Regulations regarding courts, such as their establishment, abolishment, precinct, and alteration, were enacted by Japanese law, whereas these items were determined by Chosen’s governor-general. the boundary between legal authority and administrative authority, effected by the governor-general in colonized Chosen, was fluid, and this irrevocably posed many problems such as matters of independence of jurisdiction and guarantees of law bureaucrats’ stable position and their treatment in general. Meanwhile, Chosen initiated its own juridical system and suggested different legal interpretations; this became a threat to Japan. Thus, judicial unification became Japan’s mission. this paper aims to discover the relationship within different legal circles, such as Chosen lawyers and Japanese lawyers, Imperial Japan (the colony) and the Government-General of Chosen (the colonized), and administrative and the judicial system.
the “Attempted Murder of the Governor-General Terauchi” raised an issue related to judicial independence in Chosen. Later, this event affected the movement for stable positions guaranteed to law bureaucrats and legal circles and Kurotomi’s legislation of the Court Composition Act in Chosen. Kuratomi became one of the most fervent activists for judicial unification and its application to the Chosen court.
However, diverging interests among different political powers were conflicted over the implementation of the Court Composition Act. First, the Chosen Bar Association supported the unification of judicial institutions to resolve the delayed workloads related to courts and for the independence of the jurisdictional institution. Chosen legal officials joined this movement to problematize their treatment and guarantee their status. Their voices were raised with the assistance of Japan’s party system. The political party had been a major supporter of judicial unification since 1918. Hence, the movement for the Court Composition Act reached its peak during Hamaguchi’s cabinet, when party politics and political strife were in the spotlight. Nonetheless, the extra-territories were not easy to homogenize. There were still too many obstacles and different self-interested voices. In the late Pacific War (1941-1945), even after the unification of administrative institutions between the metropole and the colonies and partial suffrage had been guaranteed, judicial unification never came to fruition until the war ended because “Chosen is in a unique condition” and “there were possibilities of the masses rioting.” In effect, the authority of the governor-general of Chosen, a de facto minister of the colonial administration, still remained in the realm of jurisdiction, employment, and general tradition. After August 15, 1945, as another authoritarian cabinet replaced the governor-general of Chosen, the independence of jurisdiction remained an unsolved problem for a long time as a legacy of the colonial period, which is an important matter that Korean society still needs to resolve.