Kwangju Incident and Role of the Judiciary in South Korea

Objective – The Constitutional Court of South Korea (‘the Court') is the guardian of the constitution and has jurisdiction to decide cases concerning potential violations of the constitution. In the Kwangju incident, innocent citizens were murdered and injured while they were protesting against the military government. Their demand was to be provided the basic rights which are granted by the constitution of South Korea, as well as seeking democracy in the country. This paper analyses the judgment of the Court and observations of the judges. Further, it discusses the effects of the judgment on legislation, as well as analysing the situation involved in deciding the case in which unconstitutional actions of the military government were declared inhumane. Methodology/Technique – The research reviews articles in related area. Findings – Through this judgement, the Court played a major role in strengthening the constitution and democracy, through the way in which it reached a conclusion in the Kwangju incident case. The Court suggested the legislator should introduce new legislation to remove the latches of the case. Novelty – The study intends to learn the effects of the judgement on South Korean legislation. Type of Paper: Review.