The number of bills introduced to the 20th National Assembly which closed
as of May 29, 2020 set an all-time record in the history of the nation. It should
be viewed positively had it been a result of a greater variety of windows built
lately, such as National Petition And Proposal Board, through which the public
can express their opinions more freely and frequently, and a keen response and
listening of the government and the members of Assembly toward such opinions.

On the other hand, there is a risk of unconstitutionality or constitutional
nonconformity to be found later by the court if the content of the bills and the
legislation process had not been examined thoroughly. To uate the
achievement and the limitation of the 20th Assembly is a prerequisite to a
successful development of criminal legislation by the 21st Assembly which began
on May 30, 2020. Therefore, this study would like to examine the status and
outcome of the 20th Assembly's effort in criminal legislation, and suggest a
desirable direction that the 21th Assembly should take.

To achieve the goal, this study first checked all 24,141 bills introduced to the
20th Assembly, and conducted a more focused assessment over the 5,012 bills
which can be classified as criminal legislation. The area in which the most
criminal legislation proposals, 161 bills, were made was the Criminal Act, followed
by the Act on Special Cases concerning the Punishment with 134 bills, the Criminal
Procedure Act with 118 bills, the Act on the Protection of Children and
Youth against Sex Offences with 72 bills, the Court Organization Act with 57
bills, the Juvenile Act with 42 bills, the Act on Special Cases concerning the
Punishment, Etc. of Child Abuse Crimes with 41 bills, and the Act on Aggravated
Punishment, Etc. of Specific Crimes with 40 bills, in that order. To sort the bills
according to their key subject, the bills concerning sex crimes accounted for
the majority with 19.5% of the entire criminal legislation, followed by the bills
related to criminal justice reform with 16.3%, and the bills related to the Criminal
Act, including the Punishment of Minor Offenses Act, with 11.3%, in that order.
The rest of significant subjects included anti-corruption and briery(9.5%), public
safety(6.2%), domestic violence and child abuse(6.0%), money laundering(5.6%),
court organization(5.4%), and other economic crime(4.1%) and violence
crime(4.0%), etc. Of the total 5,012 bills, the number that was passed and adopted
was no more than 709(14.1% approval rate), while the rest of 4,303 bills were
abandoned, recording 85.0%'s abandonment rate.

The issues that not only attracted the nation's attention and carried a
considerable significance in criminology and criminal policy included the
adjustment of investigative jurisdiction between the prosecution and the police,
countermeasure to sex crimes, prohibition of harassment and discrimination,
youth crimes, occupational health and safety, domestic violence and child abuse,
cryptocurrency and money laundering, hate speech and fake news, military
human right and military court reform, and the Act on Attachment of Electronic
Device, etc. Focusing on those issues, the present study examined the 20th
Assembly's achievements as well as the limitation in its legislative effort. For
instance, while sex crime-related legislation had been always active in the
congress, it was reinforced and strengthened in the 20th Assembly as some grim
cases, such as the Me Too movement and the Nth Room case in Telegram, broke
in the course of the 20th Assembly. First, the Me Too movement served as a momentum
to expose the seriousness of sexual abuse by the power of vocational
authority in our society and led to reinforcement of punishment on sexual
offences by abuse of occupational authority, etc., although still much more need
to be done in other areas, such as alleviating the elements of rape offense, and
establishing the offense of sexual intercourse etc., without consent. Moreover,
through the Nth Room case a national consensus was formed concerning the
seriousness of digital sex crime and the legislation on possession of child
pornography materials was introduced, which is, in fact, a significant outcome
in that possession of child pornography materials used to be considered less
serious, but now the public recognized it as sexual exploitation and harassment.

Also, various legislative efforts were made to strength the punishment on digital
sex crime and the support for victims, of which the most note worthy include
raising the age of sexual consent in statutory rape, and legislation of attempt,
preparation and plot of rape, etc. On the other hand, it is pointed out as limitation
that improvement of legal system for investigating digital sex crime, such as online
searches and undercover investigations, etc. was not achieved, despite that
existing investigation method is inapt to even accessing some closed online
platforms, such as encryption and anonymity-based secret chats and Dark Web
in Telegram.

Meanwhile, it is critical to consider the objects of crime prevention and social
protection in criminal legislation. The process of criminal legislation should be
more carefully controlled as complying with the general principle of the
Constitution and the criminal laws, because the effect of such legislation could
be the imposition of criminal sanctions, which is likely to infringe the life, body
and freedom of the people. The Congress should be able to distinguish act of
crime (punishment) from violation of public order (fine), and area of freedom
from area of limited freedom in order to ensure the rule of 'criminal law as
last resort'. The Congress should also consider the development of technology
and constantly evolving criminal activities as a result, and seek out more diligently
the ways to improve the legal system that can properly respond to the changes
of the times. Not even once, has been the Criminal Act of Korea reformed in
full breadth since its enactment in 1953. During the period up to date, the criminal
law system has become extremely complex as numerous special criminal laws
have been enacted throughout, that ordinary citizens experience difficulties in
understanding and predicting the potential punishment of specific types of crimes.

Therefore, the Congress, in collaboration with the government, should prepare
a full-scope reform of the Criminal Act so that the Act will be able to play a
role as the fundamental law in criminal justice of the nation.