• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.435-459
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• 2014

Supreme Court of Korea has been mitigating the burden of proof on the malpractice and causal relation by a patient in accordance with the practical transfer of such burden of proof on causal relation as well as relieving a doctor's burden of proof on mistake in the civil damage claim suits on the malpractice. However, a prosecutor shall strictly prove the causal relation between malpractice and unfavorable results as well as a doctor's mistake in the criminal cases for making a doctor accept the professional negligence resulting in death or injury in accordance with In Dubio Pro Reo principles. Furthermore, it shall not be allowed to relieve the burden of proof on malpractice and causal relation which has been frequently applied in the civil proceedings. Nevertheless, it was widely known that the front-line courts accepted the malpractice and causal relation by quoting the legal principles on relieving the burden of proof on malpractice and causal relation applied in the civil cases even in criminal cases with no or insufficient proof on malpractice or causal relation. However, the latest precedents in Supreme Court explicitly declared the opinion that there was no reason to apply the legal principle to relieve the burden of proof on the malpractice and causal relation in the criminal cases requiring the proof 'which doesn't cause any reasonable doubt' on malpractice and causal relation in accordance with the legal principles 'favorable judgment for a defendant in case of any doubt' on the basis of the strict principle of 'nulla poena sine lege.' Accordingly, Supreme court definitely clarified that there would be no reason to relieve the burden of proof on malpractice and causal relation in criminal cases by reversing several original judgments accepting malpractice and causal relation even though there were no strict evidence.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.3-36
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• 2023

The main issue in medical malpractice civil litigation is medical negligence and the causal relationship between medical negligence and damages. Regarding the presumption of causality in cases where medical negligence is proven, there is a previous Supreme Court decision 93da52402 on February 10, 1995, but it is difficult to find a case that satisfies the textual requirements of the above decision, and yet, in practice, the above decision is cited. In many cases, causal relationships were assumed, and criticism was consistently raised that it was inconsistent with the text of the above judgment. In its ruling, the Supreme Court reorganized and presented a new legal principle regarding the presumption of causality when medical negligence is proven in a civil lawsuit. According to this, If the patient proves ① the existence of an act that is assessed as a medical negligence, that is, a violation of the duty of care required of an ordinary medical professional at the level of medical care practiced in the field of clinical medicine at the time of medical practice, and ② that the negligence is likely to cause damages to the patient, the burden of proving the causal relationship is alleviated by presuming a causal relationship between medical negligence and damage. Here, the probability of occurrence of damage does not need to be proven beyond doubt from a natural scientific or medical perspective, but if recognizing the causal relationship between the negligence and the damage does not comply with medical principles or if there is a vague possibility that the negligence will cause damage, causality cannot be considered proven. Meanwhile, even if a causal relationship between medical negligence and damage is presumed, the party that performed the medical treatment can overturn the presumption by proving that the patient's damage was not caused by medical negligence. Meanwhile, unlike civil cases, the standard is 'proof beyond reasonable doubt' in criminal cases, and the legal principle of presuming causality does not apply. Accordingly, in a criminal case of professional negligence manslaughter that was decided on the same day regarding the same medical accident, the case was overturned and remanded for not guilty due to lack of proof of a causal relationship between medical negligence and death. The above criminal ruling is a ruling that states that even if 'professional negligence' is recognized in a criminal case related to medical malpractice, the person should not be judged guilty if there is a lack of clear proof of 'causal relationship'.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.75-100
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• 2013

Health damages such as pneumoconiosis and kidney damage, caused by environmental hazardous factors are being reported in health impact assessment conducted on environmentally vulnerable areas, including cement factories and refineries. Current legal system for relieving the environmental victims is not effective enough because the environmental health act does not specify the environmental hazardous factors to be considered for the relief. The aim of this study is to examine the problems of the existing system by making empirical analysis on health damages and afflicted people as well as on cases when afflicted people were able to be covered by remedy system. The results show that, insufficiencies of the relief system are due to the following reasons: First, current Environmental Health Act does not act well as a remedy system. Second, due to its unique nature of environmental health damage, it is hard to identify and prove the cause of health damage and unlawful actions of violators in the process of environmental dispute conciliation and lawsuits against polluters. This paper suggests following solutions on above mentioned problems. First, in defining the range and definition of environmental diseases, negative system should be used alongside with the current positive system. Second, we suggest adding the nature of public law to relief system, in order to ease the legal burden of proof. Third, in case when it is hard to identify the polluters and one cannot expect reliefs for their damage, it is possible to elevate the effectiveness of the relief measure by expanding scope of the search for possible environmental hazardous factors that caused the health damage. It is urgent to improve the relief system so as to secure the environmental rights of Koreans.