Introduction to Korean Law
by
Professor Sang Jo Jong
(sjjong@snu.ac.kr)
Professor Benjamin Hughes
(bfhughes@snu.ac.kr)
Assistant Mr. Jindu Li
(alirang515@snu.ac.kr)
Autumn 2016
(Every Monday, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
Sang Jo JONG
Professor Sang Jo Jong, Professor of Law at Seoul National University, graduated from Seoul National University and completed his Ph.D. at the London School of Economics. His research and teaching has mostly centered around copyright, trademark, patent, unfair competition, antitrust, privacy, and internet law. He taught comparative Korean law at Harvard Law School in 2015 and at University of Washington in 2014. He has served as Dean of SNU School of Law, a civilian member of the Presidential Council of Intellectual Property, the Director of the SNU Center for Law & Technology, and a Panel Member of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center.
Benjamin Hughes
Assistant Professor Benjamin Hughes studied Korean and East Asian History at Harvard University (MA, 1997), with a focus on Choseon Dynasty legal history. He subsequently completed the master’s course at SNU College of Law (1999, all coursework in Korean), and then attended law school at NYU School of Law in New York (JD, 2002). He has practiced law at major US and Korean law firms in San Francisco, Singapore and Seoul. Professor Hughes left law firm practice in 2013 to focus on acting as an independent arbitrator in international arbitrations in Asia and Europe, and joined the faculty of SNU Law School in 2015.
Course Description
The purpose of this course is two-fold: (i) to provide an understanding of the basic institutions and processes of the Korean legal system; and (ii) to provide an introduction to the comparative analysis of law, with a focus on Korean law. The orientation of the course will be explicitly comparative, and students will be encouraged to analyze Korean law, legal history and legal culture in contrast to the U.S. and other legal systems. Topics covered may include the historical development of law in Korea, the reception of Western law, the cultural factors that influence the function of law and legal institutions in Korea, legal aspects of Korea’s economic development, the impact of dynamic society on legal system of Korea, the distinctions between common law and civil law systems generally, the practice of judicial review in Korea, the “rule of law” debate, etc. The course will proceed along the following themes and topics.
Course Materials
The main course reader includes various articles and other materials on each week’s topics. In addition to the main course reader, handouts will be posted or emailed to students in advance or distributed during class meeting in order to accommodate students’ further understanding.