The following is a guest post by Sayuri Umeda, a foreign law specialist who covers Japan and other countries in East and Southeast Asia. Sayuri has previously authored numerous posts for In Custodia Legis, including Tradition vs Efficiency: ‘Hanko’ Affects Workplace Efficiency and Telework in Japan; Food Delivery in Japan – History and Current Regulation; New Era, New Law Number; Holy Cow – Making Sense of Japanese Wagyu Cow Export Rules; Japanese Criminal Legal System as Seen Through the Carlos Ghosn Case; Disciplining Judges for “Bad Tweets”; The History of the Elimination of Leaded Gasoline, and many more.
Our report, South Korea: Public Prosecution Reform, is available on law.gov. In South Korea, prosecutors had strong power, often engaging in criminal investigations while also controlling and directing the police. After a series of corruption cases involving prosecutors in 2016, the public demanded public prosecution reform. The reform was started under the administration of the previous president, Moon Jae-in. The Act on the Establishment and Operation of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials was enacted in 2020. There have been many amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and the Prosecutor’s Office Act as well. Prosecutors lost command over police officers in many cases, and the police gained more investigative authority. This new report focuses on the change in prosecutors’ roles and authority during criminal investigations.
This report is an addition to the Law Library’s Legal Reports (Publications of the Law Library of Congress) collection, which includes over 4,000 historical and contemporary legal reports covering a variety of jurisdictions, researched and written by foreign law specialists with expertise in each area.
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Note (8/8/2023): Post updated to correct number of available legal reports.