Ki-wu Lee is a professor at Inha University Law School, Korea. He is one of the most important scholars leading the academic discourse on decentralization in Korea. In 1989, he received a Ph.D. degree in administrative law from Munster University, Germany. Over the 40 years of his academic career after obtaining the degree, he has played a key role in researching and promoting decentralization and local autonomy with his expertise in the Constitution of Korea, local law, and institutions.
In 2002, he received the National YMCA Award for his contributions to the development of local autonomy in Korea. He also has profound experience in the field of public governance. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Advisory Committee for Constitutional Reform in the National Assembly. He also served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee for Decentralization three times (2004-2007, 2010-2012, 2014-2016). In addition, he was the Chair of the Educational Law Association in 2010. He also published books themed in decentralization reform, law, and democracy. Representative pieces of his publications include Direct Democracy(2016), Decentralizational Rebuilding of the Nation (2014), Local Law (2007), Decentralization and Citizen Participation (2003), A Theory of Local Law (1994), etc.