미국 노동법학의 현실 ― Karl E. Klare 교수와의 대화를 중심으로 ―

Based on the author’s conversation with Prof. Karl E. Klare, who is a distinguished labor law scholar at Northeastern University, this article reflects on the chronic problems of U.S. labor law and the decline of labor law academia; how it relates and interacts with Langdellian system of U.S. law school education; and what it means for today’s Korean labor law realities and legal education. To summarize, the author categorizes the problems of U.S. labor law in mainly three realms: first, the unique (and quite unbalanced) liberal U.S. political climate which glaringly ignores socio-economic rights of the working people, second, the notoriously strong anti-labor employer sentiments and the role of courts that reinforced such conservative judicial environment and deradicalized the labor law; and third, the formalist Langdellian legal education which discourages creativity of the law students and, their passion to stand for social justice and labor cause. By tracing Prof. Klare’s various labor law writings – who has devoted almost forty passionate years of teaching labor law – makes it so much easier to navigate through the complex problems of U.S. labor law and how it went there. Prof. Klare’s sharp diagnosis on labor realities, his critical and yet integrated approach to legal analysis, and above all, his strong sense of moral and ethics as a law teacher will resonate deep with whoever concerned with global phenomenon of labor law crisis. One might argue, especially for those who adhere to legally formalist way of thinking, that the author’s observations on U.S. labor law are way too critical or politically one-sided. However, the author strongly share the belief that a student of labor law could never be ‘neutral’, because the very fundamental cause of labor law stems from a deep sympathy with the life of people who are in need of labor protection. In this sense, the author’s rather grim picture of current realities of U.S. labor law and academia sends a clear message to Korean labor realities. Unless Korean labor law scholars are keenly aware of the neo-liberal influences that permeates so easily to our legal system and lawschool education, the future of Korean labor law might quite look like the current U.S. labor law – which is not a bright future for those who long for decent work and humane way of life.