Resolving the conflict between legal justice and legal stability : Focusing on the case of state illegality liquidation

Legal justice and legal stability are key components of the rule of law. However, legal justice and legal stability may conflict in the process of liquidating state illegalities. For example, if there has been a state illegality and new rights relationships have arisen as a result of the state illegality, there is a dilemma that restitution for the sake of legal justice for the original rights holder destroys legal stability, but if only the legal stability of the new rights holder is prioritized, the legal justice of the original rights holder is violated. Of course, not every issue that on the surface appears to conflict with legal justice and legal stability is a conflict in the true sense of the word. However, there are certainly cases where conflicts between the original and new rights holders arise over legal justice and legal stability in the process of liquidating state illegality. This conflict makes it difficult to resolve the tensions and conflicts between original and new rights holders by simply prioritizing legal justice in terms of restitution or legal stability in terms of the existence of new rights. This paper examines how to resolve the conflict between legal justice and legal stability in the area of state illegality liquidation from the perspective of the rule of law. It analyzes how human dignity, freedom and equality can serve as criteria for resolving such conflicts. It also considers whether the original and new rights holders contributed to or caused the occurrence of the state illegality and the new rights relationship, whether there are circumstances that make it difficult to hold anyone accountable, and whether there are cases in which a decision to liquidate the state illegality should be deferred.