Issues and tendencies in reforming Korean law of international jurisdiction

Korean law of international jurisdiction had relied heavily on the Koreanized form of the “special circumstances” doctrine until 2001, when the general clause of Article 2 was introduced. While this clause was greeted by the courts and cherished by the private international academia that led the process of creating it, the courts failed to implement Article 2 in a coherent and consistent way. In this background, it is undeniably a significant move for the Korean Ministry of Justice to work for a comprehensive legislation for international jurisdiction. The most crucial and perhaps the hardest issue will be the question of certainty versus flexibility. The drafters would need to aim at the optimal balance between the two considerations, in formulating each independent rule as well as general clause(s). In this respect, it is all the more interesting to see what kind of value judgment will be made and how it will be expressed in language in the Private International Law Reform Committee in Korea.