朝鮮時代の定配について

Abstract

The penal system of Joseon Korea was built on the basis of the criminal code of Ming China. The punishment given to each criminal in Korea corresponded, in principle, to the Five Punishments prescribed in the Ming code. However, Korean kings sometimes issued special decrees that overruled the authority of the articles of the Ming code ; there were, therefore, some punishments that were not seen in the Ming code. Jeongbae, or penal banishment, was one of the punishments not seen in the Ming code. Originally, jeongbae was a general term for the selection of a place of exile for a criminal banished under the Ming code. However, jeongbae became a special term in the late Joseon period that referred to the punishment of exile resulting from the kingʼs intervention rather than in accordance with the articles of the Ming code. These interventions, which had no basis in the articles of the Ming code and were exceptions, could not be cited as judicial precedent in general cases. However, an increase in the number of such cases transformed the exceptions into a general precedent. The Joseon kings compiled such precedents and created additional codes as supplements to the articles of the Ming code. Jeongbae was prescribed as a punishment in the legal codes, and it became a legal punishment in the late Joseon period. However, the actual conditions under which criminals were sentenced to jeongbae are not very clear. In their place of exile, some criminals were sentenced to labor service or penal servitude according to their social status, and this involuntary service was more difficult than those punishments they had previously born. However, scholar-officials sentenced to jeongbae were not assigned any labor service ; because of this, jeongbae in the case of scholar-officials can be understood as a disciplinary measure assigned on the basis of the special relationship between the king and his officials, exempting them from the application of the penal codes for ordinary people.