★★★Essay by Judge Moon Hyung-bae Released★★★ Between You and Me, There is Favor A humble imagination of a better path and a warm sincerity towards beautiful people What Judge Moon Hyung-bae says about things that can never be impeached On April 4, 2025, at 11:22 AM, there is something that remains in our memory along with the last sentence of the judgment. It is the calm expression and firm voice of a judge reading the summary of the ruling. Judge Moon Hyung-bae began his term as a constitutional judge on April 19, 2019, and retired on April 18, 2025. He was someone who feared finishing his term without a ruling rather than delaying the ruling, someone who spent most of his public service life as a regional judge in Busan and Gyeongnam, and someone who strengthened sentencing guidelines to make strict judgments on public corruption and bribery while also implementing counseling and treatment programs for social minorities and reflecting the results in sentencing. What led him down this path, and what was he striving for? The book "On Favor" (published by Kimyoungsa) has been released, offering a glimpse into his thoughts. It includes reflections on trees resembling people found on walking and hiking paths, books read to overcome inexperience, memories with teacher Kim Jang-ha who urged to give back to society, empathy for those who suffer due to ignorance of the law, a gift that made a prisoner who attempted suicide vow to "live," tears shed in longing for a loved one, and heartfelt advice for a healthy court and society. From birch trees to Jirisan, from Dostoevsky to Montesquieu, and from daily life to trials, 120 selected pieces from over 1,500 written by Judge Moon Hyung-bae since 1998 are included, covering his attitude towards daily life (Part 1), impressions of books read multiple times (Part 2), and his hopes for the court and society (Part 3). What does it mean to enrich my daily life? Can we fully understand the lives of others? Can people and society change? And, how does favor change the world? “There are many beautiful people. It is still too early to despair.” The word he discovered through nearly 30 years of continuous study and reflection was "favor." This book is "a record of a judge who struggled not to deviate from the life of an average person" and a journey he took towards beautiful and ordinary people. It is also a reflection of his concerns as “a citizen living in the same era” and a record of his hopes for a slightly better society. The author states that he has never regretted becoming a judge. A letter he received from a serving inmate (“I will do my best to live a life that does not disappoint you, Judge”) made it so he could “never leave the court.” Judge Moon Hyung-bae's first book begins with a humble imagination of a better path and a warm sincerity towards beautiful people, discussing things that can never be impeached. The path walked towards an average life People resembling trees and our ordinary and precious daily lives “A friend introduced me to a yew tree that lives for a thousand years and dies for a thousand years, and I was deeply moved. I took a picture of the yew tree and sent it to my respected senior Park, explaining that it resembled him. That senior seems to think of life in terms of hundreds of years.” If this society is “sustained by ordinary people,” then our lives are made up of ordinary days. We realize that the happiness of ordinary daily life is true happiness only after falling ill or getting embroiled in lawsuits. This is precisely why I detailed climbing mountains with friends, memorizing the names of trees on walking paths, and cheering for my favorite baseball team. My love for trees is so profound that I adopted the pen name Birch Tree. When I arrived at my hometown village after walking a long way from the station during college, I found comfort in the zelkova tree that welcomed me, and while drinking the sap offered by the maple tree, I thought of systems that would benefit everyone, and I was intoxicated by the beauty of cherry blossoms and magnolias, recalling even more beautiful people. The author advises not to sacrifice the present for great success but to be faithful to the small daily life of the present. That is the way to “not lose in the long journey of life.” “There can be draws, so it is necessary to endure, and then one can promise for the future.” The power that makes us live Conversations of favor that turn disputes into reconciliation, ‘suicide’ into ‘let’s live’ “Suicide suicide suicide suicide…. If you say it ten times, the person says ‘suicide,’ but to the listener, it sounds like ‘let’s live.’ It’s all in how you think. Not all failures are bad. Didn’t you survive by failing at suicide?” The author emphasized the importance of the mediation process where the plaintiff and defendant make mutual concessions in damage compensation cases and actually demonstrated the art of negotiation. By listening to the defendant's difficult circumstances, he suggested to the plaintiff a method that is more likely to yield monetary gain rather than a nominal victory, that is, pursuing practicality. The power of a cup of green tea and an old umbrella offered to stakeholders in a case where there seemed to be no signs of compromise was significant. We know that a word filled with favor can sometimes melt a person's heart and resolve or prevent problems, more than any large monetary gain. We also know that anger has the opposite effect. He advises those fighting in mediation rooms or courtrooms to “calm down before getting angry, as it is hard to overcome anger when one is angry.” This is because the greatest damage will occur when the case is unresolved. This advice applies not only to stakeholders. The author even asks the accompanying judges to “pull the sleeves of their robes” when he tries to calm down in court. The author’s most famous ruling, which is still talked about today, was also based on favor. In a case where a defendant set fire to an inn in an attempt to commit suicide, he had the defendant shout ‘suicide’ ten times on the day of the ruling. Prior to this case, he had also urged someone who had announced their intention to commit suicide on Twitter to shout ‘let’s live’ ten times. “After you leave, there may be someone who will cry for days out of regret for not being able to hold you back. They may cry again in longing for you. Your suicide will leave an unbearable wound for those left behind.” Understanding Others' Lives Reading to Overcome Inexperience and Uncertainty “A judge is someone who intervenes in the lives of others, especially at dramatic moments. If there is insufficient understanding of disputes and rich experience in life, they may impose a great burden on their lives through a misjudgment. (…) Literature can be an alternative. Literature seeks universal truths, while trials seek specific truths, and both need each other.” The author confesses that he only began to read seriously after entering university. During his early years as a judge, he realized how lacking his experience was to understand why people repeat actions that will surely be punished if caught, and why they engage in large transactions without contracts. He began to read more books as a means to broaden his indirect experiences. The author states that “the ability to survive during chaotic times was thanks to books.” Nearly 40 years of reading has helped him organize his thoughts and develop unwavering beliefs about each issue. From books gifted by acquaintances to those chosen randomly at bookstores, his reading history spans genres, from Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" to Montesquieu's "The Spirit of the Laws." Among them, he includes impressions of books that helped broaden his horizons and those he read multiple times. Through analyses of the motivations behind the crimes of protagonists in literary works (“The first motivation is less persuasive because the stolen item was not used at all”), evaluations of trial processes and judgment contents (“The principle that guilt must be established with strict proof that excludes reasonable doubt was not presented,” “I was once astonished by Dostoevsky's sense of sentencing”), readers can discover another enjoyment of reading. The Vision of the Society We Dream Of Thoughts on a Slightly Better Path Based on Favor “You have shown me kindness, teacher. I will repay the grace I received from you to others. I hope this virtuous cycle accumulates, making this society much stronger and more beautiful. I hope a foundation is laid for new achievements.” The author has been strict in sentencing white-collar crimes. He participated in strengthening the sentencing guidelines for public corruption and bribery at the Changwon District Court and reflected those standards in the trial process. Prior to that, he had also proposed a comprehensive expansion of sentencing guidelines to resolve the controversy over preferential treatment for former judges. He made such public statements on the court bulletin board to apply strict standards to himself during trial processes. He recognized that the social experiences of those committing white-collar crimes were similar to those of judges, acknowledging that their reasons for crime had “emotional resonance for judges.” However, for crimes committed by social minorities, he prioritized supporting improvements to their difficult environments. He meticulously recorded the process of implementing counseling and treatment programs for defendants in violent crime cases and reflecting the results in sentencing. He does not hide his opinion on the abolition of the death penalty. Comparing the opposition movement against the death penalty that arose when a murderer who took dozens of lives was sentenced to death with the statement that a defendant who committed murder due to suffering from spousal violence was not killing a human but a beast, he questions who can decide the weight of life. He expresses gratitude that he has never sentenced anyone to death during criminal trials. Having proven and witnessed that a small act of kindness can change a person's life, the author urges us to first show kindness, stating that as long as there are unhappy people around us, we cannot be happy. "On Favor" is just that beginning. “There are no grand slogans about how to live going forward. I will put into practice what I have said to you and reflect on my life using the standards I applied when criticizing others.”