South Korea: People Who Report Unleashed Dogs to Be Rewarded
(Mar. 23, 2018) Facing a significant rise in the number of dog-attack incidents in South Korea, the National Assembly recently amended the Animal Protection Act (Act No. 4379, May 31, 1991, Korean...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Coffee Banned in Schools
(Mar. 23, 2018) On March 13, 2018, an amendment to the Special Act on Safety Management of Children’s Dietary Lifestyle was promulgated by the President of South Korea. (Special Act on Safety...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Efforts to Eradicate Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence in...
(May 3, 2018) On March 30, 2018, the South Korean Prime Minister, Lee Nak-yon, issued the Rules for Establishment and Operation of the Comprehensive Government Inspection Team for Promoting Eradication...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Labor Standards Law Amended to Limit Workweek
(May 18, 2018) On March 20, 2018, the President of South Korea promulgated an amendment to the country’s 1997 Labor Standards Act. The amendment had been passed by the National Assembly on February 27,...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Supreme Court Finds Conscientious Objection to Military Service...
(Nov. 16, 2018) On November 1, 2018, the Supreme Court of South Korea ruled that conscientious objection to military service is “justifiable” under article 88(1) of the Military Service Act. (Sup. Ct.,...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Amendment Act Expands Parental Leave
(Oct. 18, 2019) In an effort to boost the fertility rate by providing support to pregnant and child-rearing workers, South Korea’s National Assembly passed an act in August 2019 that amends the Equal...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Parliament Responded Quickly to COVID-19 by Amending Three Acts
(June 4, 2020) South Korea was one of the first countries outside of China to identify persons who had been infected with COVID-19. By the beginning of March 2020, the epidemics in South Korea, Iran,...
View ArticleSouth Korea: New Digital Signature Act to Take Effect in December 2020
(Aug. 28, 2020) South Korea’s new Digital Signature Act was published in the Gwanbo (Official Gazette) on June 9, 2020. (Act No. 17354, June 9, 2020, Gwanbo No. 19768, pp. 147–57.) Most of the...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Government Orders Striking Doctors-in-Training to Return to Work
(Sept. 24, 2020) On August 26, 2020, five days after thousands of doctors in South Korea launched a nationwide strike, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) ordered striking doctors-in-training in...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Mask Rule Violators May Be Punished by Fines
(Dec. 7, 2020) People in South Korea have been required to wear face masks on mass transportation and at demonstrations, among other places, since October 13, 2020, when the penal provisions of an...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Amended Law Criminalizes Sending Leaflets to North Korea by Balloon
(Jan. 19, 2021) On December 14, 2020, the South Korean National Assembly passed a bill to amend the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act (Act No. 7763, Dec. 29, 2005). The amendment, Act No....
View ArticleSouth Korea: Abortion Decriminalized since January 1, 2021
(Mar. 18, 2021) Abortion became decriminalized in South Korea effective January 1, 2021, when the provisions of Act No. 293, the Criminal Act, that criminalized abortion became invalid. (Criminal Act,...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Criminal Provision on Adultery Held Unconstitutional
(Mar. 24, 2015) South Korea’s Constitutional Court has struck down the provision that defined the crime of adultery in the Criminal Act, ending a decades-long controversy. (2009 Hun-Ba 17, Con. Ct.,...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Controversial Anti-Corruption Law Promulgated
(Apr. 16, 2015) On March 26, 2015, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea promulgated the Anti-Corruption Law (Act No. 13278 (Mar. 27, 2015), Korea Ministry of Government Legislation website (in...
View ArticleChina; South Korea: Landmark Free Trade Agreement Signed
(June 11, 2015) On June 1, 2015, China and South Korea signed a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). (Brittany Felder, China, South Korea Sign Free Trade Agreement, PAPER CHASE (June 2, 2015).) The...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Supreme Court Keeps Unfaithful Spouses from Being Able to File...
(Oct. 13, 2015) On September 15, 2015, the Supreme Court of Korea upheld the precedent that a court may not grant a divorce when the petitioner is the spouse responsible for the breakdown of the...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Refugee Resettlement Program
(Jan. 4, 2016) The first refugees to be handled under South Korea’s new resettlement program arrived in Korea on December 23, 2015. South Korea’s Refugee Act became effective in July 2013. (The Refugee...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Constitutional Court Decides Long-Running Case on Compensation...
(Jan. 6, 2016) A lawsuit called “the longest unresolved case” in Korea, which took the country’s Constitutional Court six years to deliberate, was finally settled in December 2015. (2009 Heonba 317...
View ArticleSouth Korea: Controversial Court Decision on Academic Freedom
(Jan. 15, 2016) The Seoul Eastern District Court, on January 13, 2016, ruled in favor of plaintiffs who filed a defamation suit against Park Yu-ha, a professor of Seoul’s Sejong University. Park...
View ArticleSouth Korea: First Court Order to Return Children to Another Country Under...
(Feb. 23, 2016) On February 15, 2016, the Seoul Family Court ordered a Korean father to return his two children to his wife in Japan. (Hyun-jeong Lee, Court Orders Korean Dad to Return Children to...
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