변정수 卞禎洙
Jurist who served as an inaugural justice of the Constitutional Court of Korea, known for his dissenting opinions and for declining a decoration
| Life | 1930 ~ 2017 |
| Era | 대한민국 |
| Clan | 초계 변씨 |
Life & career
Byeon Jeong-su (卞禎洙, 1930-2017) was a Korean jurist who served as an inaugural justice of the Constitutional Court of Korea. Korean Wikipedia says he was born to a tenant-farming family in Jangheung, South Jeolla, graduated from Gwangju Seo Middle School and entered Korea University's law school but dropped out because of the Korean War. He is classed as a Chogye Byeon on the basis of Wikipedia's classification, on which this entry relies.
He passed the 8th higher civil service examination in the judicial field in 1956, served as a judge for some twenty years and left the bench in 1979 as presiding judge of the Seoul High Court to practice as a lawyer. In the 1980s, as a human rights committee member of the Korean Bar Association, he joined defense teams in cases such as the torture of Kim Geun-tae and the sexual torture case at Bucheon police station, and as committee chair he issued a human rights report criticizing the Chun Doo-hwan regime.
From 1988 to 1994 he served as an inaugural justice of the Constitutional Court and took part in rulings including the first unconstitutionality ruling on a prosecutor's decision not to indict in 1989 and, in 1994, the ruling striking down the Special Act on National Security in a case about presidential emergency powers. He died on 5 November 2017 at 87.
From Judge to Human Rights Lawyer
After passing the examination in 1956 he worked as a judge, and in 1971, in a wage claim brought by a technician sent to Vietnam, he is said to have ruled that Korean labor law applies to employment contracts between Koreans even when the workplace is abroad. After leaving the bench he took part in politically sensitive cases as a Bar Association human rights committee member.
The Constitutional Court and Dissents
Appointed in 1988 on the recommendation of the Peace Democratic Party, he wrote many dissents finding unconstitutionality in cases on praising and encouraging under the National Security Act, the Social Protection Act and the professor reappointment system. He is said to have been the presiding justice in the 1992 case on obstruction of lawyer-client meetings, leading to a ruling of unconstitutionality.
Declining the Decoration and Later Years
When he retired in 1994 at the end of his term and the Blue House sought to award him a decoration, he is said to have been the only one to refuse, saying he had done nothing deserving of one. In 2003 he chaired the committee for the restoration of honor and compensation of democratization-movement participants, and in 1997 he published a memoir, Beopjo yeojeong.
Grave
His tomb was not confirmed in the sources used here.