Profile
Profile
Dr. Min Kyung Kim served as a judge in the Republic of Korea from February 2010 to August 2025, presiding over high-profile commercial, civil, administrative, and criminal cases. Over her judicial career, she authored more than 3,100 judgments in both first-instance and appellate courts. She has extensive expertise in international and cross-border commercial disputes, including arbitration-related matters, having served on the International Commercial List at the Seoul Central Court. In this role, she dealt with the enforcement and annulment of arbitral awards and the enforcement of international commercial contracts involving the CISG, shipping, sales, shipbuilding, licensing, construction, maritime insurance, property transactions, and agency agreements.
Dr. Kim holds a BA, LLM, and PhD from Seoul National University, and an LLM from the University of Cambridge (Queens’ College). She is the author of Overriding Mandatory Rules in International Commercial Disputes: Korean and Comparative Law (Hart Publishing, 2025), and her earlier book in Korean language, Overriding Mandatory Rules and International Contracts (Pakyoungsa, 2022), earned her the 16th Shimdang Law Prize in 2023 which is the most prestigious award in the field of international commercial/business law in Korea. She has also published widely in leading journals and is a regular speaker at international conferences.
Dr. Kim has made material contributions to the development of arbitration law in Korea. As a committee member of the Supreme Court of Korea, she participated in amending the Korean Arbitration Act and drafting court procedure rules relating to arbitration. She co-authored the Korean judiciary’s Practice Guide on Arbitration-related Cases (Supreme Court of Korea, 2018) and Commentaries on the Korean Act on Private International Law (Thomson Reuters, 2023). She is also a contributing author to Commentaries on the Korean Arbitration Act (Thomson Reuters, forthcoming 2026).
Dr. Kim is advising the Kingdom of Cambodia on drafting its new commercial court procedure law as a civil law expert for the Asia Development Bank. She represented Korea as a member of its delegation to the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts (SIFoCC) from 2022 to 2025. Dr. Kim has served as General Editor of the Korean Journal of International Trade and Business Law, and is Research Director of the Korean Association of Artificial Intelligence and Law as well as Director of the Korean Private International Law Association.
She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the City University of Hong Kong teaching international arbitration and has taught courses on international commercial litigation and arbitration at the University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore, and Singapore Management University.
Dr. Kim speaks English and Korean, can read Chinese, and also speaks Japanese and German at a conversational level.
- Committee Member, Supreme Court of Korea Working Group on Investor-State Dispute (2014-2025)
- Committee Member, Supreme Court Working Group on Arbitration (2013-2025)
- Research Director, Korean Association of Artificial Intelligence and Law
- Director, Korean Private International Law Association
- General Editor, Korean International Commercial Law Journal (2022-2025)
- Expert, Asia Development Bank (advised the Cambodian government on the Commercial Court Procedure Law)
- Delegation member, Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts (SIFoCC) (2022-2025)
- Member, Asian Private International Law Association (APILA)
- Member, International Women Judges Association (IWJA)
- Received the 16th Shimdang International Commercial/Business Law Prize (2023) for the Book Overriding Mandatory Rules and International Contracts (Pakyoungsa, 2022)
- Co-author, Commentary on the Korean Arbitration Act, Thomson Reuters (forthcoming in 2026)
- Author, “Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign JudgmentsAwarding Punitive Damages: A Korean Law Perspective” in Tobias Lutzi (ed), Who’s Afraid of Punitive Damages?, Mohr Siebeck (2025)
- Presentation Paper, “Anti-suit injunctions: a Welcome Oasis or a Mirage for Civil Law Jurisdictions?”, Conferencein Honour of Professor Richard Fentiman, University of Cambridge (2025)
- Author, Overriding Mandatory Rules in International Commercial Disputes: Korean and Comparative Law, Hart Publishing (2025)
- Panel, ‘Arbitration v. Insolvency: Clash of Rights’, Hong Kong Arbitration Week, HKIAC (2024)
- Co-author, Commentary on the Korean Act on Private International Law, Thomson Reuters (2023)
- Author, “Choice of Law and Choice of Forum Clauses for Contracts under South Korean Law”, Do You Know Series, Asian Business Law Institute (2023)
- Presentation Paper, “Introduction of a recent ICSID case: LSF-KEB Holdings SCA and Others v Republic of Korea”, Insights from the Dispute Resolution Community Seminar Series, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong (2023)
- Public Lecture, “Conflict of Laws in International Commercial Arbitration”, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong (2023)
- Author, “Applicable Law and Depecage Issues in Marine Cargo Insurance Contracts in the Korean Courts”, Korean Yearbook of International Law 10 (2022)
- Author, “Damages for Breach of Arbitration Agreement: A Korean Law Perspective” (2022), Asian International Arbitration Journal 18, No. 1 (2022)
- Author, “Anti-suit Injunctions concerning Breach of Arbitration Agreement: A Korean Law Perspective”, Contemporary Asia Arbitration Journal 15, No. 1 (2022)
- Presentation Paper,“Cross-border Insolvency in the Korean Courts: Introduction of Hanjin Shipping Case” at the ‘One Country Two System and Cross-Border Legal Harmonization’ Conference by the University of Hong Kong (2022)
- Presentation Paper, “Overriding Mandatory Rules in International Commercial Litigation” at the Annual Conference by the Asian Private International Law Association(2022)
- Public Lecture,“The Law and Practice of Korean Courts on the Enforcement of Arbitral Awards” at the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong (2021)
- Author, “A Comparative study on the law of anticipatory repudiation inKorean law, CISG and English law”, Journal of the Supreme Court of Korea (2019)
- Co-author, Practice Guide for Judges on Arbitration-Related Cases, Supreme Court of Korea (2018)