중대재해처벌법 실무상의 법적 쟁점 — 중대산업재해를 중심으로 —

Abstract

It could have had some meaning if Serious Accident Punishment Act(SAPA) had been limited to corporations (organizations) on the premise that Occupational Safety and Health Act and criminal constituent requirements were different from Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 of British. However, since SAPA overlaps with Occupational Safety and Health Act, it is difficult to expect many net functions to reduce serious accidents from the perspective of normative power and effectiveness. Like advanced countries for industrial accident prevention, it is an urgent and important task to normalize Occupational Safety and Health Act so that it can play a role as a basic law for occupational safety and health in criminal punishment. Rather than relying on ineffective regulations and heavy punishment, it is much more effective and justifiable to prevent serious accidents to elaborate on criminal constituent requirements and clearly define them so that companies that comply with the law can expect them. Making laws that are difficult for anyone to follow and being severely punished for not following them will only lead to a drop in trust in the law, formalizing compliance, and mass-producing criminals around small and medium-sized enterprises. The Enforcement Decree of SAPA also has virtually solved problems such as uncertainty of this law. Rather, there are many aspects that are confusing and that do not conform to the constitutional principles have been expanded. In such an unclear and unconstitutional state, it is difficult to achieve the effectiveness of preventing industrial accidents due to low predictability and difficulty in acting as a preventive standard, and it is highly likely to face unconstitutional lawsuits. It is difficult to avoid criticism that SAPA is inherently ambiguous in relation to safety and health related laws such as Occupational Safety and Health Act and loses its justification and balance in the punishment system. The current legal state can never be said to be a desirable state from the perspective of the development possibility of safety court principles and the effectiveness of accident prevention. It is a desirable legislative direction to revise the system and contents of SAPA or abolish SAPA while partially reflecting the purpose of SAPA in safety and health relations laws.