형사소송기록 열람·등사의 제한완화 필요성에 관한 연구

Abstract

The litigation is the legal procedure to resolve and arbitrate conflicts between private persons or between a private person and a nation with the judgemental process. The above is the definition of litigation but in fact it is a kind of legal battle. Most civil suits are related to legal battles for rights and interests between private persons and most administrative litigation is related to appropriate application of administrative regulations between a private person and a nation or between administrative agencies. Most criminal suits are related to determining guilty or innocence or to deciding the sentence between a private person and a nation. It is desirable for parties to a suit to have a right to read and copy the record of investigation documents. In fact, the plaintiff and defendant have the right in legal procedures such as civil suits, administrative litigation, election lawsuits, and family litigation except for special conditions. In a criminal suit parties to a suit, however, do not have the right to read and copy the record of investigation and especially in the investigation stage, when the suspect not is prosecuted, the suspect and his attorney do not have the right to read and copy the record of investigation except for several documents such as protocol of examination of a suspect. It is desirable for the plaintiff and defendant have the same right in prosecuting and defending because the outcomes of a litigation have fatal effects on parties to a suit. Therefore it is desirable for two parties to to have a right to read and copy the record of investigation documents submitted to criminal justice institutes. The personal information in the legal document could be covered or erased partially. This paper suggests revision of law that in a criminal suit plaintiff and defendant both have the right to read and copy the investigation documents including investigation records in the investigation stage for fair legal prosecution and defense.