Law majors struggle to adapt to new law school system

      The Legal Education Eligibility Test (LEET) for law school entrance, held for the first time on August 24, marked the first step toward the graduate law school system that will start next March. However, as law colleges adapt to the new system, undergraduate law majors have been struggling to follow the changes.
The biggest dilemma for most students is to decide whether to study for graduate school entrance or to study to pass the traditional bar exam, which will exist until 2016. “Many students in the law department, including me, are not as determined about passing the bar exam as they were before, because there is another way to become a lawyer?going to law school,” said Seo Seung-hee (Law, 2). Seo said that many law majors in Ewha are also thinking about entering law schools if they fail the exam.
      The College of Law says that it will support students preparing for the exam will continue. About this issue, the College of Law said that it is going to support students preparing for the bar exam until 2016. “Advantages such as scholarships, dormitory residence and Goshi ban, a special program providing students with special study room and care from professors will still exist,” said a staff member of the College of Law.
     However, as law departments in universities chosen to open a law school cannot enroll new freshmen beginning next year, schools are reducing their number of undergraduate classes, sometimes scheduling problems. At Ewha, the number of classes for the fall 2008 semester decreased from 54 to 50 compared to the 2007 fall semester; though the classes that disappeared were only additional sections of the subjects, which are the Labor Law II, Check Law and Particulars of Administrative Law.
      Some students are also concerned that they will not be able to re-take first year classes if there are no more freshmen. The College of Law said that it will offer elementary courses which freshmen usually take as long as there is demand for them. However, students still complain. “Even though the school offers those courses, there will be fewer divisions of classes for one subject. I think this is unfair because students are limited in their rights to choose,” said Yang Na-rae (Law, 3), the president of the College of Law student council.
      Yang also said that it will not be easy to continue student council events held as the budget from the school will be reduced now that no new students are entering the major. “This is not only a problem that the student council is facing, but also the problem for the law study groups and clubs,” said Yang.
      Law majors of other universities which are going to adopt the law school system are facing the same problems as the law majors at Ewha. A joint group of student councils of the law colleges at universities in Seoul was formed in July, 2007, to oppose the graduate law school system. The joint group has insisted that the law establishing graduate law schools is unconstitutional. But, not all Ewha law majors agree. “I don’t think canceling the decision to open the graduate law schools is a good idea. Rather, I think it will be good if the school compensates the students for the inconveniences by bettering the curriculum system,” said Kwak Ju-yeon (Law, 2). Kwak said that the student council of the College of Law is not only going to participate in the joint group ut also focus on talking about the problems that law majors have with professors and look for ways to solve them.