The Scope of the President's Criminal Privilege : From a Constitutional Amendment Perspective

Article 84 of the Constitution, which stipulates the criminal privilege of the President, was stipulated in the Constitution due to the need to ensure the exercise of his duties as President and to maintain the dignity and authority of the state, and has remained largely unchanged from the Founding Constitution to the present. However, the scope of application of Article 84 remains unclear and ambiguous due to conflicting interpretations and lack of discussion. In addition, discussions on constitutional amendments, which have been attempted several times with the aim of abolishing the imperial presidency and establishing true decentralization, have not paid much attention to Article 84. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify Article 84 through constitutional amendments, and the French case is worth looking at positively. In the case of France, the constitutional amendment regarding the criminal liability of the president emphasized the status and duties of the president rather than equality before the law. This choice by the French constitutional amendment authority is consistent with the fact that the Constitution of the Fifth French Republic, unlike the previous republics, adopted a form of government in which the status and authority of the president is substantial. In our case, we believe that equality before the law and the status and duties of the President under the Constitution are factors to be considered equally when developing a constitutional amendment regarding the scope of Article 84 of the Constitution, and it is up to the constitutional amendment authority to decide which point to emphasize. However, regardless of the choice made by the constitutional amendment authority, the constitutional amendment should at least be consistent with other constitutional provisions and the overall system of the constitution from the perspective of constitutional unity and consistency.