Teaching Law and Economics in Korea

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the current status of the Law and Economics education in Korea. In Korea, a course in Law and Economics was first offered in mid-1980s at Seoul National University, and since then, academic and teaching interests have been growing steadily. Based on the results of an informal survey on course offerings, we describe what is being taught and discuss challenges that the field is facing in Korea. Major pedagogic challenges include (i) insufficient supply of instructors and researchers who have background knowledge of both law and economics; (ii) lack of textbooks written in the Korean language dealing with Korean legal issues; and (iii) lack of Korean court cases and other materials suited for classroom discussions. Recent introduction of the new postgraduate professional legal education system is the biggest factor that will have a significant impact on the prospect of Law and Economics education in Korea. While interests among students have increased considerably, the problem of the limited supply of researchers in the field remains unsolved. The field should still provide convincing evidence to the traditional legal academia that Law and Economics is relevant and indeed useful in analyzing todays difficult legal issues that Korea has to deal with.