초록/요약

The Civil Procedure Act of the Republic of Korea has, in succession to German law, a system of Notice of Lawsuit (§84). And it further stipulates that a judgment shall also take effect to a person who had received a Notice of Lawsuit but who failed to intervene in the lawsuit (§86, §77). The Supreme Court and scholars explain this effect of the judgement as the Effect of Participation (Interventionswirkung), as in the case of German law. The Effect of Participation means the legal binding force that a future court may not find facts conflicting with the finding of facts established by the preceding lawsuit judgment, where a person who has given a Notice of Lawsuit and another person who has received the Notice of Lawsuit are parties to such future lawsuit. Therefore, from the standpoint of a person who has received a Notice of Lawsuit, this effect means a limitation on the Right of Access to Courts under the constitution in the sense that his/her right to a fair trial may be restricted in so far as he/she cannot insist on the facts that he/she believes to be right. Starting from understanding the meaning as above, among other things I stressed that imposing such restriction on a person who has received a Notice of Lawsuit can be justifiable in light of the constitutional standards, when [① Sufficient and necessary information should be provided to a person who has received a Notice of Lawsuit for his/her making a decision on whether he/she will participate in the lawsuit, ②The court that has received an application for a Notice of Lawsuit should examine whether the Notice of Lawsuit is lawful based on the above criteria, ③A person who has received a Notice of Lawsuit without sufficient information should be able to assert such unlawfulness in a future lawsuit]. In addition, in view of the interpretation of the Civil Procedure Act and the constitutional interpretation criteria for the act on the restriction of Fundamental Human Rights, I would like to stress that the Effect of Participation from a Notice of Lawsuit should be limited to cases where a Notice of Lawsuit is given to a person whose status can be a supplementary intervention and should not be extended to cases where a Notice of Lawsuit is given to a person whose status can be an intervention as independent party under the Civil Procedure Act.