On August 1, 1908, during the Korean Empire, the Kyŏngsŏng Appeals Court was established for the first time.[4]
In 1996, the Seoul High Court sentenced former president Chun Doo-hwan to life in prison for insurrection and mutiny. Another former president, Roh Tae-woo, was given a 17-year sentence for his involvement.[5]
In 2018, the court sentenced former president Park Geun-hye to 25 years in prison for charges including bribery, extortion, and abuse of power.[6]
In 2020, the Supreme Court upheld Seoul High Court's ruling sentencing former President Lee Myung-bak to 17 years in prison for embezzlement and bribes. The High Court also fined him 13 billion won.[7]
In 2021, the Seoul High Court overturned the Seoul Eastern District Court's conviction of Shinhan Financial Group chairman Cho Yong-byoung for corrupt hiring practices.[8]
In February 2023, the Seoul High Court overturned a lower court decision allowing the NHIS to not expand equal benefits to same-sex couples.[9] In April, the court upheld the Fair Trade Commission's KRW 1 trillion fine and six out of ten of its corrective orders on Qualcomm after the company appealed in 2017.[10] In November, the court ruled that the Government of Japan would have to compensate former comfort women, which Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated was a violation of "State immunity under international law."[11]
In February 2025, Seoul High Court upheld a ruling by the Seoul Central District Court acquitting Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong of all 19 charges in relation to the 2015 merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, including stock manipulation, breach of trust, and accounting fraud.[12][13]
In February 2026, the court sentenced former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae to six months in prison for interference in trials. This marked the first instance of a Supreme Court Chief Justice in South Korea being found guilty in a criminal trial.[14]
