대학 학부에서의 법학교육

Abstract

The current legal education system has been proved to be inviable in the coming global era. As an alternative to it, the American-style law school system has long been proposed and at last 'The Bill on Law School' was laid before the Congress and is about to be passed. According to the Bill, out of 90 colleges(departments) of law at most 30 law schools will be set up. The university which wants to house law school is supposed to close the current college of law in undergraduate level, which means that the main stream of legal research and education will be shifted to the law schools in graduate level and the secondary legal education will be conducted in the undergraduate colleges of law. This article deals with what will be the impact to the law colleges after the introduction of law school system and more broadly what is to be done for the legal education in undergraduate level. With the introduction of law school system the social status of the colleges of law will be lowered rapidly and there may be no reason to continue to manage the colleges of law. If there is any reason to continue, it is on the condition that the current colleges of law should be radically reformed. In this article, the localization of law colleges is described in detail as one of alternatives, which means to restructure the college to fulfill the needs of local area. But despite such restructuring efforts there are always the possibilities for the law colleges to wither away. For as the law school prevails, more and more legal services will be provided by the law school graduates. Concerning the legal education in the undergraduate level in the university which has closed the law college to hold law school, my argument is that legal education should be provided as a liberal education for legal knowledge is a kind of necessities for the citizens in the complex modern society. But this argument does not justify the existence or continuance of the law colleges in the undergraduate level, much less in the universities who have already housed the law schools.