South Korea, which is engulfed in the whirlwind of an influence-peddling scandal involving President Park Geun-hye's confidante, was 19th in the world rankings for the rule of law out of 113 surveyed countries this year, an international report said Tuesday.
The ranking from the 2016 Rule of Law Index compiled by the World Justice Project (WJP) is an eight-notch drop from last year.
The WJP, a U.S.-based independent group working to advance the rule of law globally, compiles the index every year by providing scores and rankings organized around eights factors, including constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, civil justice and criminal justice, through surveys of 1,000 respondents per country and local legal practitioners and academics. Scores range from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating strongest adherence to the rule of law.
South Korea took up the post with 0.73, the lowest since 2014, when the country was ranked 14th out of 99 countries with 0.77, the index said. Last year, the country was 11th out of 102 with 0.79.
The country was rated relatively low in the factors of constraints on government powers, absence of corruption and open government, with their scores marking below 0.7, the report showed.
For absence of corruption, in particular, the country was ranked 35th.
On the other hand, South Korea earned high scores of over 0.8 for order and security, civil justice and criminal justice, according to the report.
"The 2016 index reflects that the country's judicial branch currently fails to receive a good reputation from the people in terms of trust," Hong Bok-ki, chairman of the Korea law Professors Association, said.
Among Asian nation, Singapore was ranked 9th for the rule of law, followed by Japan (15th) and China (80th), the report said. (Yonhap)
