LEGAL EDUCATION IN
KOREA AND THE ASIAN REGION
1) Law Students in Korea (graduate and undergraduate, part-time or full-time, how they are selected, etc.)
Law schools in Korea are four-year law colleges that admit high school graduates. The number of students admitted each year also varies from school to school, from a high of 290 students at Korea University College of Law to around 30 at some small law departments. Seoul National University (SNU) College of Law admits 270 undergraduates each year. There are 1,823 high schools in Korea that produce roughly 700,000 graduates annually. Almost all of them want to go to college and take a qualifying exam administered by the national government, which is roughly comparable to the SAT test in the United States. If a student excels in high school and his or her SAT score is very high, he or she will be pressured by their high school teachers, parents, other relatives and friends to apply to SNU and its College of Law, regardless of their own career aspirations and aptitude. As a result, the SNU College of Law can always select the brightest 270 applicants each year, based primarily on the SAT score. The college entrance examination system has been in operation in such a way for more than 40 years in Korea, and the pecking order of all universities and law colleges has been firmly established. Law students are generally the brightest students at any given university in Korea. Under such an entrance system, most law schools find it difficult to admit part-time students, although some law schools run an evening division that allows part-time students.
Every year only 700 of the roughly 9,000 law graduates go into the legal profession as judges, prosecutors, or attorneys, because there is a national quota for the Bar Exam. The vast majority of law students at SNU and other major universities devote themselves to preparing for the exam, and try to pass it when they are still in school or immediately following graduation. The passing rate is about two percent. The vast majority of law students thus end up toiling to pass the exam for several years after graduation. Law students are very intelligent and motivated students, but the psychological pressure to prepare for the exam, and the great potential reward if they are fortunate enough to pass, tends to give them tunnel vision.
Many colleges of law have various graduate programs that lead to a Masters of Law (LL.M) degree and a doctoral degree. The SNU College of Law admits about 90 students to the LL.M. program and as many as 25 to the doctoral program each year. Generally they are selected by an open and competitive entrance exam, but a limited number of students with outstanding undergraduate academic records may be admitted through special interviews. The LL.M program requires two years, during which a candidate must complete 24 credits and write a thesis under supervision. The doctoral program requires another three years, during which a candidate must complete an additional 12 credits and write a dissertation. A large number of graduate degrees in law are conferred annually, and these graduates are the pool of human resources that supply research and teaching assistants and faculty appointments. However, the majority of the graduate students have their name registered purely to secure deferment from the military draft while they study for the bar exam. For this reason some graduate students seek an opportunity to go abroad for advanced legal studies with the aim of becoming a law professor.
2) Law Faculty (who they are, how they are selected)
There are 79 law colleges and legal departments in Korea. The size of the law faculty varies greatly, the average number being seven. Seoul National University College of Law is the largest with thirty-four. The Ministry of Education regulates the number of faculty members at national law schools, while the board of trustees regulates that of private law schools. When there is a vacancy due to a mandatory retirement at age 65 years or a resignation, Korean law schools announce the opening in the newspapers or on the internet. Usually many young scholars with a doctoral degree apply, and the competition is rather fierce. Their applications and academic achievements are reviewed by internal as well as external evaluators, based on their merit, but there is no customary or established way of hiring a law faculty member.
While law professors are accorded great respect in Korean society generally, they are wrongly considered second-class citizens within the legal profession because they generally do not take or pass the Bar Exam. Many judges, prosecutors, and attorneys performed better academically than their counterparts who remained in academia, and often the best and brightest law students choose to take the Bar Exam because of the tremendous prestige and financial security attendant upon passing it. The salaries of law professors are very low especially when compared to their counterparts who are attorneys. It has thus been difficult to attract the top students to academia. Another problem is that law departments tend to choose law professors exclusively from their own alumni, which can lead to academic stagnation and complacency. This problem is intensified by the general lack of communication between legal scholars and the legal profession, mainly because very few teachers are members of the bar.
3) Curriculum (what it is, who determines it)
The curriculum of law schools is determined by the law faculty in accordance with law. Although individual law faculty members may propose a new course, such proposals are subject to approval by the faculty. In reality, budgetary and other constraints make it impossible to accept all proposals to add, drop or change courses.
The first year curriculum consists primarily of general studies, and the following three years are taken up mostly by law courses. Law students are required to complete 140 credits to obtain an LL.B degree. Since the purposes of legal education have not been completely agreed upon in Korea, courses offered at law schools tend to be theoretical. Most agree that legal education should be a professional education meant to produce both lawyers and legal scholars. Therefore, one of the main criticisms directed at legal education is that law colleges put too much emphasis on theoretical legal studies centering around the exegesis of the black-letter law, and that the clinical legal studies which are necessary for professionals are thus neglected. Some argue that even theoretical legal studies are not adequately taught at the colleges of law, for two main reasons. First, the absence of the linkage between formal legal education and the national exams seriously paralyzes legal education. Since formal legal education is not a prerequisite for becoming a lawyer, legal scholars and the legal profession function independently with very little exchange between them. Second, law is an undergraduate major in universities where many other subjects are taught, and consequently LL.B degrees may be awarded to students who have taken only 33 hours of credit in legal courses.
Primarily as a result of the orientation of legal education toward the bar exam, the exam-oriented curriculum limits the students' opportunities to explore academic discourses and intellectual developments in legal scholarship. Their opportunities for achieving maximum growth are further limited by the availability of teachers who can teach subjects beyond this limited curriculum. This is a circular problem of course: the lack of diversity in the curriculum tends to produce scholars who are less than adequately prepared to address academic areas which were not taught or emphasized in their own legal education. The problem is exacerbated by a shortage of law professors in general, again as a result of the pervasive influence of the Bar Exam on legal education. Whatever new courses are developed to meet the needs of our changing society, and however well the courses are prepared, the students’ enthusiasm and attendance are low unless the courses deal directly with the bar exam topics. Only those who study law in such an examination-oriented manner can pass the bar exam and become judges, prosecutors, and lawyers.
4) What Law Graduates Do
Law school graduates go into all different professions following their graduation. SNU College of Law is the most prestigious law school in Korea, and the majority of legal professionals are SNU graduates. This domination of the legal profession by SNU law graduates is slowly changing, however, as more and more non-law graduates of SNU and law majors at other universities pass the bar exam. Until ten years ago, more than two-thirds of those who passed the bar exam were SNU law graduates, but in recent years they have made up about half.
Many students enter our graduate program and obtain a doctoral degree, which is absolutely required for an aspiring law professor, and others choose to pursue advanced legal studies abroad. The number of students who choose to pursue academic careers in the law is very small, however, primarily as a result of the orientation of legal education toward the bar exam. A small number of students take and pass the National Higher Civil Service Exam or the Diplomatic Service Exam. The vast majority of law graduates who fail to pass any national exam by graduation either continue to prepare for the exam for many years, or find a job in the banking, corporate, or other fields.
5) American Influence on the Legal Systems of the Region
When the Asian countries established their legal systems, they usually modeled them after Germany, France, or England. While many South Asian countries were heavily influenced by England, the Far Eastern countries such as Korean, Japan, and China borrowed mainly from Germany, although some French and Swiss influence is still felt. Because of the Japanese occupation of Korea, Korea borrowed its law and legal system from Germany through Japan. Thus, most Asian countries except South Asia belong to the civil law family, although some of them were influenced by Japan through its imperial expansion before its defeat in World War II. Although Korea is a civil law country based on the German law and legal system, in recent years it has been more strongly influenced by the American legal system. The same is true for many other countries in the region.
In the past, a limited number of Korean graduate law students and legal professionals were able to broaden their educational horizons by pursuing advanced legal studies abroad. Typically, in the early years of the Republic, most of the Korean legal scholars went to West Germany or Japan for post-graduate legal studies, but in the last 40 years many have chosen to go to the United States. This trend is a reflection of the historical influences on Korea's legal system. Following liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, South Korea implemented a legal system very similar to the Japanese civil law system that had been in force during the colonial period. The Japanese, in turn, had borrowed heavily from the continental system of Germany and France, modeling most of its laws on the German civil code. Thus it was natural in the past for most Korean legal scholars to find their way to Germany or Japan. This pattern was repeated as their professors who had studied in Germany and returned to teach law and legal theory in Korean universities influenced graduate students.
In recent years, however, there has been a strong tendency for Asian legal scholars and professionals to study in the United States. Some scholars still choose to pursue studies in Germany or France, but they are primarily academics who are interested in teaching about continental law or civil legal systems. There will continue to be a demand for legal scholars with expertise in civil legal systems, but the pervasive influence of Anglo-American law, especially that of the United States, has made studying in America a more attractive and productive option for most law students and legal professionals.
The American influence on corporation law, insurance law, intellectual property law, securities regulation, and antitrust and competition laws has been profound all over Asia. Many statutes in these areas have been modeled on the corresponding statutes in the United States. This influence on domestic law, combined with the strong U.S. influence on international trade laws, has been both a product of and an impetus for the increase in Asian legal scholars studying in the United States. Korean government, recognizing the importance of American legal concepts in the formation and administration of domestic and international law and legal institutions, sponsors one or two-year expense-paid sabbaticals for study abroad for government officials, judges and prosecutors, and competition to study at prestigious American law schools is severe. Many law firms also offer their associates the opportunity to study for one or two years in the U.S., followed by the practical training at an American law firm. In both cases, the students usually acquire an LL.M. degree from an American law school, and some pass one of the state bar exams, adding the prestige of an American law degree and membership in an American state bar to an already rewarding educational and professional experience. The influence of this exposure to American legal education will have a significant impact on legal education and the practice of law in many Asian countries.