• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.53-85
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• 2022

Small and medium-sized enterprises ("SMEs") are vulnerable to trade secret misappropriation. Korea's legislation for the protection of SMEs' trade secrets and provision of civil, criminal, and administrative remedies includes the SME Technology Protection Act, the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, the Industrial Technology Protection Act, the Mutually Beneficial Cooperation Act, and the Subcontracting Act. Among these acts, the revised SME Technology Protection Act of 2018 introduced the "administrative technology misappropriation investigation system" to facilitate a rapid resolution of SMEs' technology misappropriation disputes. On September 27, 2021, Korea's Ministry of SMEs announced that it had reached an agreement to resolve the dispute between Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samyeong Machinery through the administrative technology misappropriation investigation system. However, not until 3 years and a few months passed since the introduction of the system could it be used to resolve an SME's technology misappropriation dispute with a large corporation. So there arose a question on the usefulness of the system. Therefore, we conducted a comparative legal analysis of Korea's laws enacted to protect trade secrets of SMEs and to address technology misappropriation, focusing on their legislative purpose, protected subject matter, types of misappropriation, and legal remedies. Then we analyzed the administrative technology misappropriation investigation system and the cases where this system was applied. We developed a proposal to enhance the usefulness of the system. The expert interviews of 4 attorneys who are experienced in the management of the system to check the practical value of the proposal. Our analysis shows that the lack of compulsory investigation and criminal sanctions is the fundamental limitation of the system. We propose revising the SME Technology Protection Act to provide correction orders, criminal sanctions, and compulsory investigation. We also propose training professional workforces to conduct digital forensics, enabling terminated SMEs to utilize the system, and assuring independence and fairness of the mediation and arbitration of the technology misappropriation disputes.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.135-156
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• 2016

This study, with reference to data on economic conditions in Shandong Province, China, looked into trade and investment activities in Korea and major cities of Shandong - Qingdao, Yantai, Weihai and Jinan - and investigated claim cases between the two countries by type. In addition, we investigated the matter empirically by conducting a survey administered to 300 Korean companies investing in Shandong Province and, based on the data, tested hypotheses for inferential analysis. The findings are as follows: i) while hypotheses in which the size of a firm, represented by import and export volume, has a positive relation with the frequency of trade claim filings (H1) and with the financial value of the trade claims (H2) were quoted, company size proved to have a significantly negative relation with the time required to obtain a claim decision, which rejects the third hypothesis (H3) in which the relation was thought to be positive: ii) while products, as represented by the type of business, showed a clearly significant difference with the frequency of trade claim filings (H4) and with methods of preventing and responding to claims (H6), they did not show a significant link to the type of trade claim (H5). This study is a theoretical and empirical overview of Korean companies based in Shandong Province of China, and can be used to address the practical needs of the Korean companies looking to start business in Shandong Province.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.101-124
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• 2018

After the establishment of the Korean Product Liability Act, a new clause on the burden of proof has been added and is being revised to meet the purpose of consumer protection. Article 3(2) of the new clause stipulates a provision for estimating a causal relationship when proving indirect facts to alleviate burden of proof. While consumer rights are increasing and public attention is drawn to consumer issues, problems are still emerging. In order to solve the problem, the U.S. Product Liability Act, which has strong consumer rights, was examined to describe the direction in which Korea's Product Liability Act should proceed in terms of consumer protection. The results of the comparative analysis show that the US has expanded the concept of strict liability in terms of rigorous liability, consumer dispute resolution, provable possibility, and litigation accessibility, The consumer dispute settlement system has thoroughly protected consumers by operating educational and systemic consumer ADR system. As for the possibility of proving, Korea has three provenances, and the United States has one. In the United States, where consumer lawsuits are frequent, lawsuits are more accessible than those in Korea, where the party responsible for proving is turned into a manufacturer and responsible for proving the case. This study focuses on consumer protection and provides implications for Korean product liability law.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1D
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• pp.115-123
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• 2006

Recently, construction claims have been increased for protecting the rights of construction participants and effectively adjusting the changes under the contract. Thus, the importance of claim management has been emphasized in the construction industry. In domestic construction industry, some claim issues involved in construction activities are often being developed into disputes and even litigations because of the absence of methods or systems for the dispute resolution, and the lack of judicial precedents which can be provided as the references for resolving a particular dispute. In general, the judicial precedents related to the disputes and litigations occurred among construction participants would be extremely valuable in evaluating and analyzing current claims issues. However, such useful information has not been effectively accumulated and utilized in resolving the similar or sometimes identical types of disputes, thus requiring a large amount of additional costs, time and efforts. The primary objective of this study is to propose a web-based decision support system for construction claim management, which enables contractual participants to easily access and use the information of the judicial precedents related to the current construction claims. The decision support system is composed of 'prevention' and 'settlement' modules for avoiding and systematically resolving the construction claims.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.107-135
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• 2016

Medical tour can be said to be a new high added-value tour industry of 21st century. The development of varied and distinguished medical tour products by each country will further vitalize the medical tour industry. As the interest in such medical tour increases, it is necessary to analyze the demand and interests of tourists accurately and prepare medical tour products to be provided in order to develop and promote medical tour products. The government considers the medical tour industry as an industry with high expected effects in job creation through promotion of experts in global healthcare industry and national economy development through high added-value creation, and has expanded aid policies in medical tour field with improvement of medical tour immigration system, one-stop service system for medical tourists, and medical tour labor force promotion system. Nevertheless, there are disputes between foreign patients and medical tour inviting businesses, along with medical accident disputes between foreign patients and medical staff and disputes with those working in the tourism industry. This article reviews the types of disputes occurring around the inviting businesses related to medical tours and tried to review the resolutions. Through this, it was found that medical tour inviting businesses have the responsibility to connect the mediated benefits and risks and also the responsibility to process the tasks. Thus, in case dispute occurs due to passive actions from establishing agency agreement to active mediation results, it is difficult to escape the liabilities. Also, in a medical tour agency contract, the inviting business must be aware that it bears the responsibility to explain and advise the details on benefits and risks to foreign patients. The "Guide to arbitration system for resolution of medical disputes with foreign patients" by Korea Health Industry Development Institute Act presents a method to resolve disputes according to the [laws on medical accident damage relief and medical dispute arbitration] in case a dispute due to medical accidents occurs to foreign patients when the foreign patients prepare diagnosis agreement, Whether such method is sufficient to protect foreign patients, however, is thought to require discussions from more diverse perspectives. In order to vitalize medical tourism, the development of diverse products is also important, but the countermeasures against related disputes should also be prepared. Such is expected to contribute to a greater advancement based on trust of foreign medical tourists alongside excellent medical technologies.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.381-391
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• 2016

This study analyzed the reporting activities of journalists who covered MERS-CoV in 2015. Twenty-one reporters were interviewed to investigate their differences in reporting. They were categorized into four small groups based on their specialism and professionalism. Some specialist reporters answered that they acknowledged the first MERS patient through an external source. A few special reporters contacted foreign experts for further information and one of them answered that she read academic articles on MERS to verify governmental announcements. Specialist reporter groups and the other groups showed difference when they were asked the situation they felt something was going wrong in governmental communication: Many specialist reporters pointed out the outbreak of a patient from out of the monitoring people, but many general reporters emphasized the policy of the government not to reveal the name of hospitals that the outbreaks happened.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.8 no.1 s.35
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• pp.78-86
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• 2007

Top priority to manage construction projects is given to the planning and scheduling in order to keep the project duration, which is one of the most important factors in construction management. However, recently most of public construction projects especially for civil projects are delays and preventive research, many efforts were made concerning construction delays and preventive management methods. But analysis of delay causation, which is a main key to solve the problems is not done, yet. Therefore, in this research causation delays are analyzed by characteristics of construction projects, which are type of projects, type of contracts, project participants, and general condition. As a result of the analysis, delay causation are proved to be different by characteristics of the projects. The research results will be used for prevention of time extension and dispute resolution.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.83-104
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• 2005

The Korean system of labor adjudication on the cases of unfair dismissal and unfair labor practices has been criticized by labor and management in spite of the strong point that the Labor Relations Commission processes the cases quickly. This paper empirically investigates the effectiveness of labor adjudication dealt by the Labor Relations Commission with economic approach. It shows that the grievences of labor and management on the existing labor adjudication system have come from the inadequate processes of labor adjudication rather than the favorable or unfavorable ruling. It also shows that a major deterrent to make an effective labor adjudication system has been not the problems of the selfish attitude and expectation of labor and management but the improper attitude and quality of the member and staff of the Labor Relations Commission.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.37-73
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• 2001

I. Preface It is widely understood that the 21st century, with the development of information technology(IT) and the spread of networks, will be called a digital economy where information-driven business will be norm rather than the smokestack economy of the past. And the drastically changed world market is expected to generate even more commercial transactions across the world creating large numbers of legal disputes. Therefore, each country will attempt to develop ADR(Alternative Dispute Resolution) as an alternative to judicial proceedings in order to cope with not only the ever-increasing international commercial claims but also domestic legal disputes. Taking this reality into account, this study begins with an exploration of mediation procedure as a way of helping the court faced with its overwhelming numbers of lawsuits. And also this study makes a theoretical comparison between ADR and mediation procedure, analyzing critical factors affecting the mediation agreement. Furthermore, it is designed to find ways for disputing parties to make better use of mediation and ensure fairness to the parties involved. It tries to enhance mediators' understanding of critical factors influencing the mediation agreement and their ability to handle commercial disputes in a more efficient way. To make an empirical analysis of these factors, bibliographic research and questionnaire were used. This analysis will fill the gap between the theory and reality, and make possible the structured research on the factors. Therefore, this study sets the model by which we can evaluate how the three critical factors (parties' inclination, mediators' characteristics, institutional features) affect the parties reaching a mediation agreement. Based on this analysis, a theoretical hypothesis was built and a questionnaire was made and distributed. During the course of this work, SPSSWIN 10.0 program was applied.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.113-134
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• 2015

In new housing demand, proportion of occupied multi-housing is 89.9% (statistics from 2013). In this way, with many generations living together, apartment noise disputes between the neighbors are continuously rising. The apartment noise problem in Korea is at a very serious level worldwide (about 88% of the population is experiencing stress due to apartment noise). On the other hand, the government has strengthened the regulations (such as the thickness of the floor and floor impact sound reduction performance, etc.) and promoted a resolution of its own for each multi-housing estates for mediating disputes on apartment noise. However, such physical regulations and passive management policies still presents a limit to the dispute mitigation of apartment noise. Also, in order to improve the quality of life in living spaces, policy on health effects of apartment noise should be provided. Therefore, we investigated a case study of the noise exposure-human body reaction to analyze the effect of noise on health. On the basis of this, the health effects according to the exposure period of apartment noise were considered.