Follow-up Bills Abolishing Prosecutors' Investigative Powers Pass National Assembly Committee
Follow-up bills to the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act that abolishes prosecutors' direct and supplementary investigative powers have passed a full meeting of the National Assembly's Gender Equality and Family Committee. The follow-up legislation, approved on the 15th under the leadership of the Democratic Party, is seen as completing the final piece of the large-scale judicial reform to redistribute investigative authority. The committee handled at its session a partial revision to the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sex Offenses and an amendment to the Act on the Prevention of Prostitution and Protection of Victims, among others.
Why Follow-up Legislation Was Needed
The Criminal Procedure Act amendment previously passed by the National Assembly centers on abolishing prosecutors' direct investigative powers and their supplementary power to reinvestigate police cases. Prosecutors retain the exclusive right to decide whether to indict, but they can no longer conduct investigations themselves. The problem lies with certain crime categories such as sexual violence, child abuse, and prostitution. In these cases, victims tend to be young and vulnerable and evidence is difficult to secure, so prosecutors have often stepped in directly to lead investigations. Without direct investigative powers, a legal gap is inevitable unless follow-up legislation defines who will handle these crimes and under what procedures. That is precisely the gap these follow-up bills aim to fill.
Key Contents of the Follow-up Bills
The revisions to the youth protection act and the anti-prostitution act that passed the committee this time refine the investigative bodies and procedures for sexual violence and prostitution cases to fit the new landscape of investigative authority. Under the revised Criminal Procedure Act framework, primary investigative responsibility shifts to the police and a new investigative agency to be established. The National Assembly's Committee on Interior and Safety has already passed a revision to the Act on the Establishment of the Major Crimes Investigation Agency to handle supplementary investigations of sexual violence and child abuse. The agency is a separate investigative body designed to fill the gap left by the abolition of prosecutors' supplementary investigative powers, and the ruling party envisions assigning it investigative functions over sensitive cases such as sex crimes, as well as corruption and economic crimes. The youth protection act revision is interpreted as adjusting the procedures for investigating minors and protective measures to fit this new framework.
Partisan Conflict and the Legislative Committee Hurdle
The process has not been smooth. Opposition members walked out of the committee's full session in protest of the vote. The opposition harbors fundamental concerns that abolishing investigative powers and establishing the new agency will weaken the prosecution, and has pointed out that the quality of investigations into crimes against vulnerable victims could decline. The ruling party, meanwhile, maintains that transferring investigative authority from prosecutors to police is a long-standing prosecutorial reform task, and that the follow-up legislation will actually strengthen victim protection procedures. Civic groups and the legal community are also divided between concerns over investigative gaps and the view that prosecutors' powers need to be checked. Separately, at his confirmation hearing the same day, Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won voiced opposition to a bill granting special prosecutors the power to withdraw indictments, saying there was "no need to do so artificially," revealing the executive branch's own stance on prosecutorial reform legislation.
Legislative Schedule and Outlook
The follow-up bills still face the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and a floor vote. With the ruling party holding control of the chamber on the strength of its majority, passage through the committee and a plenary vote are expected to move forward quite quickly. However, as the opposition's walkout signals, clashes are likely to recur throughout the process. Aligning the effective date of the revised Criminal Procedure Act with the implementation dates of the follow-up bills is also a key issue. If the timing differs, there could be a gap period in which it becomes unclear who is responsible for investigating certain crimes such as sex offenses. Ultimately, the success of this follow-up legislation depends less on the letter of the law than on how reliably the police and the new investigative agency can carry out victim-centered investigations under the new system.
