Supreme Court to Apply "Dedicated Panels for Insurrection and Treason Cases" Starting from Appeals Trials

Ruling Party to Establish "Dedicated Panel for Insurrection Cases" This Month
Judiciary Proposes Its Own Countermeasures
Regulations Enacted for Trial Procedures on "Nationally Significant Cases"
Random Assignment of Cases

The Supreme Court has decided to establish dedicated panels for "nationally significant cases." With the ruling party announcing its intention to pass legislation for a "dedicated panel for insurrection cases" within this month, the judiciary appears to have taken preemptive action by announcing its own plan to set up such panels.

The Court Administration Office, under the Supreme Court, announced on December 18 that it had decided during the Supreme Court Justices' administrative meeting to enact regulations for the "establishment of dedicated panels and trial procedures for nationally significant cases."

The administration office defined "nationally significant cases" as those involving insurrection or treason, as well as rebellion under the Military Criminal Act, that have a major political, economic, or social impact, attract significant public attention, and require expedited trial proceedings.

According to the supplementary provisions, the scope of application covers cases indicted after the enforcement of the new regulations. For appeals, it also includes cases where an appeal has been filed. Given this, it is expected that ongoing insurrection or treason-related cases will be subject to these rules starting from the appeals trials at the Seoul High Court. Chief judges at each level of court may establish dedicated panels to exclusively and intensively handle such cases, and these trials must be conducted promptly, taking precedence over other cases.

Case assignment will be done randomly to ensure fairness, but the panel that receives the case will then be designated as the dedicated panel. These new regulations will take precedence over the existing "Regulations on the Distribution of Judicial Work and Case Assignment" and the "Regulations on the Selection and Assignment of Important Cases Requiring Timely Processing."

As a rule, all cases handled by the dedicated panel will be reassigned, but exceptions may be made considering the urgency and workload of ongoing cases. In addition, the assignment of related cases will be conducted through consultation among the relevant panels, and, except for related cases, no new cases will be assigned to the dedicated panel unless there are special circumstances.

For appeals of insurrection-related cases at the Seoul High Court, the number of dedicated panels will be determined through a full judges' meeting and an administrative division committee. All panels will then be assigned cases randomly, and the panels receiving these cases will be designated as dedicated panels. Existing cases will be reassigned, and new assignments will be suspended. Previously, in September, the Seoul High Court also announced a plan to operate "concentrated trial panels" with similar content.

The administration office explained that the Seoul High Court recently requested the office to clarify the standards through judicial regulations, and that the office incorporated this request into its previously considered plans to prepare the new regulations.