Criminal Law Response to Corruption Crimes : Focusing on the protection of whistleblower

In relation to laws to combat corruption, in particular this paper reviewed the regulations on the protection of reporters of corruption crimes. In addition, “Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law(whistleblowers in DIRECTIVE (EU))” were checked and the implications for our legislation were analyzed. It is necessary to accommodate in our law whistleblowers in DIRECTIVE (EU) stipulate three levels of public interest reporting: Reporting through internal reporting channels, Reporting through external reporting channels, Public disclosures, the procedures for each report are different, the fact that 15 groups are listed exemplarily while disadvantageous measures are referred to as “all retaliation”, and special measures for personal information protection are required. It also proposes ways to improve criminal law to protect corruption crime reporters. First, it is proposed to unify related laws (for example, the Anti-Corruption and Protection of Reporters Act) and to establish an organization that integrates both the public and private sectors as an independent organization. Second, as an internal report of the private sector, based on the existence of the current compliance support system, compliance program, and internal control standards in financial and commercial laws, the integration of the compliance management system of financial and commercial laws corresponding to internal reporting and corruption crime reporting-related laws corresponding to external reporting was proposed, as in whistleblowers in DIRECTIVE (EU). This is meaningful in unifying prevention and post-control. This is because prevention and strengthening internal control are important when it comes to corruption. Third, as a way to strengthen disadvantageous measures, it is argued that “all disadvantageous measures” should be prohibited and listed as an example, as in the European Union guidelines. In addition, it was proposed to establish a public defender system for public interest reporting, to introduce a pre-protection and post-approval system for personal protection, and to introduce a pseudonymized identity certification procedure. All of these can be said to be specific suggestions for protecting the identity of the reporter. Finally, regarding the punishment reduction and exemption system for judicial cooperators, it was emphasized that discussions made so far should be reviewed and carefully decided whether to introduce it or not, as they had already experienced the abolition of the term of office of the National Assembly in 2012. Most importantly, would like to emphasize that it is the realization of a society based on strengthening self-awareness about integrity and mutual trust, whether in public or private sectors.