The Constitutional Court Struggles with the 'Trial Bottleneck'

Published 19 Jun.2024 16:48(KST)

27,535 Cases Received Over 10 Years
Average Processing Time Exceeds 2 Years

Similar to the courts, which have prioritized resolving trial delays as their top task, the Constitutional Court is also experiencing a serious level of trial delays.

According to reporting by Law Times, the average time taken from case receipt to resolution over the past two years has exceeded two years.

[Image source=Beomryul Newspaper]

The duration for case processing has also been steadily increasing. Excluding dismissal cases by designated panels, the time taken to process cases was △1 year and 4 months (480.4 days) in 2019, △1 year and 7 months (589.4 days) in 2020, △1 year and 8 months (611.7 days) in 2021, steadily rising to △2 years (732.6 days) in 2022 and △2 years (732.5 days) as of August 2023, showing an increase of over six months within four years.

In cases where the court dismissed a request for a constitutional review under Article 68, Paragraph 2 of the Constitutional Court Act, and the party filed a constitutional complaint with the Constitutional Court, the processing time was even longer. It took 1 year and 8 months (606.2 days) in 2019, 1 year and 11 months (700.1 days) in 2020, 2 years and 1 month (769.9 days) in 2021, and 2 years and 6 months (924.1 days) in 2022.

The proportion of cases exceeding two years in processing time has also increased. It steadily rose from △3.9% (99 cases) in 2019 to △6.2% (190 cases) in 2020, △7.4% (193 cases) in 2021, △8% (214 cases) in 2022, and △13.2% (251 cases) as of August 2023. According to the Constitutional Court Act, the Constitutional Court must deliver a final decision within 180 days from the date of case receipt, but this provision has effectively become meaningless.

The background to these constitutional trial delays includes an increase in the number of cases received and the complexity of the cases.

The number of cases received annually by the Constitutional Court over the past 10 years (as of year-end) were △1,480 in 2013, △1,969 in 2014, △1,859 in 2015, △1,951 in 2016, △2,626 in 2017, △2,427 in 2018, △2,730 in 2019, △3,241 in 2020, △2,827 in 2021, △2,829 in 2022, and △2,591 in 2023. As of May 31 this year, 1,005 cases had been received. Since 2013, a total of 27,535 cases have been filed with the Constitutional Court.

When the Constitutional Court opened in 1988, only 39 cases were filed in total, but about ten years later, in 2001, 1,060 cases were received. Since 2001, over 1,000 cases have been consistently filed each year, and since 2017, the number has far exceeded 2,000 annually.

The types of cases filed with the Constitutional Court have also become very diverse. In 1988, there were only 13 constitutional review cases, 25 constitutional complaints under Article 68, Paragraph 1 of the Constitutional Court Act, and 1 under Paragraph 2. However, over the past 30 years, 133 jurisdictional dispute cases have been filed, and there have been 7 impeachment cases. Among these, there were 2 presidential impeachments, 1 minister impeachment, 1 judge impeachment, and 3 prosecutor impeachments.

A senior partner at a major law firm, formerly a chief judge, said, “Not only has the number of cases brought to the Constitutional Court surged, but with the increase in impeachment trials, political party dissolution trials, and jurisdictional dispute trials?which did not exist in the early days of its establishment?the cases have become more complex and diversified in terms of quality. It is clear that there has been a rapid increase in both the quantity and quality of cases.”