Cho Hee Dae (; also written "Jo Hee-de"; born 6 June 1957) is a South Korean judge who has served as the 17th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea since his appointment by President Yoon Suk Yeol in December 2023. He was responsible for reading the controversial verdict on overturning of acquittal judgement of Lee Jae-myung regarding the violation of Public Official Election Act on 1 May 2025.

Life and career

Cho Hee-dae was born on 6 June 1957 in

Gyeongju Gyeongju (, ), historically known as Seorabeol (, ), is a coastal city in the far southeastern corner of North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It is the second largest city by area in the province after Andong, covering with a population of ...

, South Korea. He graduated from Kyeongbuk High School and Seoul National University School of Law, and started his legal career as trial court judge in 1986. After almost thirty years of serving in South Korean ordinary courts as judge, he got promoted to associate justice of the Supreme Court of Korea, by nomination of 15th Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae and appointment from President Park Geun-hye in 2014. During his term as associate justice, he was well known for his conservative views, including making dissenting opinions arguing that Heather Cho should be punished for changing flight course in the nut rage incident, or making another dissenting opinions over case on whether to punish

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

, supporting those objectors should be punished under conscription law of that time. After 6 years of term as associate justice in South Korean Supreme Court, Cho Hee-dae turned his eye to academia and began academic career as endowed chair professor at Sungkyunkwan University Law School from 2020. Around the retirement of 16th Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su in September 2023, he was not President Yoon Suk Yeol's primary choice for next chief justice candidate. However, in October, when President Yoon's close friend judge Lee Gyun-ryong failed to be confirmed by the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

due to his strongly conservative views and problems around family assets, the President had to look for candidates that can also satisfy Democratic Party of Korea, which held a majority in the National Assembly. Known as a moderately-conservative judge, Cho had a favourable public image because he did not serve as a private attorney after retiring from Supreme Court associate justice, which made him free from problems of '' Jeon-gwan ye-u'', a somewhat common problem in South Korean judiciary that retired high level government lawyers using their former public career and network to pursue their own secular interests. This non-secular career of Jo as law professor after Supreme Court associate justice, led President Yoon to nominate him as candidate for 17th Chief Justice in November 2023. On 8 December 2023, as Cho Hee-Dae had no problems of personal issues including '' Jeon-gwan ye-u'', his nomination was approved by a 264-18 vote in the

. Upon congressional confirmation, and President Yoon appointed Cho as 17th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea.

References and notes

External links

Supreme Court > Chief Justice
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cho, Hee-dae 1957 births Living people People from Gyeongju Kyeongbuk High School alumni Seoul National University School of Law alumni Cornell Law School alumni South Korean judges Associate justices of the Supreme Court of Korea Academic staff of Sungkyunkwan University Chief justices of the Supreme Court of Korea

Life and career

See also

References and notes

External links