section_path: Composition/Justices
section_name: Justices
paragraph_text: Justices
  
  Article 111 of the South Korean constitution specifies the size of the Constitutional Court and the procedure for nominating and appointing justices. The court comprises nine justices (헌법재판소 재판관), with each formally appointed by the president of South Korea. However, Article 111 Clause 3 of the constitution divides the power to nominate candidates into equal thirds among the president, the National Assembly, and the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Thus, the president nominates and appoints three of the nine justices, while the remaining six justices are appointed from candidates selected by the National Assembly or the chief justice of the Supreme Court. This appointment structure reflects the civil law tradition of viewing ordinary courts as the core of the conventional judiciary, as the president represents the executive branch, the National Assembly represents the legislative branch, and the chief justice of the Supreme Court represents the judicial branch of the South Korean government. However, it is clear that both the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court generally regard the power of the Constitutional Court as a judicial authority.
  
  To be appointed as a Constitutional Court justice, Article 5 Clause 1 of the Constitutional Court Act requires that the person must be at least 40 years old, qualified as an attorney, and have more than 15 years of career experience in legal practice or legal academia.
  
  While the exact internal procedure for the nomination of Constitutional Court justices is not specified by statutes, the nomination of the three justices from the National Assembly is usually determined through political negotiations between the ruling party in the Assembly and the first opposition party. When the second opposition party has sufficient membership in the Assembly, it also plays a role in this process. If the second opposition party does not have enough seats in the Assembly to formally participate, the ruling party nominates one justice, and the first opposition party nominates another. The remaining nomination is usually shared between the two parties, determined by negotiation or, if negotiation fails, by election. For example, former justice Kang Il-won was nominated by the National Assembly through negotiations between the ruling Saenuri Party and the first opposition Democratic United Party in 2012. When the second opposition party is big enough, it nominates the third justice. For instance, in 2018, Justice Lee Young-jin was nominated by the second opposition party, the Bareunmirae Party.
  
  Notably, Article 6 Clause 2 of the Constitutional Court Act mandates confirmation hearings of the National Assembly (국회 인사청문회) for all Constitutional Court justices before their appointment or nomination. However, the confirmation hearing is considered a formality, because the verbiage of the relevant article in the Constitutional Court Act requires that a confirmation hearing take place, not that the candidate obtain the Assembly's approval. Therefore, the National Assembly cannot block nominations or appointments by disapproving candidates during these hearings.