Does South Korea use jury trials?

Limited use / mixed courts

Citizen participation trials use juries only when defendant requests it, with court discretion to exclude cases.

South Korea is one of 16 countries classified “Limited use / mixed courts” for jury trials — 55% of the 29 with data.

Source

Taken from
Wikipedia: Jury trial
Last checked
7 July 2026
How it was classified
Classified by a language model from the source text, then checked against hand-verified reference countries.

Nearby countries

Japan
Limited use / mixed courts Japan introduced a lay judge system for serious crimes, but not general jury trials.
Taiwan
Jury trials used Citizen judge system implemented in 2023, with random selection of citizens participating in felony trials.
Hong Kong
Jury trials used Hong Kong maintains jury trials for criminal cases in the High Court, but not in the District Court.
Malaysia
Not used Malaysia abolished jury trials in 1995 due to concerns about impartiality.
Russia
Limited use / mixed courts Jury trials are limited to serious crimes in Russia, with only about 600 per year out of 1 million trials.
India
Limited use / mixed courts India used jury trials in High Courts of Presidency towns, but not elsewhere under British rule.

Other laws in South Korea

Death Penalty
Not used in practice
School Corporal Punishment
Banned
Military Conscription
Active conscription

Every law in South Korea → · Which countries use jury trials? →

A visual reference compiled from Wikipedia’s law-by-country articles, not legal advice. Laws change and summaries simplify — check a primary source before relying on anything here.