한국과 일본의 COVID-19 대응 법제 비교— 국내 확산 방지 및 의료체계 대응을 중심으로 —

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic is on going as of May 2021. COVID-19 victims amount to 160 million confirmed cases and 3.3 million deaths worldwide. COVID-19 pandemic has served as an opportunity to emphasize “the state's responsibility” to protect the lives of its people. This responsibility is fulfilled through legislation in a wide sense against infectious diseases countermeasure. Infectious diseases such as COVID-19 can be effective not only by prevention of domestic spread of infectious disease but by countermeasure of public healthcare system matters. In this respect, the legislation against infectious diseases needs to be considered in two ways: prevention of domestic spread of infectious disease and countermeasure of public healthcare system. Countermeasure of public healthcare system means securing a large number of beds in hospitals and enough vaccination of people. The COVID-19 countermeasure in Korea is based upon the Infectious Diseases Control and Prevention Act of 2021. In order to ensure that COVID-19 countermeasure(including prevention of domestic spread and function of public healthcare system) can perform appropriately, it is necessary to draw implications by comparing with foreign legal institutions rather than just considering Korean legal institutions. This paper chooses Japan as a country for comparative study. There are two reasons: First, legal institutions of COVID-19 countermeasure in Japan are very similar to those in Korea. Second, Although in Japan “the State of Emergency Declaration” and related law revisions have been made, Korean comparative legal scholars have not noticed the recent trend of Japanese countermeasure to COVID-19. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss legal institutions of COVID-19 countermeasure in Korea and those in Japan, focusing on preventing the spread in Korea and counter measure of the medical system. It also seeks to derive implications for Korean legal institutions from the comparison with Japanese legal institutions. By comparing the legal institutions of COVID-19 countermeasure in Korea and those in Japan, it can be expected to get better viewpoint for comparative legal institutions of COVID-19 countermeasure before the fourth epidemic is coming.