By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Male students preparing to enter law school will file a petition with the Constitutional Court against Ewha Womans University Law School, claiming that the admittance of only female students is a violation of their constitutional rights.
Three men said Sunday that Ewha Law School accepts only women for its allotted entrance quota of 100. They said that because the nation's total law school capacity was 2,000, as licensed by the Ministry of Education and Science Technology, the school effectively eliminated 100 slots for men by excluding them from its entrance exam, leaving only 1,900 total slots, they claimed.
``Ewha Law School should alter its prospectus to receive only females, or cancel the license of the law school itself, so men and women can have an equal opportunity,'' he said.
The claimants, who had been preparing to enter law school at the beginning of this year, argued that the school has set ``irrational'' entrance standards. They have been arranging the constitutional appeal since March and plan to file it in early August after legal consultation.
``Law school is a training organization for national judicial officers and the admission rules of private law schools should be based on public interest as well. Ewha Law School unfairly limits the opportunity to become lawyers on the basis that the applicants are men. It violates the gender equality,'' a lawyer for the petitioners said.
Ewha Law School is the sole women-only law school in the country. Other students planning to attend law school have also complained that it discriminates against male applicants.
Two male students already petitioned the National Human Rights Commission last December, with a decision to arrive later this month.
However, Kim Moon-hyun, dean of the law school, said women make up only 17 percent of the Korean legal judiciary, thus the women's law school is an affirmative action and does not infringe upon the Constitution. ``It is desirable to have a female-focused legal education facility since the Korean law field is male-dominated,'' Kim said.
meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr
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