Constitutional Petition Against Administrative Capital Relocation to be Filed Next Month

All the members of the Seoul Metropolitan Council (SMC) are expected to become plaintiffs in the constitutional petition against the relocation of administrative capital.

A person from the counsel team for the constitutional petition against capital transfer announced this on June 13 and said that they agreed on this at the meeting with the officials of the SMC held on June 4.

--The process of filing the petition

“We will file a formal petition with the Constitutional Court on July 10 or 11,” said a former researcher for the Constitutional Court Lee Seok-yon, one of the members of the counsel team. A constitutional petition against the capital relocation can be submitted by July 16, 90 days after a special law was carried into effect.

Beforehand, Lee Seok-yon, a former Constitutional Court justice, Lee Young-mo, and a former Supreme Court judge, Chung Gui-ho, had a meeting with officials of the SMC, including Seoul City Mayor Lee Myung-bak, on June 4.

At this meeting, the counsel team and SMC agreed on the full participation of the 102 SMC members in the petition as plaintiffs because of infringement on their natural rights.

In addition, Lee said that many people have volunteered to participate in the petition as plaintiffs after Dong-A Ilbo covered the constitutional petition on June 1. “Tens of people conveyed that they had a mind to participate in the petition by phone calls or fax. We will announce the recruitment of the plaintiff team members sometime this week as the eligibility of the plaintiff plays an important role in the success of a constitutional petition,” said Lee.

The counsel team revealed that there are also many lawyers who have a mind to participate in the petition without pay. However, former constitutional court justice Lee said, “We will manage our counsel team with the fewest members for efficiency.” This means that he will actually take part in the petition, not just put his name on the list of counsel team members, he explained.

--Whether to request a trial over authority dispute

The Seoul City Mayor’s request for a trial on an authority dispute against the president is also under consideration.

A trial on an authority dispute is a process to decide who has what authority, and clarify the limit of the authority when a dispute over authority breaks out between state bodies or between a state body and a local self-governing body.

A professor of Myongji University, Heoh Young, said that the capital relocation issue should be settled by a trial over an authority dispute on the grounds that it is difficult to be qualified as the plaintiff in a constitutional petition. “The administrative special law of Seoul City provides that Seoul has a special position as the capital. Therefore, the Seoul City Mayor should request the Constitutional Court of a trial on an authority dispute concerned with the position of Seoul City against the president to block the capital relocation,” he said.

A person from the counsel team said, “We are considering the request for a trial on authority disputes as well, but it is a problem with an expiration date of July 16, meaning we have little time.”

Soo-Hyung Lee sooh@donga.com