한국 로스쿨(법학전문대학원)제도 현황 및 향후 개선방향에 관한 연구(1)-일본 로스쿨(법학대학원)제도 운영 경험을 중심으로－

Abstract

Both Korean and Japanese law schools were introduced to reform the long-debated problems of the education system in the college of law, the bar-examination and the training system of the future legal professionals. In Korea the discussion of reforming the Judicial System including the introduction of American the law school system officially started on the government level in 1995 during the Kim Young-sam Government. However, it failed because of the strong resistance from the legal circles. Another attempt during the following Kim Dae-jung Government also failed because of the unprecedented IMF financial crisis in Korea and persistent resistance from the legal circles. During Noh Mu-hyun Government, ‘the Act on the Establishment and Management of Law School’ finally passed the National Assembly in July of 2007. While Korean government approved only small number of law schools by establishing the high criteria which were very difficult to reach. Japanese government approved many law schools if they passed the certain low criteria which were very easy to satisfy. Twenty-five law schools with 2,000 students in Korea started in March of 2009, while sixty-eight law schools with 5,600students in Japan started in April of 2004. There are many similarities between Korean law school system and that of Japanese in that two systems are one of modified American-style professional graduate schools such as medical school. However, we can find more differences than we imagine, if we compare them in detail. During three-year-experiences of operation, Korean law schools found some problems such as lack of faithful practice-oriented education and the need for strengthening the relation between the bar examination and the law school education. We can separate the problems of Korean law school into two groups. One group of problems is short-term problems which are necessary for the soft landing of Korean law school system. The other group of problems is fundamental problems including the assertion of abolishment of law school system which should be dealt with long-term perspectives. Short-term problems of Korean law schools are as follows, the difficulties in finding the jobs of future lawyers of law school graduates, excessive burden of law school students because of expensive tuition, serious financial difficulties of each law school and so on. From the beginning of law school system, Japanese law schools have been in difficult situation because of fundamental problems such as imbalance between the number of law school(students) and number of successful applicants in Japanese Bar-examination. For example, only 23.5%(2,063) of applicants(8,765) passed the Japanese Bar-exam. in 2011. The on-going process of reforming of Japanese law schools could be expected from the start of law school system. The Central Government of Japan adopted the policy of voluntarism in correcting the problems from 2009 with financial assistance measures. It advised each law school to cut the number of student quota and close the law schools in the extreme cases. Thus 5 law schools among 74 Japanese law schools are scheduled to close as of April of 2013. Finally, in August of 2012 the Central Government of Japan decided to establish ‘Ad-hoc ministers meeting for reforming the training legal professionals’ and it is expected to finalize its duty in August of 2013. In Korea also new Government will start from February of 2013. It means that ‘the year of 2013’ will be an golden opportunity for Korea to reform its law school system. There have been claims that Korea also should reform its law school system fundamentally. So it is advisable that Korean Central Government and Korean Association of Law Schools should be prepared to learn from the Japanese law school reform experiences.