임시약헌(1940.10.9) 연구－가려진 ‘정치적 의도’의 발굴－

Abstract

The Provisional Constitution(Ymsiyakheon) of 1940, like the Provisional Constitution of 1927, has been veiled for lack of historical records. The original copy, written in Korean (mixed with Chinese), has not been found yet, and we only have the Chinese version and the English translation. I make a comparative historical survey of the related documents article by article and draw some conclusions. First, the Chinese constitutional documents from 1925 until 1940 played important roles in the revision of the Provisional Constitution. Second, the power struggle of the right against the left brought the weakening of the parliamentary power in the Provisional Constitution. Third, the power struggle within the right, i.e., the Korean Independence Party, brought the “duumviri” of the President and the State Council. Cho So-ang(the leader of the moderate faction), competing with Kim Ku(the leader of the ultra-national faction), seems to have made the tactical mistranslation of the Chinese version to conceal some political handicaps in the Provisional Constitution, especially from the reach of the Chinese eyes. In spite of the political distortion of the text, the Provisional Constitution of 1940 played a significant role. It was a “double bridge” not only to the Provisional Charter of 1944, but also to some constitutional documents in the liberation period(1945～1948).