Partnership for Sustainability: NGO and Community Participation in Lawmaking in South Korea

This paper analyzes citizen participation in lawmaking in South Korea, particularly during the period of early 1990s through present. In a broader context, this is part of an effort to analyze the democratization of the political process from the perspectives of community decisionmaking in terms of democratic legitimacy. This paper focuses on the participatory dimension of sustainability, from constitutional law perspectives in a larger context. Particularly, this paper analyzes the institutional and procedural aspect of participation of NGOs and citizens in some of the exemplary instances of lawmaking in South Korea recent experience. NGO activities in South Korea were initiated as part of democratization movement, and became conspicuously expanded in the nation democratization context in the 1990s. Particularly since early 1990s, many NGOs and civil community in general in South Korea have been actively serving such role of participation and collaboration in policymaking and lawmaking, primarily by means of public interest litigation and proactive legislative initiatives. Such partnership for sustainability is due to diverse grounds, both domestic and international. Some of the areas where such voluntary NGO initiatives and lawmaking movement in South Korea have been particularly active include consumer protection, welfare, human rights protection for minorities including those with disabilities, gender equality, environmental protection and preservation, labor, and monitoring of the media, conglomerates, and legislative and judicial activities

Representation of Minority under Deliberative Democracy and the Proportional Representation System in the Republic of Korea

This paper diagnoses the norms of minority representation in the political processes of constituting the legislature and of lawmaking in a representative democracy, and analyzes South Koreas proportional representation system as currently in operation primarily under the Public Official Election Act (as most recently revised by Law No. 10067, effective March 12, 2010), as it pertains to the representation of women. Under the current state of representative democracy in South Korea, democracy can be strengthened by pluralizing the modes and sites of representation, which entails that democratic institutions and practices take measures to include underrepresented groups whose perspectives would likely be excluded or marginalized in political process. The most effective mechanism to implement such mandate of presence and participatory engagement of under-represented groups may function at the early phase of political process, where the representative body is constituted and the core agenda for legislation and policymaking are introduced, deliberated and determined. South Koreas proportional representation system aims to promote such goal, particularly as it pertains to the representation of women. Proportional representation as it currently operates in South Korea provides more opportunity for differentiated representation than does a system based on single-member, simple plurality electoral districts. Statistics indicate that the proportional representation system has contributed to enhance the presence of women at the legislature in South Korea both at national and local levels. The next and more constitutionally challenging task is how to improve the system so that the system itself and the system-induced increase in the presence of women at the legislature may bring in sustainable changes in perception of the constituents towards minority perspective representation in political process and, further, actual legislative and political activities in this vein

Judicial Appointment in the Republic of Korea from Democracy Perspectives

This paper discusses the symbolic and actual role of the judiciary of the Republic of Korea in the nations separation of powers structure from the perspective of constitutional democracy, by primarily analyzing the law and the system pertaining to the judicial appointment. The issue of judicial appointment has been discussed continuously and extensively both inside and outside the judiciary, due to its far-reaching constitutional ramifications in the representative democracy. In this vein, this paper first reviews the law and the system pertaining to the appointment of judges to the judicial courts at various levels in the Republic of Korea, with a focus on the appointment mechanism applicable to the Supreme Court. This paper then proceeds to analyze the judicial appointment mechanism particularly in light of the anticipated role of the judiciary in the current state of democracy in the nation. In this regard, the paper discusses some of the issues critically relevant to the judicial appointment mechanism, including the qualifications expected for the judges and the education therefor, the amount of workload and the size of the docket at the Supreme Court, and the appeals mechanism. The main part of the paper analyzes some of the reform measures as currently proposed and discussed, particularly in light of the role of the judiciary and the Supreme Court in a representative democracy

Democratic Legitimacy of Law and the Legislative Function of the Constitutional Adjudication in the Republic of Korea

This article is an effort to analyze the legislative function of the constitutional adjudication in the Republic of Korea in light of the democratic legitimacy of law and legislation, and its further constitutional ramifications. First, this article discusses the concept of legitimacy of law and the legislation under a representative democracy, from traditional perspectives of proceduralism and functionalism. This article then moves to indicate that two of the core factors legitimating lawmaking from either proceduralist or functionalist theory are participation and interest representation. Based on such findings, this article analyzes democratic as well as constitutional legitimacy of the normatively legislative function assumed by the constitutionality review conducted by the Constitutional Court over the statute democratically enacted by the National Assembly, and the relationship between and the respective roles of the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court in legislation. In the conclusion, this article further deliberates upon constitutional ramifications of the legislative function of the constitutionality review over the statute conducted by the Constitutional Court, including those pertaining to the concept of justiciability and the extent of the binding force of the constitutional adjudication over the National Assemblys legislation

Interpolation for molecular dynamics simulations: from ions in gas phase to proteins in solution

The interpolation technique has shown many promises for simulating chemical dynamics with quantum chemical accuracy at molecular mechanics speed. This is achieved by constructing analytic potential energy surfaces with quantum chemical information at multiple conformational points, without assuming any functional form for the potentials. Here, we briefly review the course the method was developed over the past few decades, with a special focus on the activities in Korea. We also describe its strengths and weaknesses toward describing condensed phase chemical dynamics with the present implementations. Perspectives for future developments toward increasing applicability are discussed as concluding remarks. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.1122Ysciescopu

Characterization of the Si/SiO\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e Interface Formed by Remote Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition from SiH\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3e/N\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3eO with or without Chlorine Addition

The Si/SiO2interface formed by remote plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RPECVD) at low temperature with SiH4/N2O or SiH4/N2O/Cl2 was studied and compared with thermal oxidation. The interface of the CVD SiO2 without chlorine addition is rougher than that with chlorine addition. But the surface roughness of CVD SiO2 films increases with chlorine addition. The thermal oxidation induces strong interface strains, and the strains generated by the CVD SiO2 without chlorine addition are stronger and are distributed more nonuniformly than those by the chlorinated SiO2. It is believed that chlorine addition during RPECVD affects the initial stages of deposition, and chlorine is combined with Si dangling bonds existing at the Si/SiO2interface through the formation of Si–Cl x bonds. It was also found that with chlorine addition during RPECVD, the strained layer thickness, interface trap density, and suboxide density could be lowered significantly

The Mediating Role of Trust in the Relationship Between Online Shopping Experience and Consumer\u27s Shopping Values

A structural equation model is proposed and examined through a survey research. Data were collected from a survey of 121 subjects. The PLS (Partial Least Square) method was applied to estimate the research models. One model included the trust variable as a mediator and the other excluded it. The comparison of R2 verified that the first model had a better fit. The results of the study show the level of experience has a significant impact on both utilitarian and hedonic shopping values in the case of the model without the mediator. However, experience has an insignificant or a partially significant effect on utilitarian and hedonic shopping values when trust mediates experience and shopping values. This study verifies a mediating role of trust in the relationship between experience and shopping values. Finally, the implications and limitations are further discussed

Foreign Exchange Market Liberalization Policies in Korea: Past Assessment and Future Options

This paper assesses the policy mistakes during the process of the financial and exchange market liberalization in Korea and searches for the future options. In retrospect, the Korean government seemed to be only vaguely aware of the risk of the financial liberalization, because it put the financial liberalization plan in action cautiously. But believing that, it could still manage its economy in the increasingly integrated world, government stuck to the rigid exchange rate policies, and arbitrarily deregulated and regulated the inflow of the foreign capital. The mismanagement of economic policies is the real cause of the crisis, not the financial liberalization itself. Confronted with the crisis, government implemented the drastic liberalization measure in a very short period of time, adopting the free-floating exchange rate system and lifting the restrictions on the capital account transactions. But this is clearly not the permanent solution. In the world of financial globalization, Korea will become more and more vulnerable to the capital flows, and the financial crises will continue to occur. Against large capital movements, one strategy to the small country like Korea can rely on is to join the regional monetary bloc. When it come to the regional monetary cooperation, it seems that the target zone system with flexible emergency loan facility and regional lender of last resort is most desirable