By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter
As the first major step to reforming the nation’s judicial system, American-style law schools will be launched in 2008 and the current bar examination will be phased out by 2013.

The Judicial Reform Committee announced Tuesday that 16 of its 21 members voted to introduce three-year law courses, reaching a final agreement after a year-long debate.

The results will be submitted to the chief of the Supreme Court and then sent to President Roh Moo-hyun for final approval.

According to the plan, the quota for law schools was set at 1,200 students for the first school year. The number is similar to that of those passing the annual bar exam.

The number of those who pass the bar exam will gradually decrease starting from 2008 until it is finally abolished in 2013.

The committee members said that the law school system is designed to develop more qualified lawyers, prosecutors and judges as the present bar exam has failed to function properly, causing years of hard work and stiff competition among both law students and those studying other majors.

As for the qualifications of law school applicants, those who have an undergraduate degree will be allowed to take a law school entrance test, which will consider their grade point averages during their undergraduate years, foreign language proficiency, results of the law school scholastic aptitude test and social or volunteer activities.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development said it will decide by the end of 2006 which colleges and universities are qualified to set up the law schools.

As just a few universities out of some 90 law departments in Korea will be allowed to set up law schools, many universities, including private universities in Seoul and national universities in each province, have been preparing to open a graduate school for legal education on their own campuses.

The law school system was first discussed in 1995 during former President Kim Young-sam’s administration, but failed because the nation’s judicial circles, including lawyers, strongly protested against it. Many lawyers have been against an increase in the number of people passing the bar exam.

However, civic groups advocating judicial reform are calling for a larger quota for law school students to ensure better services for the public.

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