조선후기 刑曹受敎와 입법경향

Abstract

In this study, I investigated Royal Decrees of the Ministry of Justice in the late Joseon Dynasty. There are 14 kinds of Collections of Royal Decrees of the Ministry of Justice, and 1,079 cases in total and are 484 cases except for the duplication. The period is 277 years from 1609(King Sunjo 37th) to 1885(King Kojong 22th). Royal Decrees of the late Joseon Dynasty were consolidated in the Sinbosukyojiprok[新補受敎輯錄](compiled in around 1743, King Youngjo 19th). As a result, the number of Royal Decrees of the Ministry of Justice between King Youngjo and King Jeongjo was 345 cases(71.3%), and they were 39 cases(8.1%) in the King Sunjo, the majority of them published after King Youngjo. The Royal Decrees of the Ministry of Justice increased rapidly after the codification of Soktaejeon(續大典, promulgated in 1746, King Youngjo 22th) and Taejeontongpyeon(大典通編, promulgated in 1785, King Jeongjo 9th) and diminished during the government by the royal in-law family period. This fact reveals that the enactment of Royal Decrees is closely related to the consolidation. In particular, King Jeongjo compiled Taejeontongpyeon and proclaimed Royal Decrees continuously to unify the laws and strengthen royal authority. After King Sunjo, the Kings established many Royal Decrees to reform the state at the beginning of the crown but decreased in the latter half. The contents of Royal Decrees of the Ministry of Justice were largely divided into five categories such as 1)institutional rearrangements, 2)regulations of government official and people’s behaviors, 3)criminal procedure rearrangements, 4)improvement of criminal administration, 5)private law, etc. “1)The Royal Decrees that regulate the behaviors of government official and the people” were the greatest, followed by the “3)criminal procedure rearrangements” and “4)improvement of criminal administration”, and “5)The private law, etc.” is the smallest. This is the manifestation of King’s policy to protect and love poor people. Until the compilation of Soktaejeon, which overcame political confusion, there was a high ratio of “1)institutional readjustment”, and the compilation of Taejeontongpyeon was based on the King Youngjo’s achievements that “3)criminal procedure rearrangements” and “4)improvement of criminal administration” were highly important. King Youngjo and King Jeongjo, who led renaissance of the reigns of the Joseon Dynasty, made legislation complementary to each other. King Youngjo was more interested in regulating the system, and King Jeongjo made efforts to complete the procedure and criminal administration. In this study, I tried to construct a history of legislations in the late Joseon Dynasty. There are limitations such as the first attempt and analysed only the Ministry of Justice/the Code of Justice not all. I hope that this will continue to study history of legislations in the Joseon period.