Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Otus]

I've was reading that SK is supposed to be now experimenting with the jury system.

http://koreanconlaw.blogspot.com/2005/03/jury-system-in-korea.html
(although that report is about 2 years dated)

Do you think it will work?

From past teaching experience, and judging a few debate and speech competitions, I'd say that prosecutors and to a greater extent defence attorneys would certainly have a more interesting job on their hands.

The tendency to prejudge is quite remarkable. You can present hard evidence that will not influence judgment on matters. Perhaps they should somehow quaranteen selected jurors on Dokdo island and cut off all communication a few months before a trial.

Still, I think you'd get reasoning along the lines of "Well, the prosecution team just looked more handsome than the defence. Therefore, we believe their argument."

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It would all come down to which side has more say in jury selection. I could imagine juries of older people reaching very different decisions than younger ones.

But it would be just splendid to see three or four old farts out-voted by eight or nine younger people on a jury, wouldn't it?

[tzechuk]

Until Korean people truly understand the meaning of HONESTY, no, a jury system will not work.

[ajgeddes]

[Captain Courageous]

Of course, only Koreans have that problem.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Mashimaro]

[Otus]

Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious, but is 'honesty' the issue with the jury system? Perhaps it relates to jury tampering, but that's of a little more sophisticated nature than what is likely to occur when first introducing the system.

A jury system forces prosecution and defence to present evidence and persuade a group of reasonably intelligent people, not judges who could be more vulnerable to dishonest practice. A judge still exercises tremendous power over what can and cannot come into evidence and what juries can and cannot regard. But the jury must still reach a decision or void the trial.

I was just trying to picture, given a certain amount of disdain for reason over prejudice in the system, how a jury would operate.

[tzechuk]

Mashimaro, I wasn't really thinking about personal relationships.

I was thinking about $$$.

I am not trying to generalise here and I am not trying put Korean people down - my own husband is Korean and my daughter is half Korean - but the sad reality is that money talks in Korea. You slip someone some $$$, you can ask for just about anything.

I speak this from experience - this is especially true in the business world. I have seen it often enough. More often than not there will be people who will hint at my husband to give them some kind of benefits afterwards when a deal with pushed through. When my husband doesn't budge, he loses the deal. But that's OK to him because he'd rather be ethical than be in jail!

So, when I say that a jury system won't work until Korean people learn the meaning of honesty first, I guess I should really say when Korean people learn to place less value in money first. Then perhaps they will think about it.

Also, I don't know if you know or not, Otus, but Korea follows the Gemanic civil code of law, meaning that they don't have common law (or federal law in the USA) in place. And the Germanic civil code doesn't use a jury either because everything is statutory.

[Real Reality]

[Otus]

[tzechuk]

The question is this: if judicial corruption is the core of it - let's just assume that it IS financial gains related - we are talking about people who are already earning much more than your average Joe, and more intelligent, too. Otherwise they wouldn't be judges, right?

So if you have people who are high wage earners corrupting the system, how are you going to stop people who earn an average wage from being bought off?

I know I am basing a lot of this on assumptions - but I think I have very valid assumptions here, having lived here for 7 years, and not all 7 years were spent teaching.

As for the germanic code thing, what I meant to say is that Korea mirrored its judicial system on Germany and if Germany has no jury system, the Korean government probably doesn't see it being necessary, either.

I think - now i have time to digest it a little more and think a little more - one of the reasons why Korea doesn't have a jury system in place could very well be the result of its past civil wars. May be they are worried about people uprising again or whatever..

This is interesting food for thought - I think I'd like to do some more digging / reading.

[Otus]

Well, keep digging .... here's a couple more (relevant) thoughts:

People in affluent positions often have a lot more to lose than those with nothing so to speak. Pressure can be brought to bear in a number of different ways.

Let opposing counsel catch one whiff of a jury being financially tampered with and you don't have to be a Cochrane or a Shapairo to bring the roof crashing down. A judge, on the other hand, is not so vulnerable.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[cbclark4]

The real question should be; Do jury systems work?

In general they fail more often than we would like.

Look at all the cases overturned on DNA evidence, OJ and others.

Is there a better way?