Korean Law School and Civil Procedure in 2019

Abstract

In 2009 Korean New Law School System was adopted with a deep anxiety because most universities did not prepare for new educational system until then. Especially, we could not have time enough to make new lecture materials and to decide how to teach students. Many people argues that teachers in law school should change their lecture method and curriculum so as to educate prospective global standard lawyers efficiently. They also insist that professors of law school should teach practice fields such as the Korean Judicial Research and Training Institute(KJRTI) established by the Korean Government. However, law school is not a training institute but just educational graduate school of law. Furthermore, we teach graduate students who have studied diverse majors in undergraduate colleges unlike KJRTI, and then they should be educated in law from the beginning level. Therefore, we have to emphasize theory education rather than practice in civil procedure subject and other subjects although we should teach theory and practice coincidently in law school. The author thinks that we should educate law school students so as to think like a lawyer. Then what is the “hink like a lawyer”? There are five elements to thinking like a lawyer: judgment capacity, legal reasoning capacity, communication capacity, comprehension of professional norms and responsibilities and leadership. Each of these components has both knowledge and skills aspects. Now the purpose of law school can be more clearly stated: to teach prospective lawyers the knowledge and skills necessary to exercise sound judgment, develop sound legal reasoning capacity, communicate effectively, cooperate with colleagues and function at all times in accordance with professional norms and responsibilities. Now we stand here in the beginning of 2019. Ten years have passed since the new law school system begun. What was changed since then? And what happened in civil procedure subject and field? The author thinks that not changed furthermore even worse especially in civil procedure field. The lecture style had not changed and bar exam style got worse. In order to achieve our original goal in law school, a civil procedure subject should have a important role in law school because it has acted as a mediator between the legal theory and practice. First of all, we have to change curriculum so as to teach civil procedure-related subjects such as Civil Enforcement, Bankruptcy law, Arbitration and International litigation as well as civil procedure. And also we have to change teaching method so as to make a interactive classroom environment that thinking like a lawyer demands. The problem method based on the Socratic method could be the best teaching method to coincide with the purpose of law school.