The Honorable KIM Sang Hwan was born in Daejeon on January 27, 1966. He received an LL.B. from Seoul National University, College of Law. He passed the 30th National Judicial Examination in 1988. He was appointed as a judge in March, 1994.

Since he began his judgeship at Busan District Court, he served as a judge at various courts including Seoul Western District Court, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, Jeju District Court and Seoul High Court. He was appointed as a Justice while serving as Chief Presiding Judge I of the Civil Chamber of Seoul Central District Court on December 28, 2018.

During his 25-year judicial career, he handled numerous criminal, civil and administrative cases. In particular, while sitting on Seoul Central District Court and Seoul High Court, he rendered a number of court decisions on high-profile cases which were credited for realizing universal and fair constitutional values. Through his 4-year experience as a Constitutional Research Officer at the Constitutional Court and his participation in two research groups within the judiciary: the Research group on the constitution and the Research group on labor law, he earned a reputation for his continuous efforts to seek what roles the courts can play to strengthen the normative power of the constitution.

In his article, Constitutional Mandate to Protect the Basic Rights and the Role of the Courts, he expressed in detail that the voices of social minorities should be heard in a fair and sincere manner at least in the courts of law, and that their basic rights should be guaranteed. Justice Kim is the author of numerous articles and commentaries on major issues in the area of civil and criminal law, including a number of articles on the basic rights of the people such as ‘Whether conscientious objection to military service constitutes military dodging’.