Constitutional Court of Korea

“ There is no express provision in our Constitution that states 'Seoul is the capital.' However, that Seoul is the capital of our nation is a continuing practice concerning the life in the national realm of our nation for a period of over six-hundred years since the Chosun Dynasty period. Such practice should be deemed to be a fundamental matter in the nation that has achieved national consensus from its uninterrupted continuance over a long period of time. ”

“ Even if it is necessary to limit the grounds for impeachment to an 'act of grave violation' in order to prevent abuse of the impeachment system, it is manifest that a violation of the constitutionally mandated obligation or an unfaithful performance of the official duties by the President, unlike other acts of violation, constitutes a grave violation of the Constitution or statutes. ”

“ The reason the framers of the constitution set forth a far more rigid procedure for the revision of the constitution than the general statute is, to deter arbitrary changes of the substance of the constitutional text, which is an express representation of the will of the sovereign. On the contrary, changes in the constitutional law matters that are not contained in the constitution or the unwritten constitution do not constitute constitutional revision, and may be handled by the general procedure of representative democracy established by our constitution, that is, the enactment of statute. ”

“ Therefore, the concern that some individuals might challenge the constitutionality of each of the national policies by alleging the infringement of the right to vote on national referendum is no more than a groundless apprehension. As long as the limitation upon the right to vote on national referendum is imposed in a reasonable fashion under the requirements of Article 37, Section 2, of the Constitution by way of the statute enacted by the National Assembly, there is no violation of the Constitution. ”

“ Not only an act of a public official in violation of the provisions of the Constitution or statutes in the performance of his or her official duties, but also immorality concerning the performance of the office or the political incapability and the error in political decisionmaking, constitutes the grounds for impeachment. ”

“ The characteristic of the written constitution is, inter alia, its retention of the strong power binding all state powers as the supreme legal norm, which is rendered possible by convergence of express intent of the people's sovereignty through specific constitutional establishment procedure. As custom alone may not retain such supreme power that characterizes the constitution, the rationale of the majority opinion that the written constitution and the customary constitutional law have the identical force lacks constitutional ground. ”

“ Accordingly, the President should not only make every possible effort to protect and realize the Constitution, but also abide by the law and perform no act in violation of any of the valid law. Furthermore, the President should do all acts in order to implement the objective will of the legislator. The obligation of the executive branch of the government to respect and implement the law is equally applicable to the statutes that the executive branch deems unconstitutional. ”

“ The status and the responsibility of the state institutions as the servant for the entire citizenry is, in the area of election, realized in concrete terms as the 'obligation of the state institutions to maintain neutrality concerning elections.' The state institutions should serve the entire population, therefore, should act neutrally in the competition among the political parties or political factions. ”

“ The establishment or relocation of the capital is the geographical placement of the basis of the nation's organization and structure through determination of the location of the highest constitutional institutions such as the National Assembly and the President, and is thus a fundamental decision by the citizens concerning the nation, and, at the same time, a core constitutional matter that forms the basis for the establishment of a nation. ”

“ Here, the identity of the nation means the characteristic nature of the nation, as the source of emotional unification of the nation, which is formed by the composite expression of history, experience, culture, politics, economy, power structure and spiritual symbols, and so forth, of its people. ”

“ Therefore, by the own nature of the national referendum, the 'confidence the public has in its representative' cannot be a subject matter for a national referendum and the decision of and the confidence in the representative under our Constitution may be performed and manifested solely through elections. ”

“ The reason why customary constitutional laws are recognized and acknowledged is, as the majority opinion indicates, that it is "impossible for a written constitution to completely regulate therein all constitutional law matters without omission." ”

“ However, under the current Constitution that limits the presidential term to a single term, there is no means to hold the President directly responsible, even politically, let alone legally, toward the public and the President's faithfulness or unfaithfulness in performing his or her official duties may only be politically reflected favorably or unfavorably on the ruling party of which the President is a member. ”

“ Therefore, the question of in which relations the grounds for impeachment are legally examined is absolutely for the Constitutional Court to determine. The principle of due process is a legal principle that, before a decision is made by the governmental power, entitles a citizen who might be prejudiced by such a decision to an opportunity to express his or her opinion and thereby influence the process of the proceedings and the result thereof. ”

“ Furthermore, even assuming the case where the capital does not function as the only centripetal city in all domains of politics, economy, society and culture, the location of the capital widely and significantly influences the life of the people in all of the above domains. ”