The Constitutional Court is expected to announce its first preliminary review results on judicial appeal cases filed to date as early as this week. As the importance of preliminary reviews continues to be emphasized as a mechanism to reduce the workload burden from surging judicial appeals, efforts to establish a coordination system between the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court are also expected to accelerate.
According to legal circles on the 22nd, the designated panel consisting of three Constitutional Court justices will hold a deliberation early this week to decide whether to refer judicial appeal cases to full merits review or dismiss them. A Constitutional Court official said, "A decision is expected to come early this week."
When a case is filed, the Constitutional Court's designated panel determines whether legal requirements are met, and if the petition is improper, it is dismissed without merits review. Under the Constitutional Court Act, if no dismissal decision is made within 30 days of filing, the case is deemed referred to adjudication. Grounds for dismissal include cases where all other remedy procedures have not been exhausted, where the 30-day filing period from the final judgment date has been exceeded, or where it is clear the case does not qualify for petition.
From the implementation of the judicial appeal system on the 12th through the 19th, a total of 118 judicial appeal petitions were filed. The first case involves Syrian national Mohammed, who resided in Korea for approximately 11 years fleeing civil war before being forcibly deported. However, as roughly two months passed from the date of the final Supreme Court ruling against him to the case filing, there is a possibility it will be dismissed in preliminary review.
The second filed case, involving bereaved families of fishermen abducted to North Korea who later returned, seeking reversal of the dismissal of their state compensation claim for delayed criminal compensation, may also be evaluated as not having exhausted all other remedy procedures since the plaintiffs abandoned their appeal to the Supreme Court after losing in both first and second instance courts. Additionally, Jang Young-ha, chairman of the People Power Party's Seongnam Sujeong-gu district chapter whose conviction for spreading false information about President Lee Jae-myung was finalized, and YouTuber Gujedaeyeok, whose prison sentence was finalized for extorting tens of millions of won from YouTuber Tzuyang, have also filed judicial appeals.
Inside and outside the Constitutional Court, the importance of preliminary review is being discussed to prevent case overload from the introduction of judicial appeals. At a briefing before the system's introduction, it was projected that 10,000 to 15,000 cases would be filed annually. Legal circles expect that the criteria and ratio of cases filtered out in preliminary review will affect the system's success or failure.
Attorney Kim Jin-han, a former Constitutional Court researcher, emphasized at an internal presentation on the judicial appeal and preliminary review system on the 20th, "If we take the wrong path now, it could drive the Constitutional Court off a cliff," stressing the need for a thorough preliminary review system design. Consultations between the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court regarding practical procedures for judicial appeals are also expected to begin in earnest soon.