A third amendment to the Commercial Act, which mandates the principle of retiring treasury shares held by companies, has passed the final threshold in the National Assembly. On the 25th, during a plenary session of the National Assembly, the so-called “third amendment to the Commercial Act” was approved. This amendment, advanced by the Democratic Party to improve the financial and capital market structure, primarily stipulates that companies must retire treasury shares within one year of acquisition.
However, exceptions are allowed for certain reasons, such as employee compensation and implementation of employee stock ownership plans, provided that a disposal plan signed and sealed by all directors is approved annually at the shareholders’ meeting. Companies subject to restrictions on foreign investment under the Telecommunications Business Act must dispose of treasury shares within three years of the enactment, to the extent necessary to comply with the law.
The People Power Party opposed the bill, responding immediately with a filibuster upon its introduction in the plenary session, arguing that domestic companies could be exposed to hostile takeovers by so-called “corporate raiders.” Nevertheless, with the agreement to end the filibuster from the Democratic Party and other ruling parties, the filibuster ended after 24 hours, and the bill was voted on and passed in the plenary session. Subsequently, the “Judicial Reform Three Acts,” including the Law Distortion Crime Act (an amendment to the Criminal Code), was immediately proposed in the plenary session.
This bill stipulates that if judges or prosecutors distort the law concerning trials or investigations to provide unlawful or unjust benefits or harm others’ rights, they face up to 10 years of imprisonment and 10 years of disqualification. However, the Democratic Party made some revisions to the amendment just before its proposal, seemingly in response to internal and external concerns that some abstract provisions might lead to constitutional challenges.
The application of the Law Distortion Crime will be limited to criminal cases, excluding civil and administrative cases. Additionally, the revised bill expands the applicability of espionage charges from “enemy countries” to “foreign countries or equivalent entities.”
The People Power Party again launched a filibuster, denouncing the law distortion crime as a “bad law” that undermines the judicial system. Consequently, the bill is expected to go through a voting process on the afternoon of the 26th, after 24 hours of filibuster initiation, following a motion to conclude the debate by the Democratic Party and other ruling parties.
It is anticipated that the remaining judicial reform laws, including the introduction of the Constitutional Complaint System (an amendment to the Constitutional Court Act) and an increase in the number of Supreme Court justices (an amendment to the Court Organization Act), will be processed sequentially in a similar manner.