한국(韓國)의 교육헌법(敎育憲法) 연구 20년의 성과(成果)와 과제(課題)

The Results and Tasks of the recent two-decade Researches on the Educational Jurisprudence under the Korean Constitution

본 稿에서는 지난 20연년에 걸쳐 우리 헌법이 표방하는 교육의 이념을 하위 법규인 교육관련 諸法規가 어떠한 방법과 형식으로 구현하고 있는가 하는 문제를 중심으로 접근하였다. 교육헌법이라는 분야가 헌법학과 교육법학이 부분적으로 교차하는 영역에 속하는 것이라는 전제하에서, 교육헌법의 개념적 정의를 비롯하여 교육헌법이 형성되고 발전해 온 역사적 과정, 헌법과 교육법의 체계적 관계, 교육헌법의 논의 동향, 학설상의 쟁점, 그리고 앞으로의 전망과 과제 등을 논의하였다. 특히 헌법 제31조의 체계적인 해석을 통하여 교육기본권의 개념을 정립하려는 학계의 노력과 관련하여, 교육권과 학습권의 관계, 개인의 권리라는 측면에서의 교육법학에 대한 접근, 재학관계를 비롯한 각종의 교육법률관계의 법적 성질론 확립 등을 향후 교육법학의 과제로 제시 하였다.

Over the past two decades, researches in educational jurisprudence have been showing that there are many academic excellent outcomes and complicated problems to be solved, one of which is a compelling argument of establishing the relationship between the Constitution and various education laws. The purpose of this article is to spot contemporary issues and suggest some tasks to the academic circles in the field of education laws in Korea. The Constitution and the Fundamental Education Law guarantee equal opportunities in education regardless of faith, sex or socio-economic position. Like this, the principle of equality is enshrined in the Korean education law systems. This article briefly reviews the history of adoption of Education Clause(art. 31) in the Constitution and its continuance after many changes. Then, it discusses the tendency and contours of the research on the educational jurisprudence in the last tow decades, focusing on the fundamental rules of educational systems, local autonomous rights to educational issues, educators` rights to the participation to education policies, political impartiality of education, the teachers` rights of labor, the system of school books designated by the government, the subject of academic freedom, and the gist of fundamental right to education including equal educational opportunity and compulsory education. Finally, I suggest that contract theory should be recognized to education jurisprudence in Korea. In fact, the application of contract theory to the educational context is often complicated as cases require examination of the professional judgment of academic decision-makers in educational contexts. However, it is possible for courts to avoid intruding upon academic matters by making distinctions between academic-related disputes and cases involving misconduct to provide deference to institutions` professional academic evaluations.