More than 40 cases have been filed with the Constitutional Court in the four days since the implementation of the "court appeal" system, which allows constitutional complaints against court rulings.
According to the Constitutional Court on the 16th, three and four court appeal cases were filed on the 14th and the previous day, respectively. The cumulative number of cases filed through the previous day totaled 44. Of these, 31 were filed electronically, five in person, and eight by mail.
Court appeal cases, being filed at a rate of about 10 per day, are effectively functioning as a fourth-tier trial system, as had been feared before the law took effect. Many cases clearly show intent to seek the Constitutional Court's judgment because petitioners cannot accept the Supreme Court's final ruling, rather than citing infringement of constitutional basic rights.
Three individuals, including person A, who were indicted on separate charges during the investigation into "former Ulsan Mayor Song Cheol-ho's illegal political fund receipt" and whose guilty verdicts were finalized, have filed court appeals with the Constitutional Court. Their argument: "The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and violated basic rights by writing the same grounds in the judgment for all three."
Additionally, Jang Young-ha, chairman of the People Power Party's Seongnam Sujeong-gu district chapter, whose sentence of one year in prison with two years' probation was finalized on the 12th, and former Democratic Party lawmaker Yang Moon-seok, who recently lost his parliamentary seat after the Supreme Court finalized a suspended prison sentence for charges including 1.1 billion won in illegal loans, have also indicated they may file court appeals. The legal team for YouTuber Guजेyeok (real name Lee Jun-hui), whose three-year prison sentence was finalized for blackmailing YouTuber Tzuyang (real name Park Jung-won) and extorting tens of millions of won, has also mentioned filing a court appeal.
Concerns are rising that the surge in court appeal cases may excessively delay dispute resolution. Some also worry that the processing overload could disrupt the Constitutional Court's primary function of reviewing unconstitutional laws. The Constitutional Court projects that the introduction of court appeals will add 10,000 to 15,000 cases annually.
