미국 로스쿨제도 하에서의 법학교육 및 우리 법학교육에의 시사점

Abstract

Most recently, in 2009, Korea launched a new legal educational system based on a new paradigm modeled after that of the United States. Therefore it is essential to have a historical context to appreciate the current developments and concerns in the training of lawyers in the Korean legal educational system. This is especially the case at a gathering of those from the United States, where we cannot necessarily assume that all are familiar with our system of legal education. This overview of the legal training in the United States attempts to provide us with such a historical background. The U.S. system of legal education is well known for the case method. Indeed, the case method conjures up the American model of legal education, even though the current American law school is varied in its approaches to learning. Although the case method was introduced more than 130 years ago, remarkably it continues to be used in American law schools. Among legal historians and commentators, the case method is still said to be a point of debate. Law schools in Korea are supposed to serve a dual function. On the one hand, they are the place for the first stage of lawyer training and can be viewed as essentially a trade school. On the other hand, they continue their academic association with the modern university as an institution for legal research. Nonetheless, we can learn from the history of American legal education that a set of principles were constantly in battle. That is, a principle of vocational training struggled against a principle of scientific training. In conclusion, the case method seems to be introduced in most law schools and no doubt will continue to be a characteristic of at least some law school instruction. It can be predicted that legal training in Korea will continue to balance the case method with many other methods of instruction as the law schools strive to train lawyers for the twenty first century.