Repairing trust in the judiciary is crucial

Lee Gyun-ryong, a senior judge at Seoul High Court, has been nominated to succeed Kim Myeong-su whose five-year term as the chief justice of the Supreme Court ends on Sept. 22. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s nomination was based on the “will and capabilities to normalize the judiciary,” according to his spokesman. The court has been under fire for mingling with politics.

Under Chief Justice Kim, the judiciary has lost public confidence for personal and political bias. He seated judges of the groups he had chaired in key posts. Seven, or over half of the justices, come from the liberal-minded judges’ clubs. Kim demoted judges who disagree with the ideology or interests of the liberal president who had appointed him.

Kim’s lies to cover up for his allegiance to the ruling power impaired the dignity of the judiciary. He had lied about rejecting a resignation from Busan High Court judge Lim Seong-geun while the governing party was pressing to railroad the first impeachment of a sitting judge in May 2020. Kim is under prosecutorial questioning over the lies.

Trials of figures related to the past administration have been drawn out. Presidential aides were accused of meddling to get their president Moon Jae-in’s friend elected as the Ulsan mayor nearly four years ago, but the first trial is yet to deliver its verdict.

The first trial on former justice minister Cho Kuk took more than three years. Even after the second and third trial, the final verdict won’t likely come out before the parliamentary elections in April next year, which raises the chance of his political return. Rep. Yoon Mee-hyang who received her first verdict after more than two years, also won’t have to worry about losing her seat before the next election, as a final verdict cannot come before then. Trial delays can be excruciating for civilians. Delayed trials without the first verdict coming out within two years have become three times as common in civil cases and twice as common in criminal cases over the last five years. Businessmen already went bankrupt by the time they won their cases. One plaintiff died before he received a verdict awarding him compensation.

The right to a speedy trial has been harmed by Chief Justice Kim’s reckless overhaul of court administration. He scrapped promotion for senior judges at high courts and instead had junior judges elect court heads, weakening the motivation to work harder.

The next chief justice must do his best to restore the credibility of the judiciary. The court is the last resort amid ever-bickering politics. The opposition party must thoroughly examine the candidate’s eligibility during a confirmation hearing, but it must not oppose for opposition’s sake.