<Abstract>

Law School: Problems and Solutions

Kim, Jong-Seo

Professor, Pai Chai Univ.

Park, Dong-Ki

LL. M., Paichai Univ. Graduate School of Law

This thesis aims at making a diagnosis of some serious problems presented by the newly-introduced law school system, such as the finance, the curricula of law schools and the undergraduate legal education. To achieve this goal, I made an investigation into the financial data and curricula of six law schools available, which made clear the problems as follows:

First, most law schools are likely to be confronted by serious financial difficulties since much less quotas than expected were assigned to them. Some measures can be taken to overcome those difficulties, but might cause other serious problems. For example, raising the tuition or reducing the scholarships could be the easiest measure for law schools to take, but they would present a grave question that the poor would be deprived of the very chance to get a law school education, and thus the legal profession itself would be totally left in the hands of the rich.

Second, law schools can hardly maintain and administer the appropriate curricula and educational programs. It is desirable that more than one hundred lectures are provided, but few of them can have reasonable participants because law schools cannot admit enough students to register for the courses.

Third, the appropriate legal education programs at undergraduate level are not likely to be developed and administered in a university with a law school. Teachers in a law school cannot concentrate on the undergraduate education because they have much to do for the preparation of brand-new law school curricula.

I have shown that the law school licensing system and the restriction of total admission quotas are the main causes of this situation. The bar exam bill, designating too many law fields as subjects for the exam, serves as another factor that makes the prospect of law school dim.

While I suggested as a solution that the limited licensing and quota system be abolished, more important is the understanding that the law school system is just one of the various ways to cultivate lawyers, not the only one.

Key Words: law school, finance, curriculum, undergraduate legal education, bar exam