Law Schools Want 2,000 Student Limit

Lawmakers are pushing a plan that limits the number of incoming students to Korea’s recently introduced law school system to around 2,000 per year.

Lee Eun-young, a lawmaker of the ruling Uri Party and the Sixth Policy Mediation Commission chair, said yesterday, “We agreed that it is desirable to set tan admission cap on law school admissions to around 2,000 students per year after having talks with several professionals in the field. The government has also given the green light to this plan.”

This number, two times greater than the number of current annual successful candidates to the bar examination (about 1,000), was suggested after considering the differing positions among the legal circle and universities. The former wants a cap of 1,200 students, while universities are pushing for at least 3,000.

“We are moving to convince lawmakers belonging to the party’s education commission now,” said Lee. “Since the law school bill states that ‘the Minister of Education and Human Resources Development has a right to decide the law school admission cap,’ the number will be set in an Enforcement Ordinance after finishing this legislation.” Lee added, “There are many critical steps in front of us.”

The government introduced this bill last October after examining the Presidential Committee on Judicial Reform’s plans on the introduction of law school system. A few days ago, the ruling Uri Party and the government agreed to give this bill the highest priority in February’s extraordinary session because otherwise, it would be difficult to introduce the law school system in 2008 as planned.

The plan, proposed by the Presidential Committee on Judicial Reform, says nothing about an admissions cap, but clarifies 150 students per school as a maximum number. If Lee’s suggestion wins support in the National Assembly, 13 to 14 universities could run law schools nationwide.

In-Jik Cho cij1999@donga.com