정치적 표현에 관한 헌법적 고찰- 선거운동의 자유를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Among various freedoms of political expression, the freedom of election campaigns that enables to freely express opinions during an election is essential in people’s exercising sovereignty. That is, as a candidate, people should be able to freely publicize own political identity including his political ideas and ideology to voters, while as a voter, they should be able to freely access to various information on candidates. However, it is impossible to guarantee the freedom of election campaigns without any restrictions in order to secure fairness of elections and to offer equality in opportunity during election campaigns. Therefore, the current study aims to review unconstitutionality of regulations on the freedom of election campaigns focusing on political expression, that is, the freedom of express, a constitutionally important basic right. Accordingly, the study reviews a concrete permitted limit of the freedom of political expression by examining related laws and important decisions made by the constitutional court focusing on restrictions on the subject and period of election campaigns, and restrictions on election campaign methods. First of all, the study intends to examine restrictions on the freedom of election campaigns in terms of the subject of election campaigns. In particular, the study reviews restrictions on the freedom of political expression focusing on restrictions on civil servants’ behaviors that influence elections and a ban on local assembly legislators’ advocating a certain party. Secondly, the study reviews the importance of political expression in terms of the period of election campaigns. Although the necessity for limiting the election period is insisted in order to protect fairness and avoid excessive competition, too short period may infringe the freedom of political expression because candidates can’t publicize their political belief or political views sufficiently.