On January 2, 2018, Chul-sang Ahn, a graduate of Konkuk University (KU) School of Law with the class of 1976 and 15th graduate of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, started his six-year term as a Justice of the Supreme Court.
With Justice Ahn’s inauguration following Justice of the Constitutional Court Yong-ho, Cho, a graduate of Konkuk University (KU) School of Law with the class of 1973 and 10th graduate of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, KU has now become the university producing high-ranking judicial officers. Up to now, Seoul National University and KU are the only universities turning out both justices of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.
Justice Ahn was born on March 5, 1957 in Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do. Justice Ahn earned his LL.B. from Konkuk University and passed the 24th National Judicial Examination in 1982. He was appointed as a judge in 1986 and started his judgeship at Jinju Branch Court of Masan District Court. Justice Ahn served as a judge at various courts including Seoul Administrative Court and Seoul High Court, the Supreme Court, Judicial Research and Training Institute and Supreme Court Library. He was appointed as Justice on January 2, 2018 while serving as the Chief Judge of Daejeon District
Being a friendly and cordial judge with extensive legal knowledge, Justice Ahn has gained solid confidence from within and outside the courts throughout his 30 years of judgeship at various courts while handling civil, administrative, criminal and other types of cases. Justice Ahn is particularly renowned for his expertise in the fields of administrative law and civil execution.
He has defended the rights of the socially vulnerable and minority groups through his judgments that alleviated the verification process of the causal relationship for cases involving post-vaccinal disorder and diseases caused by occupational accidents; cancelled the disposition of administrative discharge on a military officer diagnosed with cancer; and recognized a Myanmarese democratic activist’s status as a refugee. In addition, his judgments expanded the scope of the citizen’s rights protection by recognizing the administrative commitments made by administrative bodies as administrative dispositions; cancelling the decision that declared a song as a medium harmful to juveniles for including the word ‘liquor’ in its lyric, etc.
Justice Ahn whose accomplishments in scholarly activities have been widely recognized was the President of the Association of Korean Civil Judgment Enforcement Law, Vice President of the Korea Public Administration Case Study Association, Vice President of the Korean Administrative Law Association, and President of the Press Media Law Society. He has earned a doctorate with the thesis on the 〈Research on Party Litigation of the Public Law, and was the principal writer of the books 〈Theories and Practices of Administrative Litigation〉 and 〈Court Affairs: Civil Execution and Non-Litigation (Revised Edition)〉, along with numerous scholarly articles and books.