정영석교수의 삶과 학문의 조명

Abstract

Professor Chung Young-Suk studied law at the University of Japan during the Japanese Occupation, and devoted his 30 years life to lecture, researching and student guidance. In urgent situation after 1945, most of the then law professors could not turn away their eyes from the state’s policies and the students’ practical needs, consequently they should rely on ‘translated jurisprudence’ and ‘lecture oriented to national examination’. But they have not evenso turned a blind eye to the establishment or development of our academic identity in law. We can pick up traces of efforts and agony even in the process of inheriting or accepting Japan’s legal system and jurisprudence to establish our own independent and intrinsic system. Professor Chung Young-Suk said in his book "Problems of the Criminal Law," which was published in 1982 to commemorate his retirement, "As criminal justice process is carried out based on the two standards of maintaining public interest and protecting individual human rights, so the focus should be on finding harmony between the two standards. Therefore, the protection of social order should not be neglected in the name of individual human rights, and at the same time, the protection of individual human rights should not be at the expense of the preservation of social order. These two requests seem to contradict each other, but we must overcome the conflict by scientific means." What is scientific here is to avoid a bureaucratic or idealistic attitude, and to maintain a reasonable attitude to meet the needs of thetimes. Professor Chung Young-Suk adhered closely to the basic position of scientific integration of two conflicting axis. As a result he was not biased in any area of criminal law but had made efforts to maintain a balanced perspective that embraces criminal law, criminal procedure law and criminal policy while focusing on the insight and understanding of the criminal law as a whole.