Police Oppose Ministry of Justice Enforcement Decree... "Conflicts with Prosecutor's Office Act and Is Invalid"
[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] It was confirmed on the 24th that the police officially expressed opposition to the Ministry of Justice's amendment to the enforcement decree, which expands the scope of direct investigations by the prosecution. In a recent opinion submitted to the Ministry of Justice, the National Police Agency stated, "Reclassifying crimes explicitly deleted by law and including them in the scope of investigation conflicts with higher laws and is therefore invalid." This pointed out the illegality of the Ministry of Justice's amendment to the "Regulations on the Scope of Crimes for Prosecutors' Investigation Initiation (Presidential Decree)" announced for legislative notice on the 12th.
The amendment mainly expands the scope of corruption and economic crimes that prosecutors can directly investigate after the implementation of the "Prosecution Reform Act." Crimes that disrupt judicial order and crimes for which individual laws require prosecutors to receive complaints or investigation requests are also designated as "important crimes," allowing the prosecution to directly investigate them. This has been criticized as a "trick" circumventing the Prosecution Reform Act, which limits the prosecution's direct investigation scope to corruption and economic crimes. The National Police Agency also criticized the Ministry of Justice's enforcement decree amendment, stating that it does not align with the purpose of the amended Prosecutors' Office Act, which was revised to reduce the prosecution's scope of investigation initiation. Including most crimes abolished by law in the investigation target through a subordinate enforcement decree exceeds the delegation scope of the law and is unconstitutional and illegal.
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Furthermore, the National Police Agency argued that the phrase "etc." in the amended Prosecutors' Office Act, which defines the prosecution's direct investigation scope as "important crimes such as corruption and economic crimes prescribed by presidential decree," should be interpreted literally as limited to the previously enumerated corruption and economic crimes. Previously, the Ministry of Justice interpreted the phrase "etc." to mean that "important crimes" specifically defined by the government beyond corruption and economic crimes are included in the scope of investigation initiation. The National Police Agency pointed out, "'Etc.' should be interpreted as an enumerative provision according to the latter of its dictionary meanings," and added, "Even if interpreted as an illustrative provision according to the Ministry of Justice's claim, the presidential decree can only prescribe crimes of the 'same kind' according to the dictionary meaning."
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