미국 로스쿨제도 하에서의 법학교육 및 우리 법학교육에의 시사점

Legal Training in the U.S. Law School System and Its Suggestions for Korean Law Education

우리가 지금까지의 법학교육 방식을 지양하고 일거에 로스쿨제도라는 새로운 법학교육 방식을 도입하게 된 것은 이른바 세계화의 새로운 환경변화에 적응하여 21세기형의 법률가를 훈련·양성하기 위해서라고 할 수 있다. 우리 법학교육이 당면한 문제는 가능한 한 빨리 이러한 세계화의 목표를 달성할 수 있는 교육제도를 정착시켜야 한다는 것이다. 따라서 우리의 로스쿨제도가 모델로 삼은 미국의 300년에 가까운 로스쿨의 운영 경험을 비교법적으로 살펴보는 것은 우리의 새로운 법학교육제도가 정착하는 데 도움이 되는 시사점을 발견하는 데 도움을 줄 것이다. 미국에서의 법학교육의 초기 방식은 변호사 지망생이 개업 변호사나 판사 밑에서 업무를 배우는 도제식 제도로서 100년 이상이나 지속되다가 대학이 설립한 로스쿨, 이른바 대학 로스쿨이 나타나서 오늘날 세계 법학교육의 모델이 되어 온 과정을 살펴보았다.

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.