Bail to be Possible Even Without Money

The judiciary reform committee under the Supreme Court (led by Chairman Cho Jun-hee) said on Monday it would decide on a plan to promote “judiciary unification” and make a recommendation to Chief Justice Choi Jong-young. It is the first time the committee has made a fixed proposal among the key agenda the committee is discussing since its establishment at the end of last October.

On Sunday the committee held its regular meeting at the Supreme Court and reached an agreement to select 50 percent of newly appointed judges among prosecutors or lawyers, or administrative civil servants and professors who have lawyers’ certificates.

The committee is accordingly expected to draw up a recommendation proposal by July 5 when the next meeting will be held.

The committee is pushing forward a plan to increase single-judge courts because the introduction of the judiciary unification will lead to an increase in experienced judges in large numbers.

The committee also reached an agreement that it should prepare a system that can make it possible for the accused and suspects to be freed through diverse ways, including fidelity and attendance guarantees of the person in question, or committal to social institutions in addition to giving bail, and decided to introduce this issue in the general committee to discuss it.

“If an improvement plan for arrest procedures is decided on, I expect the abuses of so-called ‘no money, yes guilt’ which have long been pointed out as problems of the bail system, could be solved more or less,” said the Supreme Court official.

The committee will conduct a mock trial in two forms of the jury system and the civil participation system to review whether to introduce people’s participatory system in judiciary on August 26.

The method to pick out judges among those who had been prosecutors or lawyers for a given period means that the three wheels of judge, prosecutor and lawyer can freely come and go, but the judiciary unification the committee is discussing is limited to the apponitment of judges.

jin0619@donga.com