Moon Hyungbae on Yoon's Dismissal: "Contradictory to Propose More Supreme Court Justices and a Four-Tier System... Judicial Reform Requires Caution"

by Park Jisoo

Published 11 Sep.2025 08:21(KST)

Updated 12 Sep.2025 07:28(KST)

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Judicial Reform Requires Caution
No Position on Prosecution Reform

Moon Hyungbae Former Acting Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court

Moon Hyungbae, former Acting Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, stated that it is contradictory to propose increasing the number of Supreme Court justices for faster trials while also advocating for a four-tier court system.

On September 10, Moon delivered a special lecture titled "The Path of Legal Professionals: Constitutional Petitions and Democracy" at the Seong Ignatius Hall auditorium of Sogang University in Mapo-gu, Seoul. During the lecture, he shared his thoughts on the ruling party's judicial reform proposals, including increasing the number of Supreme Court justices and introducing constitutional petitions.

Regarding judicial reform, he said, "I agree on the necessity, but reforms that do not respect the authority granted to the judiciary by the Constitution should be approached with caution." He emphasized that the goal of judicial reform should be to ensure the right to a prompt and fair trial, and that increasing the number of Supreme Court justices is a means to that end, not the end itself.

Moon pointed out, "Even in Germany, where constitutional petitions are actively used, the acceptance rate is only 1 to 2 percent. It is also important to discuss the fact that the Korean Supreme Court goes beyond legal review and addresses factual findings." He further explained, "We must first decide whether to view the final appellate system as an extension of factual review or to maintain it strictly as a legal review. After that, we should analyze the reasons for frequent appeals and then discuss solutions to address them."