조선시대 송정(訟庭)에서 작성된 사송(詞訟) 문서의 유형과 특징

Abstract

This study examines the sasong (civil lawsuits) documents composed in accordance with the Joseon legal procedures as well as the preservation conditions of the said documents. It classifies Joseon’s legal process into three distinct steps: filing the lawsuit, the trial process, and the final sentencing. This study examines the sasong in the Joseon era further. The sasong process was organized based on the Gyolsong-iban-sik in the Yuseopilji, a document formulary of the era, the Chugwan-ji in the Statute Book and the Chungsong-sik in the Gyolsong-yu-chwibo. Through these sources, the standardized sasong procedures and the ways in which the judge processed the lawsuits were confirmed. The core elements of Joseon’s sasong process were lawsuit initiation, the plaintiff’s and the defendant’s affidavit and evidence submission, and lastly, the court investigation. The sasong were executed through written interaction among the plaintiff, defendant and judge based on document counterclaims. This study discusses documents composed in court in accordance with Joseon’s sasong process, which were distinguished into three steps; the chungsong, the investigation and hearing upon the plaintiff and defendant before the judge the chungsong is the official initiation of the sasong process; once the lawsuit was initiated, the process was led by the judge. Here the characteristics of the Chosa (written confession) and Dajim (pledge of obedience) were analyzed to confirm the purpose of the two documents.