Bill (Legislation)

A written legal draft submitted to the legislature to be deliberated and voted upon in order to become law, and the central object of the legislative process.

Bill (Legislation)

Overview

A bill (法案, beopan) is a written legal draft submitted to the legislature to be deliberated and resolved upon so that it may be enacted into law. It is proposed or submitted by members of the National Assembly or by the government, and only after passing examination and voting under the procedures set by the Constitution and statutes does it become a law with legal effect. In modern legislative states, a bill is the most basic means of solving social problems and institutionalizing policy, and the process by which it is handled directly reflects a country's political and administrative system and power structure.

Key Details

Definition and Legal Character of a Bill

A bill is an item under deliberation that does not yet have legal effect. Therefore, if it fails to pass the National Assembly it is merely a document, but once passed and promulgated it becomes a norm binding on the people as law. A bill is drafted in the form of articles and has a structure that includes provisions on purpose in Article 1, definitions, rights and obligations, penalties, and supplementary provisions (effective date and transitional measures). Content that violates the Constitution may become an issue in review of constitutionality or legality.

Types of Bills

Bills proposed by members: Proposed with the support of 10 or more members of the National Assembly. In practice, the draft is prepared by members' offices, the legislative research service, and experts.
Bills submitted by the government: Submitted by the executive branch to implement policy, and they undergo review by the Ministry of Government Legislation and resolution by the State Council.
Bills proposed by committees: In some cases, a standing committee itself proposes a bill.
Budget bills, settlement accounts, consent motions, etc.: These are legislative matters in a broad sense, but their examination procedures are sometimes operated differently from those for ordinary legislative bills.

Legislative Process

1. Proposal and submission: Received by the Speaker of the National Assembly through proposal by a member or submission by the government.

2. Committee examination: Referred to the competent standing committee, where it undergoes review by expert committee staff, public hearings, general debate, article-by-article examination, and debate for and against. At this stage, whether the bill is amended, merged, or discarded is decided.

3. Examination by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee: Through review of system and wording, conflicts between statutes and the consistency of terminology are examined.

4. Deliberation and vote in the plenary session: Resolved by a majority of members present out of a majority of the total membership and a majority of those present voting in favor. Constitutional amendments and the like require a supermajority.

5. Transmission to the government and promulgation: The President may exercise the veto (right to request reconsideration), and the law takes effect after a certain period following promulgation.

The Reality of Bill Deliberation

In the actual legislative process, whether a bill passes depends on negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties, political compromise between floor leaders, the ruling-opposition ratio on standing committees, filibusters (unlimited debate), and designation of fast-track items. In recent years, stakeholder lobbying, civic legislative petitions, and public consent petitions (referred to the competent committee when 100,000 or more people agree) have had a major influence on setting the legislative agenda.

Latest Trends

As of 2024–2025, the environment for handling bills shows the following changes.

Opening of legislative data and use of AI: Data on bill proposal, examination, and voting is being disclosed through the National Assembly's Legislative Information System, and services that use generative AI to automate bill summaries, analysis of issues, and searches for similar legislative precedents are spreading.
Public consent petitions and expanded legislative participation: When online petitions meet certain requirements, they are referred to standing committees, and cases in which citizen proposals lead to actual bills have increased.
Fast-track designation and the filibuster debate: Controversy over procedural legitimacy is repeated for bills on issues where ruling and opposition parties are sharply divided, and discussions on institutional improvement continue.
Competition in digital and AI regulatory legislation: Bills in new industries such as the Framework Act on Artificial Intelligence, platform fairness, data protection, and virtual asset regulation are being enacted and discussed simultaneously around the world.
Strengthening of regulatory impact analysis and legislative evaluation: The trend is strengthening toward analyzing in advance the economic and social impact a bill will have and institutionalizing ex post evaluation after implementation.
The problem of pending bills: Because many bills are automatically discarded when a term expires, long-term pendency and declining legislative productivity are steadily pointed out.