법학전문대학원 제도하에서의 민사소송법 교육방법론 시안

Pedagogical Method in legal education focused on the civil procedure subject

In 2009 Korean Law Schools(KLS) were opened with a deep anxiety because most KLS could not prepare for new educational system until then. Especially, we could not have time enough to make new lecture materials and to decide how to teach KLS students. Many people argues that KLS should change their lecture method and curriculum so as to educate prospective lawyers efficiently. They also insist that professors of KLS should teach practice fields such as the Korean Judicial Research and Training Institute(KJRTI) established by the Korean Government. However, KLS is not a training institute but just educational graduate school of law. Furthermore, we teach graduate students who have studied diverse majors in undergraduate colleges unlike KJRTI, and then they should be educated in law from the beginning level. Therefore, we have to emphasize theory education rather than practice in civil procedure subject and other subjects although we should teach theory and practice coincidently in KLS. What is the purpose of KLS? The author think that we should educate law school students so as to think like a lawyer. Then what is the “think like a lawyer”? There are five elements to thinking like a lawyer: judgment capacity, legal reasoning capacity, communication capacity, comprehension of professional norms and responsibilities and leadership. Each of these components has both knowledge and skills aspects. Now the purpose of law school can be more clearly stated: to teach prospective lawyers the knowledge and skills necessary to exercise sound judgment, develop sound legal reasoning capacity, communicate effectively, cooperate with colleagues and function at all times in accordance with professional norms and responsibilities. In order to achieve our goal in KLS, a civil procedure subject should have a important role in KLS because it has acted as a mediator between the legal theory and practice. First of all, we have to change curriculum so as to teach civil procedure-related subjects such as Civil Enforcement, Bankruptcy law, Arbitration and International litigation as well as civil procedure. And also we have to change teaching method so as to make a interactive classroom environment that thinking like a lawyer demands. The problem method based on the Socratic method could be the best teaching method to coincide with the purpose of law school. On the assumption that change is certain to occur in KLS system, this article looks chiefly at the extent and the substance of change. First, the article will identify the common barriers present throughout the law education in Korea. Second, the article will describe the new teaching method, especially socratic and problem method which are most popular in the US law school as a alternative to overcome these barriers. Finally, the article will set forth some suggested strategies for realizing new teaching method to achieve goal in new law school system through my experiences in the past.