국제재판관할권의 行使基準과 그 範圍

Abstract

Frequent transactions between persons and entities whose nationality is different from each other necessarily cause more disputes between participants of that transactions. It would be very important to decide which nation's court should deal with these disputes. There is, however, no established principles about these disputes. Therefore, no definitive answer has been given to the question of standards and sphere of exercising jurisdiction of each nation. In Korea, there had been no statute that outlines standards of exercising international jurisdiction, and it had been decided by legal theories and court cases. In Apr. 7, 2001, Private International Act was fully revised(Act No. 6465) and it newly enacted standards of international jurisdiction in Article 2 of the Act. In the Act, Article 2 Paragraph 1 declares,「In case a party or a case in dispute is substantially related to the Republic of Korea, a Korean court shall have international jurisdiction. In this case, the court shall consider reasonable principles, compatible with the ideology of the asserting international jurisdiction, in judging the existence of the substantial contacts」, and Article 2 Paragraph 2 declares,「A court shall judge whether or not it has international jurisdiction in the light of venue rules and shall take full consideration of the unique nature of international jurisdiction in the light of the purport of the provision of paragraph 1」. Therefore, it is necessary to seek the meaning of this statute considering existing theories and cases and prospective direction of development. In this article, I aim to examine general concepts, theories, and cases of jurisdiction to clarify the meaning of Article 2 of the Private International Act, and focus on how to apply rule of 'minimum contact' and the concept of 'fair court' recognized by the Supreme Court of United States which are considered helpful in deciding standards of international jurisdiction to Korean context. Finally, I review specific application of international jurisdiction.