[1] Meaning of autonomous affairs subject to the residents' voting, and whether state affairs and delegated affairs of an agency are subject to the residents' voting (negative)

[2] Whether the issue of adoption of a local innovation city construction proposal to be entered by a public institution that moves to a local area pursuant to Article 18 of the Special Act on Balanced National Development constitutes autonomous affairs subject to residents' voting (negative)

[1] Article 7 (1) of the Residents' Voting Act provides that "the main decision of a local government which imposes an excessive burden on residents or has a significant impact on them" and its specific contents are prescribed by the Municipal Ordinance of a local government, and in light of Article 7 (2) 2 of the same Act, the autonomous affairs of a local government subject to a residents' voting refers to the autonomous affairs of a local government and the delegated affairs of an organization, and the affairs and affairs of an organization are not included.

[2] Relocation projects of public agencies are administrative affairs conducted by the Government under Article 18 of the Special Act on Balanced National Development, which constitute national administrative affairs, and projects that build new regional innovation cities are also borne by the State. Furthermore, when the Government presents the principle and specific evaluation criteria for location selection of local innovation cities, the Mayor/Do Governor shall evaluate candidates according to the evaluation criteria, report the evaluation results to the Government, and select them under consultation with the Government. If the Mayor/Do Governor intends to determine detailed matters necessary for the location selection of innovation cities, he/she shall determine them within the scope of the guidelines for location selection of innovation cities provided by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation. In light of the fact that the Government is participating in the organization of the location selection committee for location selection of innovation cities, part of the national administrative affairs of the State is delegated to the head of the local government. Accordingly, the matters related to the adoption of the local innovation city construction plan does not constitute autonomous affairs subject to residents' voting under Article 7 of the Residents' Voting Act.

[1] Article 7 (2) 2 of the Residents' Voting Act, Article 13-2 (see current Article 14) of the former Local Autonomy Act (amended by Act No. 8423 of May 11, 2007) / [2] Article 18 of the Special Act on Balanced National Development, Article 7 (2) 2 of the Residents' Voting Act, Article 13-2 (see current Article 14) of the former Local Autonomy Act (amended by Act No. 8423 of May 11, 2007)

Plaintiff (Law Firm Head, Attorneys Park Jae-hwan et al., Counsel for plaintiff-appellant)

The Gwangju Metropolitan City Mayor (Attorney Han-chul, Counsel for the defendant-appellant)

June 22, 2006

1. The plaintiff's claim is dismissed.

2. Litigation costs shall be borne by the plaintiff.

The defendant's rejection disposition against the plaintiff on November 21, 2005 against the plaintiff shall be revoked.

1. Details of the disposition;

A. Some Gwangju citizens, including the Plaintiff, decided to jointly construct an innovation city on the ground of the Korea Electric Power Corporation, the Korea Electric Co., Ltd., and the Korea Power Exchange (hereinafter “Korea Power Exchange, etc.”) whose relocation has been decided to Gwangju Metropolitan City with respect to the relocation of public institutions to Seoul metropolitan areas pursuant to Article 18 of the Special Act on Balanced National Development, and the Gwangju Metropolitan City selects the innovation city as the location of the innovation city. As long as the Han River, etc. was transferred to Gwangju Metropolitan City, the innovation city should be constructed in Gwangju Metropolitan City on the ground of Han River, etc., and as long as the innovative city site selection work falls under the affairs of local governments, if the innovation city is to be built in the area of Jeonnam-do, other than Gwangju Metropolitan City, to the extent that it falls under the affairs of local governments, it should undergo the procedures of gathering opinions from the residents of Gwangju metropolitan residents by seeking a residents' voting (hereinafter “the plaintiff’s voting of the case”).

B. On November 15, 2005, the Plaintiff submitted to the Defendant an application for issuance of a certificate of representative of petitioners for residents' voting, stating the Plaintiff's personal information, purport of and reasons for requesting residents' voting on the same grounds as the above A. However, the Defendant rendered the instant disposition rejecting the Plaintiff's application for issuance of a certificate of representative of petitioners for residents' voting on November 21, 2005 on the ground that the project transferred to a public institution pursuant to Article 18 of the Special Act on Balanced National Development constitutes the State's authority or affairs and the Plaintiff's request for residents' voting does not fall under matters concerning the establishment and management of major public facilities to provide for use by the majority of residents under Article 4 of the Gwangju Metropolitan City Ordinance on Balanced National Development.

[Ground of recognition] Unsatisfy, Gap evidence Nos. 1 and 2, the purport of the whole pleadings

2. Whether the instant disposition is lawful

A. The plaintiff's assertion

Since it is a local government’s affairs to select the location of a new innovation city by entering the State’s affairs or public institutions, the instant proposal for residents’ voting is unlawful even if it falls under the “matters concerning the establishment and management of major public facilities to provide multiple residents for use” under Article 7(1) of the Residents’ Voting Act and Article 4 subparag. 2 of the Gwangju Metropolitan City Ordinance on Residents’ Voting, or “other important decisions that have a significant impact on the welfare, safety, etc. of residents” under subparagraph 5 of Article 4 of the Seoul Metropolitan City Ordinance on Residents’ Voting as the autonomous affairs of Gwangju Metropolitan City and thus falls under the subject of residents’ voting.

B. Relevant statutes

The entries in the attached Table-related statutes are as follows.

C. Facts of recognition

(1) In order to efficiently implement policies to relocate public institutions to provinces under Article 18 of the Special Act on Balanced National Development, the heads of four central administrative agencies, including the Chairperson of the Balanced National Development Committee, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, and Gwangju Metropolitan City, and 12 Mayors/Do Governors, including Gwangju Metropolitan City, entered into the Framework Agreement on Relocation of Public Agencies on May 27, 2005. According to the above Framework Convention, the Government en bloc determines public institutions subject to relocation of each City/Do (Paragraph 3) and implements the construction of innovative cities (area 5) in cooperation with the City/Do to foster regional innovation hubs centering around public institutions that move to a Si/Gun/Gu (hereinafter “City/Do”); and the Government shall present the principles and criteria for the specific location of the innovation cities (Paragraph 5); determine the opinions of relocating agencies and consult with the Government (Paragraph 6); and the City/Do shall accept the results of the arrangement of agencies to move to provinces established by the Government in accordance with this Convention; and shall actively cooperate in implementing policies to relocate public institutions including the construction of innovative cities (Paragraph 9).

(2) According to the National Balanced Development Committee and the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, 21 central administrative agencies, including the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, jointly drafted on June 24, 2005, move to Gwangju Metropolitan City three agencies, such as Han electric field, and the establishment, location selection, etc. of the criteria for the selection of innovative city sites, such as the guidelines for the selection of innovative city sites, in addition to the contents contained in the above basic agreement, shall be determined after deliberation by the Balanced National Development Committee, and the relocation of public agencies shall be overall control over the affairs of the relocation of public agencies, and the Ministry of Construction and Transportation shall establish the "Act on the Promotion of Relocation of Public Agencies and Innovation City Construction" in the Ministry of Construction and Transportation to efficiently promote the construction of innovative cities,

(3) The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy, the Gwangju Metropolitan City Mayor, the president of the Korea Electric Power Corporation, the president of the Korea Electric Power Corporation, and the president of the Korea Power Exchange, etc. entered into a basic agreement on the implementation of the relocation of public agencies on August 8, 2005. The content of the agreement is that Gwangju Metropolitan City jointly constructs innovation cities with Jeonnam-do on the basis of the Framework Convention on Relocation of Public Agencies on May 27, 2005. The agencies moving into Gwangju-do shall, in principle, relocate the innovation cities to the innovation cities (Paragraph (2).), and the specific location of the innovation cities jointly built by Gwangju Metropolitan City to be jointly built by Jeonnam-do is that the Gwangju Metropolitan City and Jeonnam-do Governor shall collect the opinions of the relocating institutions and complete the selection of the location by September 2005 (Paragraph (

(4) According to the "Guidelines for the Selection of Innovation City Location" prepared by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation to present the general criteria for the selection of innovative City Location on July 27, 2005, the "Committee for the Selection of Innovation City Location" shall be established in the City/Do in order to determine the location of the Innovation City, its members shall recommend 1/2 of the total members, and the rest 1/2 of the members shall be recommended by the Relocation Agency Council, and the rest 1/2 of the members shall be recommended by the Relocation Agency Council. The evaluation of the innovation City candidate shall be conducted in accordance with the criteria set out in the evaluation criteria for the selection of the innovation city location, and the detailed items and marks (total points 100) for each of the criteria set forth in Section 2 of Chapter 3 shall be prepared (4-4-2 and attached Table 1), and the Mayor/Do Governor shall hear the opinions of the relocating Agency, the Council, and the Government before the evaluation of the innovation City Location, and the Mayor/Do Governor shall consult with the government before the final location is determined (4-4-4-1).

(5) On the other hand, on November 22, 2005, the defendant sent a letter to the Minister of Construction and Transportation on November 22, 2005, stating that the defendant, in accordance with the above guidelines for the selection of the location of the innovation city, would determine the number of goldcheon-si as the final candidate site in Gwangju-nam Joint Innovation City, Gwangju-nam Joint Innovation City, and sent a statement to the Government that it would request the Government to hold consultation, along with the documents, such as the status of the final candidate site, the process of selecting the final site, detailed evaluation standards and methods, and the location map of the final candidate site. On November 30, 2005, the Minister of Construction and Transportation sent a reply to

[Reasons for Recognition] Facts without dispute, Gap evidence 3, 4, Gap evidence 6, 7, Eul evidence 3 and 4, the purport of the whole pleadings

(d) Markets:

(1) Article 7 of the Residents' Voting Act provides that "the main decision of a local government which causes an excessive burden to residents or has a significant impact on them" for the residents' voting, and the details thereof are prescribed by the ordinance of a local government, and the autonomous affairs of a local government subject to the residents' voting refers to the affairs and affairs delegated by a local government, and the affairs delegated by the State and an agency are not subject to the residents' voting, in light of Article 7 (2) 2 of the Residents' Voting Act.

(2) Therefore, according to the above facts as to whether the residents' voting proposal in this case constitutes autonomous affairs subject to the residents' voting, it is deemed that the government's relocation project constitutes the state affairs, which is conducted under Article 18 of the Special Act on Balanced National Development, and that the government's relocation project constitutes the projects to build the local innovation city through the public agency relocating to the local area also bears the cost of the project. Furthermore, in relation to the project to select the location of the innovation city subject to the residents' voting in this case, the Mayor/Do governor shall evaluate the candidate according to the evaluation criteria, report the results of the evaluation to the government, and report the results of the evaluation to the government, and if the Mayor/Do governor intends to determine detailed matters necessary for the selection of the innovation city site, he/she shall determine the location within the scope of the guidelines for the selection of the innovation city site within the scope of the guidelines for the selection of the location, and in light of such overall circumstances, the selection project of the innovation city shall be deemed to constitute the delegated affairs of the local government, which is the State affairs, and therefore, the plaintiff's proposal shall not be justified.

3. Conclusion

Therefore, the plaintiff's claim of this case is dismissed as it is without merit, and it is so decided as per Disposition.

Judges Cho Jae-sung (Presiding Judge)