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The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the rules on the formation of contracts under Korean law and the Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) in a comparative way and introduce the relevant proposed rules under the Amendment Draft of the Korean Civil Code (KCC). In addition, it attempts to compare and evaluate them in light of the discipline of comparative law.

In order to achieve the purposes of the study, it executes a comparative study of the rules as to the formation of contracts of the CISG, Korean law and the Amendment Draft of the KCC. The basic question for this comparative study is placed on whether a solution from one jurisdiction is more logical than the others and to what extent each jurisdiction has responded to protect the reasonable expectations of the parties in the rules as to the formation of contracts.

The comparative study finds that most of the rules under the CISG are quite plausible and logical and they are more or less well reflected in the proposals advanced by the KCC amendment committee. On the other hand, the other rules under the CISG which have brought criticisms in terms of their complexity and inconsistent case law invite us their revision or consistent interpretation. The drawbacks of the CISG have also been well responded in the Amendment Draft of the KCC. Nevertheless, it is quite unfortunate that the Amendment Draft of the KCC still has a rule that regards any purported performance with non-material alteration of the terms of an offer as an acceptance.

This study may provide legal and practical advice to both the seller and the buyer when they enter into a contract for international sales of goods. In addition, it may render us an insight into newly developed or developing rules in this area and show us how they interact with each other. Furthermore, it may be particularly useful in Korea where there is an ongoing discussion for revision of the KCC.

The purpose of this paper is to provide Korean merchants and practitioners who are not English native speakers with the practical advices and suggestions in drafting arbitration agreements.

The doctrine of separability of arbitration and the competence-competence principle are studied based on the rules of international conventions and internationally recognized arbitral institutes. In addition, the laws of two common law jurisdictions, which are the USA and the UK are discussed with the Korean arbitration law, which follows the civil law system. This study also includes analysis of cases in order to show application of these two principles to practice and to give practical advices and implications to practitioners.

Most national legislatures and jurisdictions approve the doctrine of separability of arbitration agreement and the competence-competence principle under international commercial arbitration. When there is a dispute regarding the existence or the validity of arbitration agreement, it is determined based on the prima facie test without being affected by the main contract in which the arbitration agreement is inserted. In practice, however, there are many occasions where the arbitration agreements are void or inoperable because of its contents. Many practical advices and suggestions are provided.

This paper analyzes arbitration agreements which are used in practice so that it provides many practical advices to practitioners in terms of legal effects of languages and linguistic use.

The purpose of this study is the use of 3D printing technology to perform maintenance on damaged parts on site. To maintain damaged parts, the user needs experience in the parts design and 3D printing technology. To help users who have little or no experience on 3D printing, a part library-based information retrieval and inspection framework was proposed to support the process of manufacturing replaceable parts using a 3D printer.

To establish the framework, 3D printing-based maintenance procedure was first defined, comprising retrieval, manufacturing and inspection steps, while identifying the technical components required to perform the procedure. Once the technical components are identified, part library-based information retrieval and inspection framework was defined based on the technical components and the relationships between the components. For validation of the concept of the framework, prototype system is developed according to the proposed framework.

The feasibility of the proposed framework is proved through maintenance experiments on gaskets and O-rings.

The main contribution of this study is the proposal of the framework, which aims to support the maintenance of damaged parts for the user who has little or no experience in part design or does not know how to operate a 3D printer.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of two types of presentation formats (textual and imagery) involving online restaurant reviews (ORRs). The study examines ORRs on the basis of review usefulness and review enjoyment; the study investigates the effects of the two presentation formats on review usefulness and review enjoyment.

Data from 1,776 reviews were collected from Yelp.com using a Web data-harvesting technique. Hypothesized relations in the model were tested by Tobit regression analysis.

Empirical results show that different formats of ORRs affect review usefulness and review enjoyment in different manners; whereas both attributes of textual format (review length and readability) affect review usefulness, both aspects of imagery format (physical environment images and food and beverage images) are positively related to review enjoyment. However, review length and food and beverage images are the most important factors affecting both review usefulness and review enjoyment. In particular, the relation between the two formats of ORRs and review usefulness is mediated by review enjoyment.

The focus of this study is the two formats of ORRs in terms of dual coding theory and the mediating role of review enjoyment. The findings help online review website organizers manage the operation of various review formats in a proper manner. Managers can effectively select those formats that would achieve the desired effect.

Unlike previous studies on the relation of attributes to online reviews, this study examines the perceptions of ORRs’ usefulness and enjoyment. In addition, this study encompasses diverse ORR factors (review length, review readability, physical environment images, food and beverage images) for a more comprehensive interpretation of ORRs.

North Korea joined the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) as a 90th member on March 27, 2019, which will necessitate the understanding of North Korean laws, in particular, the contract law for sale. This paper aims to compare the CISG and the North Korean contract law as to the formation of a contract focusing on form and writing requirement, offer and acceptance.

This paper analyzes the provisions of the North Korean Civil Code and the CISG and reviews the previous research studies concerning the formation of a contract.

The CISG and the North Korean Civil Code are very similar in many aspects as to the formation of a contract. However, there are some discrepancies as to the formation of a contract to which the parties need to pay attention in choosing the governing law.

The parties need to pay attention to the differences concerning the formation of a contract between the North Korean Civil Code and the CISG in concluding a contract for sale with North Korea.

This paper will be the first research work, to the best of the author’s knowledge, on the comparison of the CISG and the North Korean contract law as to the formation of a contract.

While the origin of Korean Industrial Relations goes back 150 years when the country opened its seaports to foreign countries, it didn’t emerge as a field of study until 1950s when academics began to write books and papers on the Korean labor movement, labor laws, and labor economics. In this paper, we sketch this history and describe important events and people that contributed to the development of industrial relations in Korea. Korean industrial relations in the early 20th century were significantly distorted by the 35-year-Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945). After regaining its independence, the U.S. backed, growth-oriented, military-based, authoritarian Korean government followed suit and consistently suppressed organized labor until 1987. Finally, the 1987 Great Labor Offensive allowed the labor movement to flourish in a democratized society. Three groups were especially influential in the field of industrial relations in the early 1960s: labor activists, religious leaders, and university faculty. Since then, numerous scholars have published books and papers on Korean industrial relations, whose perspectives, goals, and processes are still being debated and argued. The Korean Industrial Relations Association (KIRA) was formed on March 25, 1990 and many other academic and practitioner associations have also come into being since then. The future of industrial relations as a field of study in Korea does not seem bright, however. Issues regarding organized labor are losing attention because of a steadily shrinking unionization rate, changing societal attitude toward labor unions, and the enactment of new and improved laws and regulations regarding employment relationships more broadly. Thus, we suggest that emerging issues such as contingent workers, works councils and tripartite partnership, conflict management, and human rights will be addressed by the field of industrial relations in Korea only if this field breaks with its traditional focus on union and union–management relations.