17th Chief Justice of Supreme Court of South Korea
Cho Hee Dae(Korean: 조희대; Hanja: 曺喜大; also written "Jo Hee-de";[1] born 6 June 1957) is the 17th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea, appointed by President Yoon Suk Yeol in December 2023.
Life and career
Cho Hee-dae was born on 6 June 1957 in Gyeongju, South Korea. He graduated from Kyeongbuk High School and Seoul National University School of Law, and started his legal career as trial court judge in 1986. After almost thirty years of serving in South Korean ordinary courts as judge, he got promoted to associate justice of the Supreme Court of Korea, by nomination of 15th Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae and appointment from President Park Geun-hye in 2014.[2] During his term as associate justice, he was well known for his conservative views, including making dissenting opinions arguing that Heather Cho should be punished for changing flight course in Nut rage incident,[3] or making another dissenting opinions over case on whether to punish conscientious objector, supporting those objectors should be punished under conscription law of that time.[4] After 6 years of term as associate justice in South Korean Supreme Court, Cho Hee-dae turned his eye to academia and began academic career as endowed chair professor at Sungkyunkwan University Law School from 2020.[5]
Around the retirement of 16th Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su in September 2023, he was not President Yoon Suk Yeol's primary choice for next chief justice candidate. However, in October, when President Yoon's close friend judge Lee Gyun-ryong failed to be confirmed by the National Assembly due to his strongly conservative views and problems around family assets, the President had to look for candidates that can also satisfy Democratic Party of Korea, which held a majority in the National Assembly. Known as a moderately-conservative judge, Cho had a favourable public image because he did not serve as a private attorney after retiring from Supreme Court associate justice, which made him free from problems of Jeon-gwan ye-u, a somewhat common problem in South Korean judiciary that retired high level government lawyers using their former public career and network to pursue their own secular interests. This non-secular career of Jo as law professor after Supreme Court associate justice, led President Yoon to nominate him as candidate for 17th Chief Justice in November 2023.[6]
On 8 December 2023, as Cho Hee-Dae had no problems of personal issues including Jeon-gwan ye-u, his nomination was approved by a 264-18 vote in the National Assembly.[7] Upon congressional confirmation, and President Yoon appointed he as 17th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea.[8]
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