Lawyer Exam Candidates Accuse Minister Choo Mi-ae and Legal Workforce Director of 'Dereliction of Duty'... "Underlining the Law Book Is Cheating"

On the morning of the 5th, when the 10th Bar Examination of 2021 was held, examinees were entering the exam venue, Ewha-POSCO Building at Ewha Womans University in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] Bar exam candidates have announced their intention to file a complaint against Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae and the head of the Legal Personnel Division of the Ministry of Justice, who oversees the bar exam, on charges of dereliction of duty, claiming that "allowing candidates to underline in the legal code during the recent exam constitutes permitting cheating."

On the 12th at 11 a.m., bar exam candidates and students from Seoul National University School of Law held a press conference in front of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, and announced on the 11th that they would submit a complaint and a request for information disclosure related to the recent legal code incident.

They criticized, "Underlining in the legal code clearly gives an unfair advantage over other candidates and is a form of cheating. The Ministry of Justice allowed and encouraged cheating, thereby undermining the fairness of the exam."

They further argued, "As the institution responsible for overseeing and conducting the bar exam under Article 3 of the Bar Examination Act, the Minister of Justice neglected the 'duty to conduct the bar exam fairly' as the person in overall charge."

They stated that the Ministry of Justice, which gave different instructions to examinees on the first and second days of the 10th exam on May 5 and 6 regarding whether underlining in the legal code was allowed, only issued a unified notice on May 7 permitting underlining, thereby damaging the fairness and equity of the exam.

They explained that underlining in the legal code, especially being able to freely underline during breaks, clearly gives an advantage over other candidates in case-type or record-type exam questions.

Since it is common sense that underlining in the legal code is not allowed in all national case-type exams, underlining is considered a form of cheating.

Therefore, the Minister of Justice’s neglect of this issue is tantamount to failing in the "obligation to take appropriate measures against those who violate examinee compliance rules or commit cheating."

They particularly argued that since the guideline allowing underlining was first given to exam supervisors on the morning of May 6, and the Ministry of Justice officially notified students on May 7, any underlining done on May 5 clearly constitutes a "violation of examinee compliance rules" or "cheating."

Through the press conference on the 12th, they plan to release a statement broadly criticizing and condemning the alleged leak of bar exam public law record-type questions, which were similar to mock exam questions from Yonsei University School of Law, as well as the incident at Ewha Womans University test site where the exam supervisor confused the exam end time.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.