Rights talk has become ubiquitous in contemporary Korea, and people are increasingly asserting their rights via the courts and other channels. Yet our understanding of how claimants define and articulate their rights and act to remedy their grievances has yet to be comprehensively updated in the field of Korean studies. The mechanisms and processes of claiming rights are how rights become legible. Through comparisons across time and issue area, this conference will examine the institutions and practices that shape rights in Korea. In particular, the conference papers will trace the social and political significance of rights in Korea, analyzing how experiences of Japanese colonial occupation, war and national division, authoritarian rule, democratization, and transitional justice imbued the concept of rights with distinctive meanings. They will elucidate and compare the rights narratives of minority groups, including women, persons with disabilities, LGBT individuals, laborers, migrants, and North Korean defectors. The conference aims to advance the study of rights discourses and rights-claiming in Korea by bringing together scholars from political science, law, sociology, history, and geography.

Conference Schedule

8:30 AM – 9:00 AM                            Breakfast

9:00 AM – 9:30 AM                            Welcoming Remarks & Introduction

                                                                   Welcoming Remarks: Jisoo M. Kim

Introduction: Celeste Arrington and Patricia Goedde

9:30 AM – 11:30 AM                          Panel I: Rights in Historical Perspective

                                            Discussant: Li Chen (University of Toronto)

Legal Disputes and the Precursors of Rights (Kwŏlli) in Chosŏn Korea

Jisoo M. Kim (George Washington University)

Precarious Inheritance: Women and the Rights over Separate Property in Colonial Korea

Sungyun Lim (University of Colorado, Boulder)

A Tale of Two Commissions: The Evolution of Rights Claims in the Jeju Commission and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea

Hun Joon Kim (Korea University) 

11:30 AM – 1:30 PM                          Lunch

1:30 PM – 3:30 PM                             Panel II: Institutional Mechanisms for Rights Claiming

Discussants: Stephan Haggard (University of California, San Diego) and

         Eric Feldman (University of Pennsylvania)

The State, the Constitutional Court, and I: Fundamental Rights and Judicial Review in Korea

Hannes Mosler (Freie Universität Berlin)

Evolving Legal Opportunity Structures in South Korea

Celeste Arrington (George Washington University)

The Institutional Development and Sustainability of Public Interest Lawyering in Korea

Patricia Goedde (Sungkyunkwan University)

3:30 PM – 4:00 PM                             Coffee Break

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM                             Panel III: Mobilizing Rights for the Marginalized

  Discussants: Eric Feldman (University of Pennsylvania) and

   Sida Liu (University of Toronto) 

The Disability Rights Movement and Legal Practice in South Korea

Jae Won Kim (Sungkyunkwan University)

Now, Later, Never: On Shigisangjo and Prematurity

Ju Hui Judy Han (University of California, Los Angeles)

The Movement for an Anti-Discrimination Act

Jihye Kim (Gangneung-Wonju National University) and Sung Soo Hong (Sookmyung Women’s University)

From “Humane Treatment” to “We Want to Work”: The Changing Notion of Labor Rights in South Korea

Yoonkyung Lee (University of Toronto)