Even the laws introducing abortion in 1974, and the abolitionof the deathpenalty in 1981, required fewer hours of debate in parliament and proved less contentious.
The debate in parliament is expected to last two weeks and marks one of France's biggest social reforms since the abolitionof the deathpenalty in 1981.
The Homicide Review Advisory Group claim the mandatory life sentence was a compromise arrived at to ensure the abolitionof the deathpenalty made its way through both Houses of Parliament.
Sitting in his cramped offices in southern Seoul, lawyer Lee, who heads the Council for the Abolitionof the DeathPenalty, says a growing number of South Koreans concur with the popular Western view that executing murderers does little or nothing to deter potential killers.
The country once had been at the forefront in the region's efforts to abolish in law and practice the deathpenalty, with a moratorium on the deathpenalty for 27 years and the abolitionof capital punishment for drug offenses in April 2011, Heyns said.