Legal Officials, Justice, and the King in Late Chosŏn Korea

Speaker: Ha-kyoung Lee, Associate Professor, Academy of Korean Studies (South Korea)

Moderator: Jungwon Kim, the King Sejong Assistant Professor of Korean Studies, EALAC Columbia University

Ha-kyoung Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Academy of Korean Studies. Her research investigates the intersections of law, authority, and governance in premodern Asia, with a particular emphasis on the legislative processes and legal practices of Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910). She is currently working on two projects: Confucian Moral Ethics, Moral Crimes, and the State in Chosŏn Korea (funded by the National Research Foundation, 2025-2027) and Koreans’ Legal Literacy: Its Historical Formation and Development (supported by the Institute for Legal Studies at Yonsei University, 2025-2031). Her recent publications include “The Judicial System for Confucian Moral Crimes in Late Chosŏn Korea, Samsŏngch’uguk” Pŏpsahak Yŏn'gu 71 (2025). This lecture draws from her forthcoming article, “Roles and Challenges of Legal Officials During King Chŏngjo’s Reign,” The Journal of Korean Studies (Vol. 31, no. 2, 2026).

Professor Lee will deliver her lecture entitled Legal Officials, Justice, and the King in Late Chosŏn Korea on Tuesday, November 18, 2025.

This lecture examines how legal officials (yulgwan) and state authority intersected in the judicial system of late Chosŏn Korea, focusing on the reign of King Chŏngjo (1776–1800). Entrusted with interpreting statutes and advising on judicial decisions, legal officials were indispensable to the functioning of law, yet they became recurring targets of royal censure. King Chŏngjo, while affirming their role in preserving judicial integrity, subjected them to rigorous scrutiny and imposed severe disciplinary measures when their judgments fell short of his expectations. Were these punishments evidence of professional inadequacy, or of the king’s determination to assert interpretive control over the law? These tensions highlight the overlooked presence of legal officials and underscore both the professional functions they performed and the disciplinary pressures that constrained them, thereby offering new insights into justice and governance in a Confucian state.

This event is hosted by the Center for Korean Research at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
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Host or Publisher Weatherhead East Asian Institute