Administrative law

Administrative law (행정법/行政法) refers to the domestic public law concerning the administrative organization, action and relief. Wherever an administrative organization exists, there must be an administrative rule and relationship between the administrators and their subjects.

It includes law that defines the organization and authority of an administrative agency such as the State and public organizations as well as the relationship among governmental agencies and among administrative bodies such as the State and public organizations (Law of Administrative Organization 행정조직법/行政組織法), law that defines the legal relationship in terms of public law between the administrative body and private individual (Law of Administrative Action 행정행위법/行政行爲法), and law that defines the relief of right of an individual (Law of Administrative Relief 행정구제법/行政救濟法). As wittnessed in the Saemangeum case, what the administrative agency does (approval of the large scale reclamation project) shall be subject to the related laws and regulations. And Such administrative action may be monitored and reviewed by the affected citizens as well as the court.

Key words
administration, State, public law, administrative relief

Principles of the Korean Administrative Law
There is no unified legal code under the name of administrative law, however, considering that the many laws that define the administrative organization, action and relief constitute a unified legal system and share a common principle, it is called administrative law.

There are many theories as to the basic principles of the Korean administrative law, but the majority of scholars choose the following as the basic principles under the current Constitution:
 * Principle of constitutional state;
 * Principle of democracy;
 * Principle of decentralization of power; and
 * Principle of welfare state.

System of Administrative Law and Major Administrative Relations Laws
Administrative law covers all domestic public laws that define the administrative organization, action and relief, which is not existent in the form of unified legal code. Thus, it is difficult to distinguish each administrative relations law, but it is possible to sort the major positive laws on administrative matters according to the traditional classification of administrative organization, administrative action and administrative relief to explain their main items.

Administrative Organization Law
Administrative Organization Law, in a broad sense, is what defines regulations on installation, abolition, composition and authority of an administrative agency and all personal elements (government officials), material elements and combined elements of person and material (establishment) that constitute the administrative agency.

It includes the National Government Organization Act, Self-Governing Organization Act, Government Officials Act, "Public Property Act" and "Public Enterprises Act". Although "Public Property Act" and "Public Enterprises Act" is undoubtedly a 'material element' of administrative organization, the essence of these laws is in their usage, so issues related to these laws are dealt mainly in the Law of Benefit Administration. In the following, we will view the broad definition of Law of Administrative Organization by dividing it into National Government Organization Act, Self-Governing Organization Act, and Government Officials Act.

National Government Organization Act
Based on the Principle of prescribing administrative organizations by Article 96 on the Constitution, the Government Organization Act concerning the central administrative organization of the State is legislated as general law. The Constitution merely sets the fundamental principle of administrative organization and the Government Organization Act establishes its general framework. The Government Organization Act prescribes the President, Presidential bodies, State Council, Prime Minister and the bodies directly responsible to the Prime Minister all together.

Attributable to the amendment of the Government Organization Act on December 23 1994, the central administrative agency was reorganized from 2 boards, 14 Ministries, 6 Agencies, and 15 Services to 2 boards, 18 Ministries, 4 Agencies, and 16 Services. Special laws other than the Government Organization Act are the National Intelligence Service Act, National Security Council Act, National Elder Statemen Advisory Council Act, National Unification Advisory Council Act, National Economic Advisory Council Act and so forth.

There are the Board of Audit and Inspection Act and the Election Commission Act which are laws regarding the establishment of an independent administrative agency. There are other laws that deal with the administrative commission such as the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (the Fair Trade Commission), the State Public Officials Act (the appeals commission) and the Land Expropriation Act (the land tribunal).

Self-Governing Organization Act
Self-governing refers an organization originally belonging to the State performs administration in an independent position from the State. The most typical example of self-governing is the local autonomy where the local organization independent from the State autonomously processes local affairs as a juristic person (organization autonomy) based on the residents' opinions (citizen autonomy).

Articles 117 and 118 of the Constitution guarantees the legal ground behind local autonomy. Besides the Local Autonomy Act, there are the Act on Local Education Autonomy, Act on Inundated and Neighboring Region Contingency Recovery Measure, Fire Services Act, and for local finance, there are Local Finance Act, Local Tax Act, Local Subsidy Act, Local Education Subsidy Act, Act on the Adjustment, etc. of National and Local Taxes, Local Transfers Act, and so forth. There are also multiple individual laws regarding individual administrative actions (Water Supply and Waterworks Installation Act, Urban Planning Act, Land Expropriation Act, etc.)

Local governments can be classified into ordinary local governments and special local governments according to their generality or distinctiveness of their organization, authority and so on. Ordinary local governments in Korea are divided into upper local governments comprised of the Seoul Metropolitan City (Seoul teukbyeolsi 특별시/特別市), metropolitan cities (gwangyeoksi 광역시/廣域市) and provinces (do 도/道), and lower local governments encompassing si (시/市), gun (군/郡) and self-governing gu (구/區). As for the special local governments installed for particular objectives, local governments association, an independent juristic person, is established by 2 or more local governments formulating regulations and going through approval from the local council for joint processing of business affairs.

Public Officials Acts
When a person who is in charge of official duties of the State or local government is recognized apart from his/her position in agency, he/she is referred to as a public official.

Accordingly, unlike an agency, a public official forms a certain right and duty relationship with the State and local government, as a legal entity separate from the State or local government.

Under the Constitution of Korea, the Public Officials Act exists in the form of an Act in principle, but some exist in the form of order. As for the general law on experienced State public officials, there are Decree on the Appointment of Public officials, Decree on the Appointment Examination of Public Officials, Provision on Evaluation of Public Officials, Decree on the Disciplinary Action on Public Officials, Provision on Appeal Procedure and so forth.

As for individual law regarding public officials, there are Police Officers Act, Decree on the Appointment of Police Officers, Provision on Promotion of Police Officers, Provision on Education and Training of Police Officers, Decree on the Disciplinary Action on Police Officers, Act on Establishment of Combat Police Officers, Public Educational Officials Act, Decree on the Appointment of Public Educational Officials, Foreign Service Officials Act, Fire Officers Act, Provision on Service of Public Officials, Provision on Remuneration for Public Officials, Public Officials Pension Act, Act on the Staff of National Intelligence Service, Military Personnel Management Act, Act on the Management of Civilian Personnel in the Military Service, Act on Appointment, etc. of Military Advocates, Act on the Disciplinary Action on Judicial Officers, Discipline of Public Prosecutors Act, Provision on Public Educational Officials, Decree on the Bar Examination, and such. In addition, in organization Acts such as the Government Organization Act, Board of Audit and Inspection Act, Court Organization Act and Prosecutors' Office Act, provisions concerning public officials are included.

As for the law on local public officials, there is the Local Public Officials Act which is a general law as well as Decree on the Appointment of Local Public Officials, Provision on the Disciplinary Action on Local Public Officials and Appeal, Provision on Remuneration for Local Public Officials and so forth.

Law of General/Special Administrative Actions
See the related article on the Administrative action (행정행위/行政行爲).