Ministry of Government Legislation

The Ministry of Government Legislation (MOLEG, 법제처/法制處) is a government department which is responsible for the legislative affairs of the executive branch of the government of Korea.

The mission of MOLEG is:
 * to examinie and review all legislative bills introduced by the Administration;
 * to issue authoritative interpretation of Cats and subordinate statutes; and
 * to implement measures to assure public access and participation in the legislative process.

Functions and Activities
MOLEG’s primary duties are comprehensive control and coordination of the government's legislative affairs, statutory examination (법령심사), statutory interpretation (법령해석), and statutory improvement (법령정비).

Statutory Examination
At first, MOLEG is requested to review such legislative bills as draft Acts and subordinate statutes, draft Treaties, draft Ordinances of the Prime Minister, and Ministerial Ordinances. Then MOLEG is required to verify legislative bills and to adjust legislative processes of them including possible inconsistencies and irregularities based on the Constitution or laws and regulations.

MOLEG is an exclusive institution that specializes in monitoring all government legislative affairs, introduces and promulgates the reviewed legislative bills, and further introduces and promulgates legislative bills to the State Council that are transferred from the National Assembly.

MOLEG is comprised of three Legislative Bureaus of Administrative Affairs, Economic Affairs, and Social and Cultural Affairs for Statutory examination. Around 50 legislative professionals review legislative bills from various government ministries.

Statutory Interpretation
It is the task of MOLEG to clarify the meaning and contents of the rather general and abstract statutes for the application or enforcement of the statutes on specific cases.

MOLEG's Statutory Interpretation Services can be applied to all related administrative statutes excluding ones in relation to civil, business, and criminal affairs, administrative litigation, government compensations under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Justice, and regarding penalties.

Statutory Improvement
Recently MOLEG is committed to search and refine irrational statutes that do not reflect the rapidly changing society.

By gathering opinions from the people, central government, local government, and based on the agendas discovered during statutory examination and statutory interpretation functions, MOLEG in cooperation with various ministries strives to support the free economic activities of the citizens and enterprises.

On-line legal information
The Ministry started its web service in 1998, offering all current Acts and subordinate statutes in the Korean language. Since 2001, the Ministry has upgraded the legal information system to form the Comprehensive Legal Information Service System (국가법령정보센터).

This enhanced system offers not only the current laws but also the legislative history. Anybody is able to access MOLEG's website all over the world, and search the full text and the original form of Acts and subordinate statutes, their legislative background and related Court dicisions, and trace the history of laws. At the moment, however, the English and Chinese translations are available on a limited basis.

Promotional activities
MOLEG is now conducting the following projects to promote legislation services more friendly accessible to citizens: Also the current positive system of “prohibiting in principle and allowing in exceptional cases” will be gradually changed to the negative system of “allowing in principle and prohibiting in exceptional cases.”
 * Easy to understand statutes project (알기쉬운 법령만들기, 법률 한글화 사업) in accordance with the Special Act for Korean-using Statutes (법률한글화를 위한 특별조치법).
 * Customized legal information service project (찾기쉬운 생활법령정보 서비스 사업) as shown at One Click Practical Law Service in particular, providing foreign language services in the areas of foreign investment, migrant workers and job recruitment, immigration by marriage.
 * Legislation innovation project (법제도 선진화 사업): MOLEG will actively search, revise and abolish statutes that inconvenience the people or burden business activities. Laws, regulations and administrative rules contrary to the constitution are corrected to secure the trust of the people.