"Basic Law and Specialized Law Should Be Designated as Selective Mandatory Subjects"

Published 29 Jul.2024 14:10(KST)

The Korean Association of Law Professors (President Cho Hong-sik) and the Association of Law Schools (Chairman Lee Sang-kyung) held an academic conference on the 26th under the theme "The Crisis of Legal Studies and the Rule of Law and Countermeasures."

The conference, held at the 2nd Seminar Room of the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, was co-hosted by the Korean Association of Law Professors and the Association of Law Schools, and organized by the Office of the National Assembly Vice Speaker Joo Ho-young and the offices of National Assembly members Jung Sung-ho and Cho Kuk.

Representative Jo Guk (second from the right in the front row), members of the Korean Association of Law Professors, and the Council of Law Schools are taking a commemorative photo. [Image source=Beopryul Newspaper]

The conference aimed to discuss the problems of the law school system and education, as well as improvement measures for the bar examination system, with about 20 participants including members of the Korean Association of Law Professors, the Association of Law Schools, and National Assembly officials.

President Cho Hong-sik (61, Judicial Research and Training Institute Class 18) emphasized the seriousness of the issue in his congratulatory speech, stating, "Since the introduction of the law school system, law colleges have disappeared or merged, rendering legal studies ineffective. This is a crisis of the rule of law in our country, and the goal of nurturing internationally competitive legal professionals has become mere empty words."

Chairman Lee Sang-kyung said, "As with all newly introduced systems, the law school system is going through a process of conflict," and added, "I hope this occasion will serve as an opportunity to seek stabilization of the law school system in line with its founding purpose and objectives."

Congratulatory speeches followed by National Assembly Vice Speaker Joo Ho-young (64, Class 14) and Cho Kuk, leader of the Innovation Party. Vice Speaker Joo said, "The law school system was a bill rushed through just before midnight on the last day of the session at the end of the Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2007," and added, "It is regrettable that the problems pointed out in opposition to the bill at that time have become apparent after 17 years."

Leader Cho stated, "If the bar examination had been introduced 16 years ago as a qualification exam through a legal decision, such issues would not have occurred," and personally expressed the opinion that "the bar exam pass rate should be increased, similar to the national medical licensing exam."

The first topic of the general discussion was "The Crisis of Legal Studies and Institutional Overcoming Measures," chaired by Park Bae-geun, Dean of Pusan National University Law School. Professor Yang Cheon-su of Yeungnam University Law School presented on "Improvement Measures for the Law School Curriculum Legislation (Mandatory Elective System for Specialized and Basic Legal Studies)." Professor Yang proposed revising the Enforcement Decree of the Law School Act to designate basic and specialized legal subjects as mandatory electives in the curriculum, allowing each law school to autonomously decide which subjects fall within the selection range.

Following this, Professor Lee Yoon-jung (49, Class 32) of Kangwon National University Law School presented on "The Proper Direction of the Bar Examination and Legislative Amendment Measures for the Bar Examination Law - Focusing on Exam Formats and Question Directions." Professor Lee pointed out that "the current bar exam format and question trends require excessive memorization of case law, which does not align with an educational approach that solidly grasps fundamentals and principles." She suggested improvement measures including reducing the proportion of multiple-choice and written questions, shifting from case-type questions to issue-extraction type questions, and reducing the number of sub-questions.

Regarding the two presentations, discussions were held by Hong Dae-sik (59, Class 22), Dean of Sogang University Law School; So Byung-cheon, Dean of Ajou University Law School; Professor Ahn Sung-jo of Jeju National University Law School; Professor Choi Kwang-seon (47, Class 36) of Chonnam National University Law School; and Professor Ahn Jung-bin of Gyeongnam National University Law Department.

Professor Hong said, "If basic and specialized legal studies are stipulated as mandatory elective subjects in the enforcement decree, questions may arise about the organic connection between the curriculum and the bar exam," and proposed "abolishing elective subjects and switching to a separate Pass/Fail system such as credit acquisition or a legal ethics exam."

Dean So suggested, "In specialized legal fields, it is desirable to strengthen legal professionals' expertise through education rather than exams," and proposed that "students should take at least three courses among basic law, specialized law subjects appearing on the bar exam, and specialized courses designated by each law school during the three-year program, with an average grade of B0 or higher in those courses as a graduation requirement."

Professor Ahn proposed, regarding bar exam improvements, "As a transitional measure, reduce the scope of multiple-choice questions to constitutional law, civil law, and criminal law, hold the exam earlier than the essay test, concurrently with the legal ethics exam, allow anyone from first to third year to take it, and grant eligibility to take the essay exam upon achieving a certain score."

Professor Choi suggested moving the practical training currently conducted by external institutions after the law school program to a six-month practical training period, and added, "We should also consider programs for nurturing the next generation of scholars during the law school course."

Professor Ahn Jung-bin said, "If it is difficult to cover basic legal studies within the three-year law school course, it might be worth considering teaching basic law in undergraduate programs and practical law in law schools." Regarding the reduction of multiple-choice questions, he pointed out the risk that "case-type or written exam questions may yield different scores depending on the grader."

The second topic of the general discussion was "The Crisis of Law Schools and Institutional Overcoming Measures," with Jang Seok-cheon, Dean of Chungbuk National University Law School, presenting on "Legislative Improvement Measures for the Sustainability of the Law School System." Dean Jang said, "If the vacancy replenishment system is not implemented, there will be moves to fill vacancies internally through transfer admissions," and warned, "This will further entrench the hierarchy among law schools and render government policies aimed at regional balanced development ineffective." He argued, "It is necessary to delete the clause setting the validity period of the vacancy replenishment system and legislate related grounds for vacancy replenishment by law."

Next, Professor Jeon Hak-seon of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Law School presented on "Legislative Improvement Measures for Law School Evaluation." Professor Jeon pointed out problems with the evaluation committee system affiliated with the Korean Bar Association as the evaluation body, issues with the timing of the five-year evaluation cycle, and unrealistic or unreasonable evaluation criteria in individual standards, proposing alternatives.

Regarding the two presentations, discussions were held by Park Kyung-chul, Dean of Kangwon National University Law School; Professor Song Moon-ho of Jeonbuk National University Law School; Professor Yoon Tae-young of Ajou University Law School; Professor Park Tae-shin (45, Class 36) of Jeonbuk National University Law School; and Professor Jang Yong-geun of Hongik University Law Department.

Professor Park said about Professor Jeon's presentation, "If the Ministry of Education's Law Education Committee is responsible for evaluation, issues of neutrality and fairness may arise," and suggested, "Ultimately, an independent external professional institution should be established to conduct evaluations, and the Law Education Committee should evaluate and accredit the external professional evaluation agency."

Professor Song emphasized, "The term 'certification evaluation' used in the law school evaluation legislation can be misunderstood as implying the possibility of revoking certification, so it is better to soften the terminology, and the evaluation currently promoted by the Association of Law Schools must be changed from Pass/Fail to a scoring system as before."

Professor Yoon said regarding law school evaluation, "Most evaluation elements do not need to be checked frequently, so the cycle should be set to about 7 to 10 years, and if specific problems or improvement requests arise from admissions or classes, a mid-term inspection of the relevant school should be conducted, as in the U.S., to reduce unnecessary burdens on schools."

Professor Park Tae-shin proposed legislative improvement measures for law school evaluation, including "changing the evaluation body to the Minister of Education but entrusting the evaluation work to the Korean Association of Law Professors or the Association of Law Schools," and "assuming the change of evaluation body, allowing each law school to conduct self-evaluation autonomously, and dividing the evaluation committee's evaluation into preliminary and main evaluations, conducting the main evaluation only if deemed necessary based on the preliminary evaluation results."

Professor Jang said, "For the Ministry of Education, not the Ministry of Justice or the Bar Association, to establish itself as the management body for evaluation aimed at qualitative management of education, quality legal professional training can be predictably and sustainably achieved."