Research Report
A Study on the Improvement of the Legal System of Cultural and Artistic Promotion
Ⅰ. Backgrounds and Purposes
○ Since the enactment of the ｢Culture and Arts Promotion Act｣ in 1972, which covers all aspects of culture and the arts, genre-specific promotion acts like the ｢Literature Promotion Act｣, the ｢Art Promotion Act｣, and the ｢Gugak Promotion Act｣ have been continuously established, as well as many acts related to the welfare, status, and protection of rights and interests of artists, such as the ｢Artist Welfare Act｣ and the ｢Act on Support for Cultural and Artistic Activities of Artists with Disabilities｣.
○ The ｢Culture and Arts Promotion Act｣ is the first law in Korea to establish a system for cultural and art administration, defining the “categories of art” by laws and providing the basis for a support system for the arts. This act has the status of a basic law or parent law on cultural and artistic promotion policies, as its vision and goals, terms and details, etc., are cited throughout acts related to cultural and art promotion, such as the ｢Artist Welfare Act｣ and｢Regional Culture Promotion Act｣.
○ However, when enacting a new law, any unorganized and unclear relationship with existing laws may lead to contradictions and conflicts among related laws, wastage of budget due to duplicate promotion and support, and difficulties in interpreting and applying laws in the administrative practice.
○ This is because the legislation was not compartmentalized after establishing a basic plan or policy to reform the legal system and in drawing up the overall legal framework governing the promotion of cultural and artistic activities but rather by transferring some provisions from the existing ｢Culture and Arts Promotion Act｣ to meet occasional short-term legislative needs. Based on these, individual acts related to the promotion of culture and the arts were compartmentalized and are still in progress.
○ Law can be said to be a framework for policies. There is an undeniable trend that cultural and artistic policies are becoming more diversified, segmented, and specialized; however, it cannot be said that continuing to enact individual laws without a legal framework that overlooks and systematizes the entirety of cultural promotion policies is the best way to promote culture and art. If anything, it is more important to ensure that measures to promote culture and art are properly put in place and implemented under the support of a systematic legal framework.
○ Accordingly, it is necessary to explore how to develop a desirable legal system to systematically pursue culture and art promotion policies in the future through thorough analysis of the current status and limitations of each related legislative system, as well as a comparative review of similar legislative cases, such as laws administered by other ministries in Korea, including the Ministry of Education, and to analyze overseas laws in Japan, the United States, etc.
○ In this context, this study aims to analyze the current status and limitations of each legal system related to culture and art promotion, such as the current law, the｢Culture and Arts Promotion Act｣, and to derive implications from comparative analysis of similar legislative cases in Korea and abroad, as well as to present a plan to improve the legal system to pursue cultural and art promotion policies systematically.
Ⅱ. Major Content
○ In Chapter 2, the current status and limitations of the legal framework for culture and art promotion were analyzed.
○ In Chapter 3, some implications were derived by comparing and analyzing similar domestic legislative cases, such as the ｢Education Promotion Act｣administered by the Ministry of Education and the ｢Forest Promotion Act｣administered by the Korea Forest Service, to those in Japan, the United States, and other countries.
○ In Chapter 4, a plan was presented on how to systematize laws related to culture and art promotion, such as the ｢Culture and Arts Promotion Act｣, in order to pursue such policies systematically.
○ In Chapter 5, the contents was summarized as a conclusion.
○ This study, conducted under the suggestion of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, aimed to improve the quality of the findings and field adaptability, and to share and disseminate research experiences and results. It progressed through individual experts’ advice on policies and legal practices related to culture and art promotion from the government, academia, research institutes, and legal circles, as well as through work alongside expert advisory councils, frequent research consultations with the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism working group, requests for cooperation in providing data, etc.
Ⅲ. Expected Effects
○ This study is expected to contribute to the establishment of the theoretical and institutional foundation of the law for the systematization of culture and art promotion policies.
○ Furthermore, this study is expected to contribute to the realization of the principle of a cultural nation under the Constitution, promotion of the people’s right to enjoy culture, improvement of the quality of their cultural life, and enhancement of Korea’s national image through the creation of such a legal and institutional foundation.