Criminal law of South Korea has the history of severance from its Joseon Dynasty period law system and introduction of a modified form of German law system through Japan. Due to such a unique background, South Korean criminal law is experiencing a conflict between the legal culture and consciousness based on the traditions and the Western law system based on liberalism and objectivism.
It has been over 100 years since South Korea was modernized not of its own will but by the will of others. At this point in order to overcome such difficulties, it needs to approach the Joseon era criminal law from a new perspective of shedding new light on its traditional criminal law instead of its severance from the traditional criminal law.
To understand the Joseon era criminal law, the hierarchical order of social status and confucian moral order in the era should be first understood. This is because such factors had a considerable effect on punishment and the strength of punishment.
This study aimed for a comparative research analyzing the Joseon era criminal law and cases on basis of Korea's modern criminal law organization system. It shows that there are many similarities between Joseon era and modern criminal laws.
The Joseon Dynasty had the doctrine of mandatory sentencing in its criminal law corresponding to the principle of legality, reflecting the factors of the uation of actions for criminal activities and the uation of results for criminal activities when weighing the gravity of a crime. It had provisions corresponding to the exclusion causes of illegality and the exclusion causes of irresponsibility with the provisions similar to consequently aggravated crime (erfolgsqualifiziertes Delikt), criminal attempts and complicity. It also had regulations similar to or more concrete and specific regulations than the modern criminal law in punishment or enforcement.
The existing studies of the Joseon Dynasty's criminal law only provided superficial information on it, while this study reorganized the Joseon Dynasty's criminal law into a modern criminal law system, and tried to analyze it from the perspective of modern criminal law with a comparison and review of similarities and differences. Thus, this comparative study will provide an objective and critical view of the current law, and serve as a basis for establishing the identity of South Korean criminal law.