Credit: Public domain.
On June 27, the Constitutional Court 헌법재판소 unanimously held that Article 328, Section 1 of the Criminal Act 형법, which rendered direct family relations and cohabitating extended family immune from prosecution for economic crimes like fraud and embezzlement, was unconstitutional. The ruling reversed an earlier 2012 decision by the same court. The National Assembly 국회 now has until December 31, 2025 to amend the law along the court’s guidelines; if the legislature fails to do so, the law will cease to exist.
Familial immunity 친족상도례 was introduced in 1953 when the Republic of Korea instituted its first modern criminal system as a part of the system of Civil Law that South Korea imported wholesale from Europe. Although most countries no longer recognize any such immunity, South Korea has kept the law on the books, in the interest of avoiding excessive government intervention into family matters.
The loophole has come under heavy criticism in recent years, particularly in high-profile cases involving celebrities. In 2021, the veteran comedian Park Su-hong 박수홍 became a cause celebre when he revealed that his brother, who managed his successful three-decade career, stole more than KRW 10b (USD 7.3m), amounting to most of his wealth. Even more shocking was the revelation that Park’s entire family, including his mother, manipulated him into not marrying for fear that they would lose their source of wealth.
In a quiet nod toward Park’s case, the Constitutional Court noted in its ruling that family members had been immune even to the enhanced penalties for economic crimes totaling more than KRW 5b (USD 3.7m), which are “not the type of crimes from which familial relationships can easily recover.”
