By Bernama
Seoul : President Lee Myung-bak Thursday instructed the Ministry of Government Legislation to revise the nation’s legal codes to strike out “hard-to-understand” legal terms adopted from Japan and China, Yonhap news agency reported.
“There are too many hard-to-understand Japanese legal terms and Chinese characters in our legal codes and court proceedings,” said Lee at the ministry’s policy briefing session.
“The young generation, in particular, is not familiar with such Chinese characters and Japanese legal terms. Revision of the legal codes may take a considerable amount of time, but we should begin the task immediately.”
In ancient times, many Chinese characters were adopted according to their meaning to represent native words, while terms of Korean legal codes were heavily influenced by Japan due mainly to the latter’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45.
Lee said he himself was often troubled by the puzzling legal terms in the past.
“I have an experience of appearing in court trials in the past, but didn’t understand whether I was guilty or not, because I was unable to understand the difficult legal terms spoken by the judges. South Korea now ranks among the world’s 10th-largest economies and is racing for a per-capita income of US$40,000. It’s time to change such legal terms,” said Lee.
“The legal professionals have to listen to what the ordinary people want more carefully,” said Lee, who briefly served time in jail in early 1960s for joining an anti-government demonstration against the then authoritarian rule of President Park Chung-hee.
Lee also noted that stiff clauses in the nation’s legal codes are hampering the government’s efforts to revitalise the sagging economy and firmly establish legal order across society.