조선 초 관원 범죄 收贖 제도의 성립 (The Early Joseon Establishment of the Fines Substitution(收贖) System for Punishing Officials)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 조선시대사학회
· 수록지 정보 : 조선시대사학보 / 77호 / 45 ~ 75페이지
· 저자명 : 박경

초록

이 연구에서는 조선 초 관원 범죄 수속법 제정의 배경과 성격을 살펴보았다. 조선 시대 범죄 처리는 『대명률』 형률 체계를 기반으로 이루어졌다. 또한 여성, 장애인, 노인, 어린아이 등에 대한 수속은 『대명률』 규정을 따랐다. 그러나 관원 범죄 수속은 세종대에 제정된 법에 의거하여 처리했다.
관원 범죄 수속법 제정 전에도 왕이 관원의 범죄를 최종 판결할 때 수속 여부를 함께 명했다. 그런데 이 사례들을 검토해보면 『대명률』에는 존재하지 않는데 조선에서는 행해졌던 수속 방식이 나타난다. 최종 형량이 도형[杖徒刑] 이상일 때 도형이나 유형은 집행하면서도 장형을 수속하도록 명한 사례들이 그것이다. 다수의 태형, 장형을 수속하도록 한 것은 물론이고, 장형과 도형, 장형과 유형의 집행을 분리해서 장형만을 수속하도록 하는 방법이 행해진 것이다. 이를 통해 조선에서는 『대명률』 형률 등급 체계를 수용했지만 장형과 도형, 유형을 별도로 인식하는 사고체계도 존재했음을 알 수 있다. 또한 “형벌이 위로 大夫에게까지 미치지 않는다”는 개념 하에 관원들에게 태형이나 장형을 집행하는 것을 꺼리는 인식이 행형에 반영되고 있었다는 점도 파악할 수 있다.
이러한 상황에서 1423년(세종 5)에 관원 범죄 수속법이 제정되었고, 1425년(세종 7)에 개정되었다. 『대명률』 규정에서 관원 범죄 수속의 범위는 公罪 태형에 한정되어 있었고, 군관의 경우에만 私罪 태형까지 수속하도록 했다. 그리고 그 이상의 범죄는 황제의 은전에 의해 감형 혹은 수속하는 것이 가능했다. 반면에 이 관원 범죄 수속법은 법 제정시에는 태형과 장형 모두를 수속할 수 있도록 했고, 2년 뒤 법 개정시에는 공죄 장100, 私罪 장90까지 수속하도록 규정되었다. 『대명률』에 비해 수속 범위가 확대되었는데, 이는 사대부에게 태형이나 장형을 가하는 것을 꺼리는 인식이 제도화된 것이다. 『대명률』의 관원 범죄 수속 규정에서 행정의 효율성을 지향하고, 관원에 대한 우대는 황제의 은혜의 영역으로 남겨둔 것과 대비된다고 하겠다. 이렇게 이 법은 士族 출신 관원들이 자신들의 집단적인 권익을 보호하고자 제정된 것이었다. 그런데 세종은 법 제정 이후 신분에 의해서가 아니라 관원으로서 이 법에 규정된 혜택을 받도록 하는 방향으로 법의 성격을 일부 전환했다.
한편, 관원 범죄 수속법이 제정된 이후 관원이 사소한 불찰로 가벼운 죄를 지었다 하더라도 특정 사안에 대해서는 수속하지 않고 태형이나 장형을 집행하도록 하는 한시적, 상시적 법들이 제정됨으로써 관직 사회의 기강을 다잡고 지방 관원들을 통제하려고 했다.
이와 같이 관원 범죄 수속법은 사대부들의 권익을 보장하기 위한 제도였지만 법 제정 이후 관료 사회를 존중하고 관직 기강을 확립하는 제도로 일정부분 전환되었다. 이러한 관원 범죄 수속법의 제정과 시행은 ‘사대부 존중’을 법제화하는 움직임과 관료 사회의 존중과 조직화를 이루려는 움직임이 함께 발현되던 조선 초 제도 정비 과정을 보여준다.

영어초록

This study explores the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the early Joseon law on substituting fines in lieu of corporeal punishments in the cases of crimes committed by officials and explores its nature. Joseon handled criminal matters using the criminal law system of the Great Ming Code(大明律) as its basis. Yet in early Joseon, while this practice of fines substitution(收贖) was applied to women, children, elderly, and the disabled in accordance with the Great Ming Code, instances of fines substitution for the punishment of crimes committed by officials were handled in accordance with the fines substitution law(收贖法) established during Sejong’s reign(1418-1450). This was the result of the difference in the ruling structures of Ming China and Joseon Korea.
Even prior to the establishment of the fines substitution law for officials, the king – in making the final decision on the punishment assigned to an official for some said crime – would at times substitute some amount of fines for the punishments recommended by the relevant office. Yet a closer examination of these cases reveals an aspect of fines substitution unique to Joseon: in certain cases, punishment assigned met or exceeded the combination of “beating with a heavy stick and penal servitude”(徒刑), while the penal servitude or exile components were carried out, the beating component was substituted for fines. This method of administering punishments did not exist within the Great Ming Code; it was a practice found only in Joseon. As noted above, in such cases, the combined “beating and penal servitude”(徒刑) or “beating and exile”(流刑) punishments were split into their individual components, with fines substituting for the beating component of each. Through this, we can see that while Joseon adopted the penal classification system of the Great Ming Code, there existed on the peninsula a different way of thinking about punishment – one in which beatings, penal servitude, and exile were seen as separate entities. Moreover, within a system in which criminal punishment was not commonly associated with the realm of scholar-officials(大夫), the influence of an aversion to beatings – light or heavy – of such officials is clearly reflected within Joseon’s administration of punishments.
It was against this background that the Fines Substitution Law for punishing officials was implemented in 1423(Sejong 5) and revised in 1425(Sejong 7). According to the Great Ming Code, for civil officials, the range of crimes eligible for punishment substitution was quite limited. Only public crimes(公罪; those committed while acting in one’s official capacity and not in service of any private interest) warranting beating with a light stick(笞刑) could have their punishments substituted. On the other hand, for military officials, this range extended to private crimes(私罪). In addition, more severe crimes could have their sentences commuted or punishments substituted by the emperor’s grace. In contrast, Joseon’s Fines Substitution Law initially allowed all light and heavy stick beating sentences applied to officials to be substituted for fines; two years later, this was amended to allow substitutions for public crimes sentenced to 100 lashes of the heavy cane or fewer, as well as private crimes sentenced to 90 lashes of the heavy cane or fewer. Compared with the Great Ming Code, this represented a broadening of the range of substitutable sentences, indicating that Joseon’s reluctance to use flogging with the light or heavy cane in order to punish scholar-officials had become institutionalized. This stands in contrast with the Great Ming Code, which tended toward efficiency in the administration and substitution of punishments against officials, and which left the matter of granting preferential treatment to officials as the emperor’s prerogative. In this way, we see that the establishment of Joseon’s fines substitution law for punishing officials was an effort by those of elite(士族) backgrounds to protect their collective privilege. But after the law was established, Sejong transformed portions of the character of the law such that it shifted from one under which privilege was derived based on social status to one under which fixed legal benefits were conferred based on official occupation.
For instance, although following the establishment of the fines substitution law, minor cases of negligence by officials received lighter sentences, Sejong promulgated a series of temporary and permanent laws under which specified crimes became ineligible for sentencing substitution and punishment by the light or heavy stick was enforced. In this way, his government sought to tighten discipline among officials and reign in local magistrates and their staffs.
Thus, while Joseon’s fines substitution law was an institution enacted in order to protect the privilege of scholar-official elites(士大夫), following its creation, it changed in part to become a system by which to recognize the community of officials and firmly establish discipline among them. The establishment and application of this Fines Substitution Law for punishing officials therefore reveals the organization of early Joseon’s legal system to be a process in which two different movements manifest simultaneously: the first, that to secure respect for and recognition of scholar-official elites within the law; and the second, that to recognize – and yet organize – the community of government officials.

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