[Column] Korea’s ‘republic of attorneys’ is simply making issues worse

By Kang Joon-mann, professor emeritus of media and communication research at Jeonbuk Nationwide College

South Korea is a republic of attorneys. All three current presidents have authorized backgrounds, and 61 Nationwide Meeting members — 20.3% of the whole — are former authorized professionals. Amid the “judicialization of politics” that has successfully swallowed up the political realm, prosecutorial and judicial reform has turn into the paramount political agenda, whereas the development of abnormal Koreans’ livelihoods has been pushed apart way back. 

What’s intriguing is that this authorized republic was constructed by means of a partnership between the general public and the non-public sectors. The Korean public’s preferential therapy of and aspiration to enter the authorized career are among the many most excessive circumstances on this planet. The variety of lawsuits and complaints in Korea can also be among the many highest worldwide, over 40 occasions these filed in Japan, regardless of Korea’s inhabitants amounting to lower than half of Japan’s. 

Take into account the importance the bar examination held in Koreans’ lives earlier than legislation faculties utterly changed it in 2017. Passing the examination was thought-about an honor to 1’s household worthy of raucous celebrations, together with congratulatory banners plastered throughout neighborhoods and alma maters. Matchmakers would swarm the profitable applicant, as their worth as a possible partner had now skyrocketed. College rankings had been decided by the variety of college students who’d handed the bar, so these establishments reworked themselves into large examination prep academies.

Previous to the institution of legislation faculties, undergraduates majoring in legislation would instantly start getting ready for the bar examination, solely signing up for lessons related to this pursuit. Universities aggressively fueled this fever as properly. They arrange library classrooms for the categorical use of bar examination candidates, invited professors famend for his or her experience within the check for particular lectures, and even supplied scholarships to examination candidates. Some universities went as far as to recruit college students with a excessive chance of passing by providing monetary incentives. The ensuing rise within the college’s status and honor was savored by professors and college students alike.

Is it as a result of they respect the legislation and the authorized group? Not so. It is truly the alternative. The extra individuals distrusted the legislation and the rule of legislation, the extra individuals clamored to take the bar examination and work within the authorized career. Regulation faculties inherited that recognition. The supply of that recognition lies inside the cash and energy supplied by the authorized career. 

In South Korea, the legislation is extra a device of social mobility than an instrument for justice. This isn’t a criticism of the authorized group. Who does not attempt for social mobility? Who would deny that particular person ambitions had been the driving power behind the “Miracle on the Han River”?

The republic of attorneys is the logical endpoint of the “Korean dream,” or the “from rags to riches” mannequin. 

Whereas its odds had been akin to the lottery, the bar examination supplied the very best social mobility jackpot for these residing in rags. Those that made the reduce and climbed the ladder into politics could seem to be they’re preventing over progressive this or conservative that, however their actual combat is over the very best positions inside the walled backyard of the republic of attorneys — the inner struggle for energy. 

Whereas requires prosecution and judicial reform have solely grown louder, there have been no compromises or agreements, solely energy and political schemes. 

A survey performed in 2017 by Dong-A Ilbo and Embrain, 91% respondents agreed with the sentiment that South Korea was a spot the place cash equals innocence and poverty equals guilt. The reverence and privilege granted to individuals of excessive standing within the authorized and political worlds, even after they’ve stepped down or retired, is the first component that has created such a society, and the survey confirmed that it hadn’t modified in any respect. Folks had simply been saying the identical issues for dozens of years. 

Tremendous. Get pleasure from. The most important downside in our republic of attorneys is just not the privilege and energy loved by the attorneys themselves. It’s the form of traditionally regressive authorized battles that lawyers-turned-politicians do finest. The noxious controversies and the proliferation of fights that come at the price of any form of future-oriented imaginative and prescient — that’s what the present republic of attorneys stands for.   

Parkinson’s legislation, which states that bureaucracies create rules for their very own safety and growth, additionally applies to the republic of attorneys. 

We’re racing to new heights of the judicialization of politics. When politics is diminished to authorized squabbling, the one victors are the politicians from authorized backgrounds who can level to their knowledgeable bona fides when creating and fanning all sorts of authorized points, thus securing their standing and success. It’s no coincidence that lots of the most chest-thumping politicians stirring up hassle and pouring gasoline on the flames of polarization have a background within the authorized career. 

These politicians are fashioning themselves as the brand new technology of fierce activists within the legislature, attending to be each authorized eagles whereas performing like single-minded shock troops that may go to any size out of loyalty to their celebration. 

The judicialization of politics has gotten so extreme that we’re now even seeing valor thieves who try and model themselves as authorized specialists with none background within the career.  

When a state of affairs has deteriorated to the purpose of no return, it’s each real looking and best-advised to begin small when looking for change. So let’s begin by restoring the humanity of Nationwide Meeting members. Lately, Kim Hyun-cheol, a professor on the Yonsei College Faculty of Drugs, made a really apt suggestion: as an alternative of dividing the Nationwide Meeting chamber alongside celebration strains, have lawmakers draw for his or her seats in a random lottery. Setting apart every thing else, it might not less than get them to cease hollering and cursing each other out. At this level, we now have to do one thing. 

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