System Guidance

Appeals Review System

• The Appeals Review System is an administrative appeals system in which Appeals Commission examines and makes decisions on appeals when public officials raise an objection to disciplinary action, unfavorable disposition, or omission contrary to their intention. By providing a complementary judicial function that remedies unlawful conduct or unreasonable personnel treatment, the Appeals Review System guarantees the employment status of public officials, helps maintain the career civil service system, and also, indirectly, promotes self-regulation by the government.

Characteristics

• The appeals review system is of a quasi-judicial nature in that when an appeals case is filed against an unfavorable disposition or omission contrary to intention, it is examined based on concrete facts and subject to the interpretation and application of statutes. In addition, it possesses a double nature as expression of intention by an administrative agency itself is an administrative action.

Relation to Administrative Litigation

• While the Administrative Litigation Act made administrative adjudication an arbitrary process by stipulating in Article 18-1 that even if an administrative appeal may be instituted against a disposition in question pursuant to the provisions of the Act and subordinate statutes, an administrative suit may be instituted without doing so, there is an exception for when other Acts stipulate that a revocation suit shall not be instituted without going through an administrative adjudication for the disposition in question. Considering that the State Public Officials Act states in Article 16-1 that no administrative litigation shall be lodged without undergoing the review and decision of an appeals review committee, appeals review is a necessary procedure that must be followed through prior to lodging administrative litigation.

Composition and Organization of the Appeals Review Committee

• The appeals review committee shall be comprised of five to seven standing members, including a chairperson and non-standing members whose number is at least half the number of standing members. The chairperson shall be appointed from among public officials in political service (Article 9-3, State Public Officials Act). As of June 2022, the committee is comprised of five standing members including the chairperson and seven non-standing members. There is an administrative division to handle administrative matters related to the committee.

Right of statement by the appellant

• To remedy the rights and interests of the appellant, Appeals Commission provides the appellant or his or her agent with an opportunity to state opinion during the review process.
  The appellant may state his or her opinion verbally or in writing.
  * The appellant (or agent) may voluntarily waive his or her right to make a statement.
  However, if Appeals Commission fails to grant the appellant a right to make a statement, the decision issued by the Commission can become invalid.

Procedures for Appeals Review

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