Legal Eligibility and Knowledge : From the perspective of legal methodology

Article 23, Paragraph 2 of the current Korean Law School Act prohibits the assessment of legal knowledge in law school admissions. This prohibition of the assessment of legal knowledge, while a reasonable measure to resolve the problems posed by the old Korean bar examination system, has also been met with criticism. Some argue that it discriminates against applicants with law bachelor degrees. This criticism, too, is justified. Therefore, a reasonable response to this criticism is necessary. The prohibition of the assessment of legal knowledge presupposes a distinction between legal eligibility and legal knowledge. However, this raises several issues. Among these, questions arise: how can we distinguish between legal eligibility and legal knowledge? Can the two truly be clearly distinguished? Can we even evaluate legal eligibility without considering legal knowledge? This leads back to the question of what legal eligibility is. Therefore, this article begins with the question of legal eligibility, and explores what legal knowledge is and the relationship between legal eligibility and knowledge. Based on this, this article examines how the Legal Education Eligibility Test (LEET) should address legal knowledge. This article argues that this issue is fundamentally linked to the question of whether the current law school system is functioning successfull