The Honorable Justice KIM Seon-soo was born in Jinan, Jeollabuk-do on April 23, 1961. He received an LL.B. from Seoul National University, College of Law in 1986. He passed the 27th National Judicial Examination in 1985. He has practiced law ever since he completed training courses at the Judicial Research and Training Institute (17th class of JRTI) in 1988.

Justice Kim has gained extensive practical experience with his wide-ranging activities as an attorney for the last 30 years of his legal career. Based on such experience, coupled with his insightful understanding of human beings and society, he has consistently made efforts to protect the rights of the vulnerable and minorities. He is widely credited for playing a pivotal role in entrenching democratic order and values in our society, in particular, by setting a host of meaningful precedents on cases regarding the Constitution and labor law, and striving to establish standards for labor relations.

Justice Kim endeavored to advance labor law by holding various positions such as an adjudication member of public interests at the National Labor Relations Commission and a standing member of the Economic, Social and Labor Council. In addition, by serving as a non-standing member of the Supreme Court’s Judicial Reform Committee and secretary of the Presidential Committee on Judicial Reform, he continued conducting a broad range of research on the overall Korean judicial system, which led to the introduction of law school system and the citizens’ participation in criminal trials; improvement on the arrest and detention system; firm establishment of the principle of court-oriented trials; improvement on the sentencing system.

Justice Kim is the author of Report on Judicial Reform, In Defense of Labor, and numerous articles, including Procedural Legitimacy of Industrial Action.