로스쿨 학생의 가치판단에 관한 설문조사 분석- 한국과 홍콩의 비교 -

Abstract

To qualify as a licensed lawyer in South Korea and Hong Kong, one must complete a legal ethics course. Even though legal ethics has long been required in professional legal education and training, lawyers' misconduct and corruption have persisted. The authors believe that legal ethics education is effective only when taught in combination with other values or motives, such as civic duty, family ethics, and fair profit-seeking. Taking this in mind, we performed a survey that presented Korean and Hong Kong law students with seven ethical dilemmas. An analysis of the results found the following characteristics: First, Korean students were more reluctant to report family members' misconduct, yet Hong Kong students valued 'family' and 'family welfare' higher in their considerations. Second, Korean students valued their professional life much higher regarding work-life balance than their Hong Kong counterparts and were more motivated by achieving success at work. However, they were less influenced by and less interested in instructions from their superiors and their employer's interests compared to Hong Kong students. Third, although the public-private distinction is a fundamental virtue for lawyers, whose profession is to pursue the public good and justice over personal interests, Korean students seem almost blind to their family issues. From the perspective of civic duty, this distinction was far more apparent when it came to Hong Kong students. Fourth, the ambition to achieve social success, even with unfair means, was most strongly expressed by male Korean students. On the other hand, female Korean students were most willing to do public interest work and their 'ethics of care' was more robust than the other groups. The responses show that compared to Hong Kong students, both male and female Korean students tend to make decisions that take less account of their superior's instructions or their law firms' interests. Statistically speaking, female Korean students valued these least. Korea and Hong Kong have long been influenced by Western law, respectively civil law and Anglo-American law, but share 'East Asian' values and cultures. This paper compares and analyzes how prospective Korean and Hong Kong lawyers' responses to the same ethical dilemmas differ. This survey is the first step in establishing an empirical foundation for fundamentally reforming legal ethics education in Korea and Hong Kong.