미국 로스쿨에서의 법률정보의 조사, 법문서의 작성 및 모의재판 과목의 교육

The purpose of the legal education at the American law school is to make a student think like a lawyer. In other words, the students of the American law schools are not taught the law itself, but the way how to find the law and the way how to legally think. Two methods the American law schools use to teach the students the way how to think like a lawyer are the Socratic method and the Legal Research and Writing Program(LRW). LRW is a required course for all first year law students. LRW is a series of interrelated exercises introducing students to the way lawyers conduct legal research, analyze and frame legal positions, and present their work in writing and in oral argument. Students actively learn research and writing skills by preparing multiple drafts of memoranda and other documents and by becoming familiar with accessing to both print and electronic research materials. LRW meets weekly in the Fall and Spring semester of the first year. The first semester of LRW focuses on the writing of two predictive memos, in which students assess the arguments on each side of the issue and predict which side would prevail. In the Spring semester, the major course assignment is the Moot Court Program. Working in pairs(in a team of two), students research and draft an appellate brief concerning a simulated case set in a federal or state appellate court. At the end of the semester, students argue their case before a judge. Judges usually come from alumni practicing lawyers. Lawyers cannot provide effective representation unless they master the necessary research skills. At a minimum, lawyers must be able to find and the constitutional provisions, statutes, regulations, and cases that determine their clients’ rights and obligations. To that end, the legal research component of LRW introduce students to core tools and methodologies that will be essential in their future law practice. Recently, the law school system has been introduced in Korea, and LRW has become a required course for all first year law students. However, LRW is new to the Korean society and it is not clear how to teach the course. Therefore, it is suggested the way LRW is taught at the American law school should be considered in teaching LRW at the Korean law schools.