Greeting

Industries that are directly connected to the interests of the public, such as telecommunications, broadcasting, electricity, gas, heating, and transportation, are referred to as public utility. The global trend is for these areas to be more strongly regulated than other economic areas because of the nature of their services. Public utilities are accompanied by technological and economic regulations according to the characteristics of each service. They are also in an early stage of market development, after privatization and liberalization have been introduced to the past state monopolies. In this regard, they require special competition policies to establish effective competition. Consumer protection is a critical factor as well that should not be overlooked in regulating these industries. As such, special regulatory legal principles, different from general competition law or economic law, have been developed and many public law issues are embodied in the public utilities law.

Considering the impact the public utilities have on citizens and the national economy, advanced nations have been carrying out in-depth research on laws for public utilities through research institutes. In Korea, however, research in this field is extremely lacking. In fact, there were no research programs or institutes performing professional research into these issues. As a countermeasure, the Center for Law & Public Utilities (CeLPU) of Seoul National University commenced preparation meetings in January 2006 and held an international symposium on the occasion of its opening on May 26, 2006. This marked the beginning of official academic activities. CeLPU held diverse academic events between its establishment and September 2016, including 14 international symposiums, 52 domestic symposiums, and around 40 Roundtables. It also published the first issue of the 『Journal of Law & Economic Regulation』(KCI Accredited Journal) in May 2008, and published a total 17 volumes.

CeLPU will continue to carry out various research activities to present appropriate regulatory models for Korea and to inform international communities of these regulatory models.

Thank you for your sincere interest and support.

Won-Woo Lee
Director of the Center for Law & Public Utilities
Seoul National University