Pres. Park: ‘power over law causes divide’

President Park Geun-hye said on Monday, “Social conflict stemming from polarization is deepening globally, and bad practice in which power and interest is prevailing law and principle is aggravating divide and conflict among people.”

At the 3rd Congress of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice held at Shilla Hotel in central Seoul on Monday, President Park made the remarks, saying, “We live in an era when we desperately need to ensure that all the people including the socially underprivileged are protected within the framework of law, and such law is followed.” She went on to say, “Constitutional justice is playing an important role in wisely overcoming political confrontations and racial, cultural and social conflicts, as well as in achieving social integration. Going forward, constitutional justice must continue to play a central role in building social unity and nations as well as in establishing the rule of law.”

Analysts say that Park’s remarks stressing "law and principle" on the day apparently allude to the paralysis of the National Assembly due to conflict over a special act for the investigation of the Sewol disaster, and civil servants’ collective protest against the government’s reform plan for the government employees’ pension. On the demand to grant the investigation committee the right to investigate and indict, which was made by some bereaved families of the victims in the Sewol disaster, Park said at a Cabinet meeting on September 16, “It is an act that can sway the fundamentals of both the separation of powers and the judicial system, and as president, I cannot do it. If the fundamental principle is destroyed, the fundamentals of the Republic of Korea will collapse, only causing endless enmity and conflict.”

The 3rd Congress of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice was attended by more than 500 people, including constitutional court chief justices and supreme court chief justices, from more than 90 countries. It is the highest-level international conference and is conducted in seven languages including English, French, and German. Though it is the third general assembly, the event is the first conference after the official inauguration of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice in September 2011, and therefore it is in effect the conference’s inaugural meeting. With the theme of “Constitutional Justice and Social Integration,” the event has been organized to enable countries to share experience in resolving social conflict through constitutional justice.