The Constitutional Court of Korea will expand its constitutional research staff by 20 positions to handle increased workload from the introduction of court ruling petitions. The court also reorganized and expanded its adjudication affairs structure.
The court promulgated the "Partial Amendment to the Rules on the Constitutional Court Administrative Organization" in the official gazette on the 21st, containing these measures.
The amended rules increase the number of constitutional researchers from 73 to 93, an addition of 20 positions. The headcount for general public officials will also grow by 16. As a result, the total headcount of public officials in the administrative organization, including the research department and secretariat staff, will increase from 355 to 391, a total increase of 36 positions.
Within the total headcount, the number of fixed-term public officials will also rise from 64 to 66, an increase of two. Both of the additional fixed-term positions are at Grade 5, raising that category from 18 to 20.
The Adjudication Affairs Division under the Adjudication Support Office has been expanded from one unit into two: Adjudication Affairs Divisions 1 and 2. The division handles tasks such as assisting with case assignments and preparing and maintaining documents for adjudication cases. The court also newly established a secretary position for the Secretary General, extending the existing secretariat system — previously centered on the court president and justices — to the administrative sector.
The amended rules take effect on the first of next month.
The court also posted a recruitment plan for constitutional researchers (associate) on its website the previous day. The recruitment targets "legal career professionals," including those qualified as judges, prosecutors, or attorneys. The court will accept applications until the 11th of next month and, following the hiring process, plans to appoint constitutional researchers (associate) on August 1.
Since the court ruling petition system took effect on the 12th of last month, 395 court ruling petition cases were filed during the one-month period through the 11th of this month. This accounted for 60.31% of all 655 constitutional petition cases filed during the same period.
