고등학교 ‘법과 정치’ 교과서의 분석과 개선 모색 –형사법 분야-

“Law and Politics” textbook is printed for high school students. Legal education at the high school level is different from that at the law college level. When I overview current textbooks, I find that those are satisfactory in their contents as well as methods. However, I want to point out something to be corrected or advanced. Students need to understand how current criminal justice system works, and what kind of acts is stipulated as criminal. Students will learn that criminal law shall be functioned as the Magna Carta of the criminals as well as retributive punishment. Procedural protections also need to be learned; just like the principle of presumption of innocence, the rule of evidence, and the defendants’ rights to be supported by a lawyer. Now, criminal law and procedure are under the constitutional review by the Constitutional Court, and criminal procedure is accepting human rights values which are established under the constitutional law. I find many cases at the textbooks come from foreign countries, but Korean students want to know more Korean cases and materials for their academic interests and actual application. Modern legal developments in Korea would be introduced for a part of legal education for children and youths.