We realized that Korea’s political system and process must first go through a thorough reform process before the fundamental and proper Rule of Law can take its place inKorean society. With this aim in mind we established the ‘Legislation Monitoring Committee’ under the umbrella of CCSJ and set up the ‘Legislation Monitoring Center’ as the acting body.
The CCSJ Legislation Monitoring Committee will be made up of experts from the National Assembly, academic community, legal community, media and various other fields of life. This breadth of experience and wisdom will be combined with a wide participation of ordinary citizens. Together we will monitor new legislation and other related activities of the National Assembly. The National Assembly must examine and timely pass necessary legislation. It must also scrutinize the annual budget and provide checks and balances to the executive and judicial branches.
As the people’s representative body the National Assembly is in effect the ‘Hall of People’s Will’. People must, however, have trust before it can be called the ‘Hall of People’s Will’. This trust can be built up only when the National Assembly exercises its full authority under the Constitution and also accepts full responsibility.
The National Assembly should be run like a mature and advanced institution. It is time to end past practices such as (1) delaying the passage of legislation that cover citizens’ basic necessities, (2) receiving salaries while legislative activities are crippled or otherwise not effective, (3) engaging in political warfare without making any reasonable compromise, and (4) passing a pile of legislation without any proper debate.
The National Assembly must first be reformed in order for Korea to become a land of equal opportunity and theRule of Law.
The CCSJ Legislation Monitoring Committee affirms the following pledges:
· We will objectively monitor legislative activities with no political or ideological partisanship.
· We will monitor and evaluate not only the contents of new legislation but also the legality and transparency of the legislative process.
· We will point out the problem areas in the current legislative process and make recommendations for change.
· We will make sure that our legislation monitoring activities are for the good of the citizens and are carried out together with the citizens.
· We will voice out our opinions and demands whenever there are pending issues. Simultaneously with the posting on our website (www.ccsj.or.kr) we will send our message to all the members of the National Assembly, media and NGOs.
We thank all of you in advance for your continued interest and active participation.
25 June 2018
Dr. Young-Moo Shin, CCSJ Standing Representative
Jong-Heup Park, CCSJ Legislation Monitoring Committee Chair
