Shortlisted to 3 New Supreme Court Justice Candidates: Bae Gi-yeol, Cheon Dae-yeop, and Lee Heung-gu

All Three Judges Are Seoul National University Graduates

Bae Gi-yeol, Chief Judge of Seoul Administrative Court, Cheon Dae-yeop, Presiding Judge of Seoul High Court, and Lee Heung-gu, Presiding Judge of Busan High Court, recommended as candidates to succeed Supreme Court Justice Kwon Soon-il

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The Supreme Court Justice Nomination Committee has recommended three candidates as successors to Justice Kwon Soon-il (61, Judicial Research and Training Institute Class 14), who will retire this September: Bae Gi-yeol, Chief Judge of the Seoul Administrative Court (55, Class 17); Cheon Dae-yeop, Presiding Judge of the Seoul High Court (56, Class 21); and Lee Heung-gu, Presiding Judge of the Busan High Court (57, Class 22).

On the 23rd, the Nomination Committee held a plenary meeting at the Supreme Court building in Seocho-gu, Seoul, and after screening 30 candidates recommended from inside and outside the judiciary, selected these three as candidates. All three candidates are currently serving judges in their mid-to-late 50s and are graduates of Seoul National University.

Chairman Park Kyung-seo stated, "We evaluated not only the professional legal knowledge and commitment to protecting citizens' fundamental rights required of a Supreme Court justice but also various factors such as morality and integrity. We recommended candidates who are judged to possess insight to understand the changes of the times and the perspective to embrace social diversity."

Chief Judge Bae, from Daegu, Gyeongbuk, is an expert in intellectual property rights, having served for several years as a judge in the Intellectual Property Division of the Patent Court and Seoul High Court, and as chairman of the Intellectual Property Law Research Association under the Supreme Court. After serving as the senior presiding judge of the Seoul High Court, he assumed the position of Chief Judge of the Seoul Administrative Court in February this year.

Presiding Judge Cheon, from Busan, has followed an elite career path including serving as a Supreme Court judicial research officer and a member of the Sentencing Commission. He was selected as one of four candidates to succeed Justice Cho Hee-dae, who retired on March 4 this year, and has again made the final candidate list this time.

Presiding Judge Lee is a close friend and classmate of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, both having entered Seoul National University Law School in 1982. He is a member of the Uri-beop Research Association, a progressive judges' group within the judiciary.

The Nomination Committee submitted the list of three candidates and their recommendations to Chief Justice Kim Myung-soo. Chief Justice Kim plans to recommend one of them for appointment to President Moon Jae-in.

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