A Critical Review of Excessive Legislator-Initiated Bills

Our Constitution grants both member of the National Assembly and the government the right to submit bills, but in actual legislative practice, member-introduced bills have increased overwhelmingly compared to government bills. In particular, after the 2003 revision of the National Assembly Act lowered the requirement for introducing a member’s bill from the support of 20 or more lawmakers to 10 or more, member legislation began to rise sharply starting with the 17th National Assembly. As a result, the share of all bills accounted for by member-introduced bills reached 76.5% in the 17th National Assembly, 91.5% in the 21st National Assembly, and 93.8% in the 22nd National Assembly.

This report argues that this quantitative increase cannot be seen simply as legislative activation or an expansion of the National Assembly’s democratic function. Rather, it starts from the concern that it may place a serious burden on the Assembly’s review capacity and on the structure of member legislation. Its purpose is to examine the excessive increase in member legislation in the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea and to analyze its negative effects on the quality and process of legislation.

First, the report emphasizes the difference in character between government bills and member-introduced bills. Bills submitted by the government go through inter-ministerial consultation, budget and personnel review, regulatory impact analysis, and various other impact assessments before being submitted to the National Assembly. By contrast, member-introduced bills are relatively weak in such coordination and review at the proposal stage. The report sees this very point as the starting point for why excessive member legislation has become problematic.

Furthermore, the report points out the problems implied by the low passage and approval rates of member-introduced bills, the high rate of expiration due to the end of a term, the possibility of inflated legislative performance, the possibility that legislative capacity is concentrated among a small number of lawmakers, the decline in capacity and efficiency in the review process for member legislation, and the increase in regulation-related member-introduced bills.

In addition, to improve these problems, the report proposes improving the method of evaluating quantitative legislative performance, strengthening the preliminary review function for similar or overlapping member-introduced bills, conducting stricter prior review of regulation-related member-introduced bills, making efforts to minimize bill introduction at the end of a session and improving the practice of reintroducing bills, and ensuring the professionalism and accountability of the support system for member legislation.

In conclusion, the report does not deny the value of invigorating member legislation itself, but it assesses that the current scale of quantitative expansion is producing a number of side effects. Accordingly, it argues that by accurately identifying and addressing the problems raised here, the member legislation process should move in a direction that reduces the side effects of excessive bill submission without undermining its original democratic function.

I. Background of the Discussion and Problem Awareness

II. The Reality and Problems of the Excessive Member Legislation Phenomenon

1. The Current Handling Status and Problems of Proposed Member-Introduced Bills

2. The Reality and Problems of Bills Discarded upon Expiration of the Term

3. The Phenomenon of Inflated Performance in the Member Legislation Process

4. Results of the Handling of Member-Introduced Bills by Three-Month Periods in Successive National Assemblies

5. Concerns over the Increase in Regulation-Related Member-Introduced Bills

III. Suggestions on the Excessive Member Legislation Phenomenon and Concluding Remarks

References and Materials

Original title: 의원입법 과잉현상에 대한 비판적 고찰

Author: Yoon-seok Jeong

Date: 2026-03-24

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=report&pn=1&idx=28720