농협의 임원선거 관련 법규 개선방안 연구

Abstract

It is crucial for cooperatives to have a rational election system so that they may operate in accordance with the Principle of “Democratic Member Control”—one of the seven Cooperatives’ Basic Principles by the ICA (International Cooperative Alliance). Korea’s cooperative laws have many articles to regulate the rational election system as well. Moreover, Korea’s National Assembly enacted the Election-entrusting Law and implemented a system that enables many cooperatives to entrust their officer elections to the Central Election Management Committee—a state agency. However, there have been many arguments over the cooperatives’ officer elections, money, goods spraying, etc. Some institutional deficiencies have also been identified, and in some cases, decisions made by cooperatives have been deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. In order to resolve these problems and to improve the electoral system, the National Assembly has revised the laws many times. Yet, the legal problems remain. This paper aims to review these problems and suggest some legal improvements. The suggestions are as follows: revision of the articles that infringe upon the right of election-related freedom (e.g., the total prohibition or excessive regulation of electoral campaign activities), revision of the articles that violate the principle of "nulla poena sine lege", revision of the articles that regulate the engagement between officers and employees during elections, revision of legal groundless regulations, revision of reasons for disqualification and eligibility for election, and revision of the election-related regulations that are dually stipulated in the Agricultural Cooperative Act and the Election-commission Act.