한말 법무보좌관 제도하의 재판사무의 변화

Abstract

Hirobumi Ito, the resident-general of Korea, regarded the judicial reform as a priority for reforming and controling the administration of Korean government. As a first step and tentative measure towards realizing his end, Ito made Korean government hire Japanese legal assistants(法務補佐官) to aid in the proper administration of justice. This article is about the activities of legal assistants appointed in January 1907 and their influence to the legal practice in courts. Using the original copies of court decision in civil case, I investigated the assistant's seal of approval to the court decision, the form and statement of legal documents such as a written judgement, and the case treatment in appeal trials at the court of local governor. In general, gradual but significant changes was found. However, the speed and scale differed according to the locality in several points. This seems to be due to lack of uniform and detailed rules about the legal document, the individual capacity or the way of working of a legal assistant as well as the different situation of each court. When we read the judgement, we must consider carefully the complexity of the text and the difference among local courts.