. The authors analyze the series of Constitutional Court decisions rejecting the need for such accommodation by focusing on the court’s use of its main analytical tool, the proportionality principle. These decisions reveal important shortcomings in the court’s application of the proportionality principle, including challenges inherent to proportionality and more specific deficiencies in the court’s application of the general principle. The article thus sheds light on how the proportionality principle is applied in the context of Korean constitutional jurisprudence and the resultant deprivation of protection for certain fundamental rights in Korea. The authors compare the court’s approach with that of courts in Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. They then propose a number of ways to improve the court’s proportionality analysis and its constitutional reasoning.

Women in the Sky: Gender and Labor in the Making of Modern Korea

Women in the Sky: Gender and Labor in the Making of Modern Korea

Corporate governance and price differences between dual-class shares in Korea

This paper aims to explore the corporate governance determinants of price differences between voting and non-voting shares. It discusses the impact of corporate governance on voting premium and the role of outside blockholders by examining their interaction effect with the voting premium. We find that shareholder protection is positively related to the voting premium, in particular, after the enactment of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act and IFRS. We also find that foreign blockholders' ownership is positively related to the voting premium, whereas domestic blockholders’ ownership mitigates the impact of shareholder protection on the price differences. This study provides clues to diverse extant findings relative to the value of votes. Shareholder protection is a pivotal determinant of the value of voting rights in Korea, suggesting that voting rights remain valuable only when shareholders consider them valid enough to exercise their rights. It implies that when controlling shareholders dominate the entire business group, the value of votes is more likely to be under the impact of control contests.

재일(在日) 지식인이 구축한 연대의 공론장 『계간삼천리』

By reviewing the pathway of “Kikan Sanzenri” (Issues 1 to 50: Feb. 1975 to May 1987), an academic journal published by Zainichi Korean intellectuals and in which they expressed their clear critical mind toward the issues of peaceful reunification of their home country Korea, restoration of democratization/human rights in Korea, and promotion of mutual understanding and solidarity between Korea and Japan in the time and space of their foreign land, this paper examined the overall picture of this public sphere written in Japanese.
 In particular, while the Korean intellectuals’ articles translated and introduced in “Kikan Sanzenri” were not covered in previous researches, this paper paid attention to them and examined what kind of stature they have in the journal. First, through division into “Special Features”, “Conversation/Round-table Talks/Symposiums”, “Serial Publication” and “Translation”, which clearly indicate the journal’s direction, the critical mind and roles of “Kikan Sanzenri” were analyzed.
 The public sphere “Kikan Sanzenri” is a journal which Zainichi Korean intellectuals who were inspired by the July 4 Inter-Korean Joint Statement in 1972 initiatively started publishing. Through “Kikan Sanzenri”, they aimed to write a “History of Korea-Japan Exchange” for historical agreement, through collection of various ideas and opinions by planning special features on the contemporary historical tasks of Korea and on pending issues about the Korean Peninsula and about the Japanese Islands. Also, through special features examining the past, present and future of Zainichi Koreans, “Kikan Sanzenri” functioned as a venue for “unity in diversity” which is a synonym for polyphony.
 It is also worth noting that “Kikan Sanzenri” shared its critical mind with readers through conversation, round-table talks, and symposiums. Through serial publication of articles in a wide range of fields and genres, the journal fulfilled its social and cultural roles as the public sphere. In particular, by focusing on “Seoul Report” written by K·I. and Yasuhiro Maeda, this paper examined the significance of this “another series.” The articles by K·I. and Yasuhiro Maeda, which sought to reveal the truth hidden in the politics between Korea and Japan by taking the lives and voices of the Korean people as their own, are significant in that they convey the overall picture of the times in solidarity with oppressed Korean intellectuals including Chi-ha Kim who expressed the importance of political imagination and creativity, as well as workers, and Zainichi Korean students.
 Finally, this paper focused on the articles by Korean intellectuals translated and introduced on “Kikan Sanzenri.” “Kikan Sanzenri” introduced the practice of intellectuals who wrote articles by diagnosing the divided Korean peninsula and diagnosing the crisis situation in Korea, where human rights were being violated and freedom of speech was deprived of. This paper identified that “Kikan Sanzenri” tried to further strengthen its sense of purpose through this, and that the spirit of the times contained in the intellectuals’ voices transcending time and space from Korea functioned as a reason to urge contemporary Zainichi/Japanese people to self-reflect their attitudes toward the reality and history in which they are placed.
 The movement of “Kikan Sanzenri”, which gathered the voices of all social classes while accompanying practice, is worth noting as a historical record and deserves further discussion in that, in this era of ongoing hostility typified by anti-Japanese and anti-Korean sentiments, it provides an opportunity to discover the history of Korea-Japan exchange and to look into its significance in the present time.

반인권적 국가범죄의 조사･수사에 있어 협조자에 대한 사면 등 허용여부에 관한 고찰

The concept of ‘Transitional Justice’ is used in relation to how to deal with crimes against humanity or state crimes against humanity rights committed in war or dictatorship after the end of the war or dictatorship. The key tasks of ‘Transitional Justice’ are the achievement of reconciliation･social integration and the pursuit of justice. To achieve these key tasks, the ‘Justice Model’ and the ‘Truth-Reconciliation Model’ can be chosen. The Justice Model focuses on the criminal responsibility of the perpetrator. In this model, the criminal court is the central body and judges serious human rights violations such as genocide, crimes against humanity and state crimes against human rights. The Truth-Reconciliation Model, on the other hand, seeks reconciliation by discovering the truth of serious human rights violations through official government investigations. In this model, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC) is the central body. At this time, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission pursues the cleansing of individuals, community- building, and consolidation of political change. In this paper, first, it was examined whether there is a need for amnesty, immunity, or mitigation according to the Truth-Reconciliation Model when the perpetrators of state crimes against human rights actively cooperated in the investigation process(Ⅱ). In addition, as a comparative law research method, cases in foreign countries in which amnesty, immunity, or mitigation were implemented or not implemented were reviewed(Ⅲ). And the contents and problems of the reconciliation provisions of Fact-Finding Act on Suspicious Deaths in the Military, the Past History Reorganization Act, and the 5･18 Fact-Finding Act, which were introduced in domestic law, were examined(Ⅳ). Based on these discussions, in the future, when introducing a reconciliation regulation that recognizes amnesty, immunity, or mitigation to cooperators in investigations of state crimes against human rights in Korea, what form and content should be included and specific introduction methods were suggested(Ⅴ).

Evangelical Protestant Women’s Views on Homosexuality and LGBT Rights in Korea: The Role of Confucianism and Nationalism in Heteronormative Ideology

ABSTRACT Much scholarly attention has been devoted to understanding the demographic, religious, and socio-economic factors that may lead to homonegativity. However, little is known about how and why people oppose homosexuality and LGBT rights. To fill this gap, this work examines how heterosexual religious mothers perceive homosexuality and LGBT rights focusing on the role of indigenous culture. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 30 evangelical Protestant women in South Korea, my findings indicate that evangelical women’s perceptions of LGBT rights and their justification display evangelical notion of procreation, motherly moral concerns about the rapid change in heteronormative ideals, and ambivalence about an individualistic, expressive culture. I argue that heteronormative ideology forms a key construct that determines the responses of evangelical women. In addition, such an idea is not only guided by evangelical teaching but also reinforced by a complex amalgamation of Confucian tradition and nationalism, thus restricting sexual drive and emotions for the sake of families and the nation. Heterosexual family norms operate in a way that it is synchronized with a combination of Confucian-family-oriented collectivism and nationalism. This study contributes to complicating a simple, one-dimensional understanding of public attitudes on homosexuality by offering a nuanced look into the configuration of heterosexual ideologies, which are unique in the Korean context.

한국 여성운동의 첫 번째 물결과 여성 권리의 제한적 확대: 한국 그리스도교를 중심으로

한국 여성운동의 첫 번째 물결과 여성 권리의 제한적 확대: 한국 그리스도교를 중심으로

An Overview of the Protection of Taxpayer Rights in Korea

This article considers the protection of the rights of taxpayers in Korea with specific regard to the relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea and tax legislation in general, and discusses the breadth and effectiveness of taxpayer protection in Korea and the possibility for additional protective measures.

Police Officers’ Job Satisfaction and Consciousness of Human Rights in Korea

광복 이후 반세기 가까이 한반도 긴장상황과 정치적 불안으로 우리나라 경찰활동은 인권의 가치보다 사회안정과 질서확립 그리고 강력한 법집행을 중시하게 되었다. 게다가 증거에 기반을 둔 수사보다는 편의적 수사 때문에 많은 인권침해가 발생하게 되었다. 2001년 국가인권위원회가 설립됨으로써 우리나라 인권 역사에 한 획을 긋는 전환점이 되었다. 경찰 내부적으로도 2005년 인권전담기구인 인권보호센터를 설치하였고 국민들의 참여를 유도하기 위한 인권수호위원회와 시민인권보호단 등을 설치하였다. 그리고 인권침해상황을 개선하기 위해서 다양한 정책적 제언을 하고 인권경찰로 거듭나기 위해 매진하고 있다. 이런 경찰의 인권수호 의지는 법집행과정의 개선, 범죄피해자 피해회복 강화 등 많은 제도적 개선을 이루어냈다. 그러나 사회 제도적인 관성, 특수한 경찰조직문화, 증가하는 경찰업무 등으로 인한 경찰의 인권침해는 법집행과정에서 여전히 발생하고 있다. 덧붙여 일부 인권침해 방지대책들은 근본적인 문제를 해결하기 위한 방안을 제시하기보다는 일종의 전시행정적인 성격을 띠고 있다. 결국 경찰활동 중 인권침해를 실제로 개선하기 위해서는 경찰공무원 자신의 인권의식이 매우 중요하다고 할 수 있다.The establishment of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in 2001 has become a ground-breaking turning point in the South Korean history of human rights. Internally, the Police Human Rights Center, an organization in full charge of human rights, was established in 2005 and the Human Rights Protection Commission and the Citizen Human Rights Protection Group were organized to induce participation of the people. They make various policy suggestions to improve the situations in which human rights are violated and strive to be reborn on the basis of human rights. However, the violation of human rights by police officers intermittently occurs during the process of law enforcement due to the special police organizational culture and the increase of policing service. Ultimately, police officers own consciousness of human rights is very important in eliminating the violation of human rights actually during the process of policing. To do this, it is crucial to maintain or improve individual police officers consciousness of human rights that may serve as a shield against violation of human rights during the process of policing. The purpose of this study was to determine how police officers job satisfaction affected their consciousness of human rights and to make policy suggestions necessary to improve security service of the police and solve the problem of human rights violation.

“Taking laughter seriously”: the politics of memory in regulating jokes on Korea’s colonial/dictatorial past

With increasing controversy over vicious jokes on traumatic events in contemporary Korean history, it appears that the main interest of human rights in Korea is currently shifting from “freedom of expression” to “the right to ask not to express.” As voices asserting the need for regulatory intervention have become prominent, bills for punishing the denial and distortion of history were proposed, including one on punishing the deniers of dictatorial past in 2013 and two on punishing the distortion of colonial past in 2014. This paper traces the legal discourse surrounding the issuance and review of these three bills. I will begin by analyzing how the main features of the bills collide with fundamental principles within criminal law, and how this collision reflects legislative orientation towards protecting social memories under the umbrella of soziale Rechtsguter. After illuminating the ways in which juridification—based on the normative strategy of repetitively referring to the case of Holocaust deniers in Europe—operates as a regulatory norm within society regardless of the legal status of a particular proposal, I will examine how such “remembrance through regulation” may (mis)operate, resulting in what Gunther Teubner had termed “regulatory trilemma” in East Asian public sphere.

Property rights and economic development: the legacy of Japanese colonial institutions

AbstractSeveral studies link development to institutions transplanted by European colonizers and here we extend this line of research to Asia. Japan imposed its system of well-defined property rights on some of its Asian colonies. In 1939, Japan began to register private land in its island colonies, an effort that was completed in Palau but interrupted elsewhere by World War II. Within Micronesia, robust economic development followed only in Palau where individual property rights were well defined. We show that well-defined property rights in Korea and Taiwan secured land taxation and enabled farmers to obtain bank loans for irrigation systems. Considering Japanese colonies, we use the presence or absence of a land survey as an instrument to identify the causal impact of new institutions. Our estimates show that property-defining institutions were important for economic development, results that are confirmed when using a similar approach with British Colonies in Asia.

Survey of Intellectual Property Rights in the Ergonomics Field in Korea

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the trend of ergonomics field in overall intellectual property rights in Korea, and suggest the direction for the future development. Background: Many ergonomists are trying to pursue optimal human well-being and safety, and create more convenient designs for human use. For these reasons, intellectual property rights may be used to protect the legitimate rights of originative and innovative ergonomic designs. Method: Intellectual property rights were reviewed by using Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS), and then were classified and analyzed according to three intellectual property rights (patent, utility model, design), International Patent Classification (IPC) and ergonomics application areas. Results: The total number of intellectual property rights registered in the ergonomics field in terms of three intellectual property rights (patent, utility model, design) showed 48,814 which occupied 5.97% of the total registered Koreas intellectual property rights. Within three intellectual property rights, patent (87%) was recorded overwhelmingly higher than utility model (9%) and design (4%). Conclusion: The current trend of patent, utility model and design in the ergonomics field in Korea tend to increase over time. It is suggested based on the analysis in this study that continuing research and development should be focused on electricity section in accordance with the global trend. Application: The results of this study can direct the ergonomists to the areas of intellectual property rights in the ergonomics field that should focus on the research and development in terms of three intellectual property rights, IPC and ergonomics application areas.

International Human Rights Norms and Migrants' Rights in Korea

International Human Rights Norms and Migrants' Rights in Korea

“Cooperative Imperialism” in Colonial Korea: The Role of Japan and the Western Powers in Abolishing Foreign Settlements

While the international community recognized Japan as a dominant foreign power in Korea following Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War, it was not an easy task, in terms of international law, for Japan to annex Korea, which was already a member of the international community bound by international treaties. Japan was eventually able to annex Korea because it coordinated and negotiated with the foreign powers invested in Korea. Considering its sovereign rights over Korea, however, the Japanese government could not continue indefinitely to recognize the foreign claims to administrative rights in Korea. After a consultation between the Government-General of Korea and the Japanese government in Tokyo, a plan for the liquidation of foreign settlements was created. The Japanese government obtained approval for settlement abolition by accepting demands to safeguard Western economic interests to the extent that they would not violate the principles of national sovereignty. The Government-General of Korea eliminated the final obstacle to implementing provincial administrative reform through the “Protocol on the Abolition of Foreign Settlements in Korea” on April 1, 1914. By recognizing Western privileges in Korea, Japan was able to maintain its cooperative relationship with the Western powers. As can be seen, the Western powers played a role in stabilizing Japanese colonial rule over Korea. The Western powers tolerated Korean suffering under Japanese colonial rule as long as their privileges were safeguarded. By recognizing Japanese hegemony over Korea, the Western powers maintained a system of “cooperative imperialism” in Korea.

Investigating the cases of violating linguistic human rights in Korea.

Investigating the cases of violating linguistic human rights in Korea.

Two Concepts of Human Rights in Contemporary Korea

The paper looks at the emergence of two distinct concepts of human rights in contemporary Korea. The first, more time-tested concept draws upon the historical experience of pro-democracy movements dating back to the 1970s. The second concept is seen to be a relatively new phenomenon which started as a less conspicuous counterdiscourse of human rights of the past but has gained some prominence in recent years. The divergence of the human rights concept along the two different narratives has had ramifications far beyond the confines of domestic human rights promotion. It is argued that the contrasting concepts have evolved and taken shape over the years following the 1987 democratization. Several broad trends and events in the post-democratization period have helped the competing concepts to develop their distinctive contours and to bring their respective policy options into sharper focus. The contributing trends are four-fold: first, the institutionalization of human rights; second, changes in perceived relationship between human rights and democracy, and the proliferation of rights discourse; third, the predominance and penetration of a neoliberal economic doctrine in many spheres of the society; and fourth, the internationalization of the North Korean human rights issue. The corollary of this trend is the bifurcation between the two seemingly irreconcilable concepts of human rights, i.e. the maximalist, civil society-oriented concept versus the minimalist, less liberal internationalist human rights concept. Each of the two has its own share of strengths and weaknesses. The future of human rights in Korea is likely to depend upon the interplay between, and the possible reconfiguration of, these two concepts.

Legal Enforcement of Social Rights in Korea

Legal Enforcement of Social Rights in Korea

The Gay Rights Movement in Democratizing Korea

The transition to democracy and the experience of globalization have transformed the ways Korea as a nation defines its national identity. Rising public attention and acceptance of human rights issues have resulted in discernable political changes in the areas of human rights, but sexual minorities are still left outside such positive developments. Building on the existing scholarly literature on gay rights in Korea, this article examines the problems of sexual minorities and their fight against them in the military, mass media, the educational system, and the courts. It also highlights the key points of contention and obstacles to underpinning the current state of sexual minorities and discusses the likely future trajectory of the gay rights movement in Korean society.

Human Rights vs Economic Growth in the Korean Context

Cultural heritage and desire for a rapid economic growth have played a pivotal role in forming people's perception of human rights in Korea. Respect for human beings, inherent in traditional values and reinforced later by Western values, has been confronted with the thirst for growth. The thirst for growth, interacted with the need for national security, placed constraints on human rights until 1987, the year of people's resistance. In an era of globalization, Koreans are challenged now to enrich their perception of the human rights, extending the communitarian perspective beyond the narrow boundaries of kinship, regionalism, school ties to embrace the global village on the basis of integrating traditional values and the Western values. A successful integration of these values beyond East and West is the key to building a social order based on solidarity. Such a challenge calls for a solid and systematic education on human rights at each level of education.