Law professors group regrets introduction of law schools

The Korean Law Professors Society comprised of more than 500 law professors became the third organization on Friday to issue a statement ‘urging continuation of the conventional state bar exam’ following suit of the Korean Bar Association and the Seoul Bar Association.

The society said on the day, “We reflect on the fact law professors were one of the groups that pushed for introduction of law schools by defying the public,” urging, ‘The National Assembly, which promised to review again whether to continue or discontinue the conventional state bar exam in 2013 should urgently put the issue in public debate.” The group said “We feel deep sense of regret, and convey our strong support’ for a string of statements issued by lawyers organizations, and the result of a Dong-A Ilbo survey that suggests ’75 percent of the public are opposed to the revocation of the conventional state bar exam.”

The professors group said, “The American style law school was originally an undergraduate study system, but switched to a graduate school system in line with a marketing strategy suggesting that master’s degrees would be helpful in attracting customers in the lawyers market, and is not instituted by law.” The group claimed, “In Korea, the law school is a distorted law school in which (the graduate school system is legally instituted to be enforced) and is blocking working-class people from advancing into the legal profession.” Citing an incumbent law school professor’s comments suggesting that ‘teachers (law school professors) who have never thrown fishnet in the river have doggedly believe that all they need to do is to teach what books say to people (law school students) who want to be fishermen,” thus expressing internal doubt about education of practices by the law schools.

The Korean Law Professors Society is an organization that involves more than 500 professors of law department at universities without law schools, and was established in 2013. Currently, about 7,000 students enter law departments at more than 70 universities without law schools nationwide yearly. Twenty-five universities that have certified law schools stopped recruiting undergraduate law students from 2009.

shine@donga.com