투명사회를 위한 정보공개센터

Translated by SOORIN KIM(voluntarily activist)

In 2009, the Center for Freedom of
Information and Transparent Society (CFOI) filed a constitutional appeal to the
Constitutional Court of Korea. After that, seasons wheeled around and 3 years
have passed but the Constitutional Court is still keeping its silence.

Why did CFOI file a constitutional appeal?
In 2009, we filed a FOIA request to the National Archives of Korea for the lists
of documents newly being disclosed. Few days later the Archives replied to our
request and said that they would release the lists, but with a charge of 5.4
million won. The 270 hard copies is indeed quite a lot, but in electronic
forms, they only consist of 97 files. Does it really cost 5.4 million won just
to organize the data into digital files and e-mail them? We came to think that the
clause of the Official Information Disclosure Act ruling the process of
charging fee on the copies significantly threats people’s right to know. So we filed
a constitutional appeal to the Constitutional Court to make a judgment on
whether the immoderate charge of fee might violate the Constitution of Korea.
But the Court   hasn’t made any decision
for more than 3 years.                  

So, CFOI filed a FOIA request to the Constitutional Court for the information regarding the current condition of processing the constitutional appeals from 2005 to the 1^st of June 2011. According to the released records of the Court, the number of constitutional appeals registered for the six years and five months is 8,442. Among these, those still on trial are 646 cases.

Taking a deeper look as this, we can see some problems here. According to the Provision 38 of the Constitutional Court Law, the Constitutional Court must announce final decision within 180 days since the case is registered. This means that 400 cases are still pending even though the processing due date has expired.

The oldest case sitting on the bench is the constitutional appeal on <the pact regarding the solution of problems with property and claim between ROK and Japan and the economic cooperation between the two nations>. It’s been under trial since the July of 2006 but is still not solved. The Constitutional Court has been neglecting the case for six years, which should have been handled within six months.

  Skimming through the pending cases, we can
find many appeals on the laws enacted for protecting minorities or supporting the
foundation of the nation, such as minimum wage law, election law, the military
service law and private school law. This means that those laws may have some
defects or contents colliding with constitutional right. But the Constitutional
Court hasn’t taken quick action. If even the Constitutional Court is like this,
what are we supposed to do to protect our rights?

original Korean version of this post and attached files