高麗時代 律官의 소임에 관한 일고찰

Abstract

There were agencies in central government such as "Hyeongbu" (Ministry of Justice), "Dogwan"(Urban officer) and "Jeonokseo" (Prison governing office) to which judicial officers belonged. Judicial officers worked in the working-level positions of "Namgjung" and "Wonoirang" in such agencies. "Beobjo"(judicial administrator) was dispatched to respective local governments throughout almost all regions of the country except for some perfectures and river ports and they were in charge of important positions such as legal advisors for prison litigators or local government officers in governing counties and perfectures. Our study on the selection of judicial officers and their career for government services revealed that judicial officers were recruited through high-level state examination for technicians and in terms of the family background of judicial officers, some seemed to have come from civil functionary families but most of them seemed to be from the civilians from county town and general civilians or the sons of low-level officers who inherited their own family businesses. Judicial officers were appointed to "Sanjik (low-level position of the 9th rank), judicial assistant tutor or judicial master while in some cases being appointed as "Beobjo" (judicial administrator) of local government. A few judicial officers could be promoted to the level of prime minister position but in general it seemed that the promotion of judicial officers to the officers with ranks would have been very difficult. As to the tasks of judicial officers, we can see that they significantly contributed in the areas of revision of laws and regulations, the trial of punishment, retrial, litigation or autopsy which are important to maintain national order. As to compensation for judicial officers, they were treated as same as those for civil officers and military officers while they were treated much better as compared to weather officers, library officers and treasury officers. Based on the result of our study, we could confirm that judicial officer was one of technocrats in Goryeo Dynasty as an important and essential position to rule the country.