법학전문대학원의 형사법교육

초록

What is the essence of legal education? What do law professors teach at a law school? In the area of legal education, practice and theory cannot be two totally different monsters to be tamed. However, in Korea there has been a great diversion between educating theory and delivering skills in praticing law. One of the reasons is that Korean laws are based upon civil law system where theoretical lessons are deemed to be more important to understand the logical structure of laws. But the old customs need to be changed whether professors really want the change, since next year, the law school system, in which laws are being taught at a graduate school level, launches its new program in Korea. In teaching criminal law, two things really matter: the contents and the method in teaching. The contents cannot be changed overnight. We need to look into what has been taught before diving into what contents should be delivered to the students under the new system. Then what about the method? Some might say that so called Socratic method is the necessary evil which is thriving in the U.S. law schools. However, that notion or such contention is only partially true. Sometimes lecturing could be the best way to let students understand the complexity of theories. At Sogang University Law School, in teaching criminal law and criminal procedure, all things should be considered. After all, the goal of having this revolutionary system in place is to let the students be equipped with theories and practices they need when they are to graduate.

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