Judicial Administrative Advisory Body: "Luxury Cars for High Court Division Chiefs Should Be Uniformly Abolished Next Year"

Chief Justice Kim Myung-soo is presiding over the 6th Judicial Administration Advisory Meeting held on the 14th at the Supreme Court conference room in Seocho-dong.
[Photo by Supreme Court]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Supreme Court Judicial Administration Advisory Council has concluded to abolish some of the official vehicles assigned to high court chief judges starting from the regular personnel reshuffle in February next year.

According to the Supreme Court on the 15th, the Judicial Administration Advisory Council, chaired by Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su, held its 6th meeting yesterday at the Supreme Court conference room in Seocho-dong to discuss measures to improve the criteria for assigning official vehicles.

The Judicial Administration Advisory Council is a body in which external experts participate in decision-making related to judicial administration.

At the 5th meeting, the advisory council reached a consensus that the criteria should be changed so that high court chief judges who are only responsible for trial duties are not assigned exclusive vehicles.

This is in response to ongoing criticism that the assignment of exclusive vehicles to high court chief judges is a special privilege and a waste of budget, following the government's push to abolish official vehicles for prosecutors general as part of prosecutorial reform.

The advisory council agreed with the opinion that "the revised criteria for assigning official vehicles should be uniformly applied and implemented during the regular personnel reshuffle of judges in February 2021."

As of March 1, a total of 136 official vehicles were assigned to high court chief judges. Among these, 85 vehicles were provided to judges who are only responsible for trial duties.

However, since this matter requires an amendment to the Supreme Court regulations, the change in official vehicle criteria can only be finalized after a meeting of the Supreme Court justices.

The advisory council also discussed the agenda of expanding the disclosure of rulings.

Currently, final rulings of the Supreme Court are disclosed via the internet except for some rulings decided to be non-disclosed, but non-final rulings are only disclosed in a limited manner such as viewing at the court library within the Supreme Court building.

The advisory council decided to "refer the agenda regarding whether to disclose non-final rulings, the timing of disclosure, methods of disclosure, and supplementary measures to the relevant subcommittee for research and review."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.