Bar exam extension triggers huge backlash
Park Jun-sung, student council president of the School of Law at Seoul National University, reads a statement in a press conference at the school building in Sillim-dong, southern Seoul, Friday. On behalf of his fellow students, Park submitted the school’s 464 students’ withdrawal applications to protest the government’s recent decision to delay abolishing the state-administrated bar exam. / Yonhap
Law school students vow to quit in protest
By Jung Min-ho
Thousands of students are threatening to quit law school to protest the government’s decision to delay abolishing the state-administrated bar exam until 2021.
According to the Law School Students Association of Korea (LSSAK), Friday, students at 24 of the nation’s 25 law schools have agreed to drop out, following the Ministry of Justice’s decision.
“I think all 6,000 law school students across the country will quit,” LSSAK President Lee Chul-hee said. “We will keep fighting the government’s decision by all means possible.”
The exam was supposed to be scrapped in 2017. However, the ministry ditched the plan, citing the results of a public opinion poll that 85.4 percent of respondents wanted to keep it.
The Korean Association of Law Schools, representing a group of law school professors, has joined the protest, saying it will not participate in providing questions for the bar exam unless the government reverses its decision.
“The ministry has broken its promise with everyone,” a member of the association said. “Students are rightly angry over the policy flip-flop.”
The Supreme Court also criticized the ministry for making a hasty decision without collecting enough opinions from the public.
“The decision should be reviewed to determine whether it is appropriate and the four-year grace period is reasonable,” it said.
Facing a strong backlash, Justice Minister Kim Hyun-woong said that the bar exam extension is not a final decision. “It is just the opinion of the ministry. We will make a final decision after collecting opinions from relevant organizations and law schools,” the minister said.
Yet the uproar shows no signs of abating.
The protest will immediately hinder academic schedules at law schools as students refuse to attend classes. Students at Seoul National and Yonsei universities have decided to boycott the law qualifying exam, which is scheduled in January. More students are expected to join.
If most law school students leave as planned, the government is expected to have problems with a lack of manpower for courts and prosecutors’ offices.
More importantly, the issue of trust will likely further damage the Park Geun-hye administration.
Unlike the bar exam that is open to everyone regardless of academic status, only law school graduates are allowed to take the government-administrated qualifying exam.
However, its pass rate of 75 percent is far higher than that of the bar exam (3 percent or less).
Until 2009, passing the bar exam was the only way to obtain a license to practice law in Korea. The Roh Moo-hyun administration decided to adopt a U.S.-style law school system in order to make legal services affordable to more people by increasing the number of lawyers.
But the law schools, which cost students as much as 30 million won ($25,800) per year, have faced criticism for benefiting only those wealthy enough to afford them.
But LSSAK has insisted that law schools actually provide more opportunities to underprivileged students through scholarships. However, surveys show that most of those who become lawyers by either system come from rich families.
Rather, public distrust about the law school system came more from powerful people who tried to take advantage of its opaqueness in terms of selecting and managing students.
Over the past few months, three lawmakers have been accused of peddling influence to provide unfair advantages to their law school-attending children.
The latest such case involves Rep. Shin Ki-nam, who allegedly attempted to rescue his son who failed the graduation exam at Kyung Hee University Law School in Seoul.
Two other lawmakers ― Yoon Hu-duk and Kim Tae-won ― and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan also faced similar allegations.