법학적성시험(LEET) 출제와 시행의 바람직한 방향

The Legal Education Eligibility Test (LEET) is one of the most important elements to secure successful implementation of the law school system in Korea. This paper aims to review the general aspects of the LEET in comparison with the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) of the United States and to assess the first LEET administered in August 2008. Because the law school admission process is still in progress, it is premature to evaluate the test comprehensively. However, several observations can be made even with the limited experience at this stage. First, the LEET must be designed in conjunction with the transformation of the legal education at the law school and the performance at the new bar exam, in order to enhance the predictive validity among them. Second, the legal community must come up with the concept of what it means to be ‘the legal eligibility’ itself. Third, more streamlined approach to writing exam questions, e.g., emphasizing more analytical and logical skills, operating the test bank, is needed. Fourth, the test can be administered more than once in a given year, in order to provide test-takers more flexibility. Finally, the Association of Korean Law Schools should strengthen personnel resources and institutional capacity and to conduct continuous research to enhance the reliability of the LEET.