Although the past two decades have seen the proliferation of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) throughout the world, an analysis of the status and functions of an NHRI in a particular country has not been actively conducted. In fact, most of the studies have focused on its implementation of international human rights within a status. In comparison, this article tries to justify NHRIs as a permanent national institution in all countries. This will be conducted by addressing contemporary social theories and regulatory scholarship. This leads to the limitations of traditional ways of human rights protection through state regulation, and new approaches of national human rights institutions. In dealing with these points, regulatory scholarship is very useful in making clear the limitations of traditional state regulation in human rights; it regards traditional state regulation as command and control regulation. In addition, new regulatory strategies which are also provided by regulatory scholarship is helpful for addressing new ways of human rights protection of NHRIs. This contributes to clarifying the function and status of the National Human Rights Commission of the Republic of Korea and justifying its establishment in any country.