TY  - JOUR
T1  - Discontinuity and Continuity in the Traditional Korean Judicial System During its Modern Reform Period, 1894 to 1905
AU  - Myoun-hoi, Do 
JO  - Academia Koreana
PY  - 2014
DA  - 2014/1/1
DO  - 10.18399/acta.2014.17.1.012
KW  - judicial reform
KW  - court
KW  - imprisonment
KW  - appeal system
KW  - torture
KW  - Korean modernization
AB  - This study explores the nexus of discontinuities and continuities in the Korean judicial system between the traditional court system before the 1894 reform and the allegedly modern post-reform judicial system. Despite the 1894 reform’s obvious achievements such as centralization of judicial hierarchy, institutionalization of modern penal system, and separation of civil and criminal court, the 1894 reform did not succeed in making the break with the past that the reformers had purported to achieve. Rather, the post-reform judicial system still featured strong continuity with the traditional institutions and practices. This continuity of traditional legal system not only posed serious obstacle to the judicial reform undertaken by Korean themselves, but also gave rise to an expectation for the Japanese rule on the part of many Korean reform intellectuals after the protectorate treaty of 1905, paving the way to the emergence of colonial modernity in Korea.