모의재판, 무엇을 어떻게 가르칠 것인가?

The law school system, which is adopted as a new Korean legal education system scheduled to launch in 2009 seems to be based on reflection that the current system is not sufficient to connect legal education with judicial system. The current system constitutes separate two courses; the education of legal theories at undergraduate law department and the education of legal practices at Judicial Training Institute. These are formally linked with each other by the National Bar Examination, but are of little relevance in terms of the educational contents. According to the Act on the Establishment and Management of Professional Law Schools, 5 compulsory subjects aimed at legal practices should be contained in every law school curriculum. Those are legal ethics, legal research, legal writing, moot court or mock trial and law clinic. It remains to be seen whether the education of legal practices at law school would be focused on litigation practices or cover broader legal services such as business advisory work and legal policy. Apart from controversy about the issue which should be solved before designing the educational contents, moot court or mock trial course is suited for discussion on what should be taught and how, having a limited role of educating litigation practices. Against this background, this paper tries to make sure the expected meaning and role of moot court or mock trial course and its limitation in Korean situation in its first part of the main body. The point is that its weight or value as a practical subject depends on which method would be taken as dominant teaching method of legal theories, between traditional lecture and discussion method and the U.S. style case method. In relation to this, a brief history and overview of the experience of the U.K. and the U.S. in moot court for civil appellate advocacy or mock trial for criminal advocacy are introduced. The second part of the main body is assigned to provide the likely picture of what can be done in the course dealing with both moot court and mock trial in one semester. In an attempt to relate this subject with other compulsory legal practices courses closely and enhance the overall educational effect, preceding education through legal research and writing courses and complementary education through legal clinic course targeting litigation skills are suggested. Sum-up and further suggestions follow as a conclusion.