Hankyung Research Institute "Increase in Low-Quality Bills... Legislative Impact Analysis System Needed"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] As the number of bills proposed by lawmakers steadily increases, there are calls to introduce a legislative impact analysis system to reduce low-quality bills such as excessive, hasty, poor-quality, and indiscriminate bills.

According to the report "Analysis of Cases of Excessive and Hasty Legislation and Implications," commissioned by the Korea Economic Research Institute to Professor Hong Wan-sik of Konkuk University Law School and released on the 28th, the number of bills proposed by members of the National Assembly has steadily increased since the 17th National Assembly, reaching 15,106 in the 21st National Assembly. The increase in bills proposed by lawmakers is due to civic groups analyzing and disclosing lawmakers' bill proposal and processing performance, which has led to more active legislative activities by lawmakers.

However, as an excessive number of bills are proposed, there are also many cases where bills are deliberated and approved inadequately. Professor Hong expressed concern that bills with similar content or poor and hasty bills are being proposed, and especially when regulatory bills are proposed without analysis or review of the economic effects of regulation, unnecessary social costs such as sunk costs may occur.

He also added, "Compared to the passage rate based on alternative bill approval criteria, the passage rate based on original or amended bill approval criteria is very low," and "Since alternative bills often incorporate similar bills previously proposed, considering these as passed leads to an unnecessary increase in bills proposed by lawmakers, which is undesirable."

The report cited cases of excessive, hasty, and poor legislation such as ▲ layoffs and confusion caused by shortening the duty-free shop license period, ▲ the unconstitutionality of the Yoon Chang-ho Act, and ▲ the introduction and abolition of the game shutdown system.

Professor Hong emphasized, "There is a need to introduce a legislative impact analysis system as an institutional supplement to improve the quality of bills without restricting the legislative power of the National Assembly," and explained, "Legislative impact analysis is about reviewing before the enforcement of laws whether a bill is properly made, whether enforceability and practical suitability have been considered, what financial effects it will cause, and whether it imposes excessive burdens or regulations on subjects. It is not a system that infringes on legislative power."

From the perspective of institutional design for the National Assembly's autonomous regulation, Professor Hong proposed, "It would be appropriate to design the system so that the entity preparing the legislative impact assessment report is, in principle, the lawmaker proposing the bill, and legislative support organizations affiliated with the National Assembly, such as the National Assembly Research Service and the National Assembly Budget Office, support the preparation of the legislative impact assessment report."

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