To Korean Law School Students
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From the Editor HEUNGIL KIM Editor in Chief JAE JUNG WON Vice Editor in Chief PARK JUNG UN, Managing Editor OH YOO JIN, Managing Editor LEE YOON SEOK, Editor SUNG GA HYUN, Editor YOON AH YEON, Designer CONTRIBUTOR Yoon Yong-seok Professor Ahn Young-moon Lawyer f there s one thing that gets me more excited than any other, it is that I meet friends from all over the world and share knowledge and ideas whilst embracing Christopher C. Yook The George Washington the diversities of the world we live in. A law is a very case that you ensure that University Law School kind of thing because a law is common to all men. I Felda Yeung Legal Jurist has interpreted and supplemented the body of man s knowledge whilst LLB, The University of Hong Kong understanding the beliefs, values, and practices of other cultures and linking one's own Yap Hao Jin circumstances to those in other societies. LLB, The National University I was hoping to share my personal experience with other law students. My friends in of Singapore the law school supported the initiative and agreed to chip in. We planed to provide Dong Keun Kim useful information for law students. Also we tried not to neglect legal information The University of Wisconsin regarding Busan City where we live in Law School In article, The Alford Plea (p.5) Christopher Yook introduced the unique guilty plea Dawson Hongik Ahn in criminal court, where the defendant concedes the prosecution has enough evidence to Pusan National University, convict, but the defendant still refuses to admit guilt. School of law My personal experience at San Francisco Superior Court (p. 12), I left my heart in Kim Moon-gyoung San Francisco Superior Court. , will give you vivid description as if you were observing Pusan National University, School of law trials on U.S. soil. Kim Eung-Sung In the interview with two celebrities, the Ex Chief Presidential Secretary, Moon Jae In Pusan National University, and the lawmaker, Hong Jung wook, they talked about their life and dream. School of law We hope those articles would contribute to our understanding of the law and the world. Law Wave 1 CONTENTS 5 A Judicial Oxymoron: The Alf or d Pl ea A defendant can legally deny committing the crime, but can be convicted for the crime anyway. 07 To Korean Law School Students He talks about American law school life 08 One Country Tw o Systems One Country Two Systems principle allows for Hong Kong to be governed by a different legal system from Mainland China even though Hong Kong is a region of China. 18 Interview with Moon Jae In 10 Legal Servic es, Not Jus t f or the Rich Former Chief secretary Moon Jae-in talks Law, being its ever pervasive self, infiltrates most walks about his story as a lawyer and his view of law of life. Similarly, the demand for legal services exists school. amongst the rich, the poor and the needy. 12 I l eft my heart in San F rancisc o 17 Lett er from Dean Superior Court The Dean of PNU law school sent a letter to Personal experience at San Francisco Superior Court celebrate the first issue of LAW WAVE. 27 Dedicated to Law School Students 29 An Experience at Busan MINBYUN What I did, saw and heard at Busan Minbyun 36 Pornography And. 48 Bank Tax 52 The 14th PIFF - Flashback Copyright Law, policy and values - Through on the sc ene of enthusiasm An answer to the question of Obama's bank tax proposal To the infinite development of PIFF whether pornographic contents are renowned as the global film festival able to be protected under Copyright Act, or not. 50 Getting Out of Courtr o o m Way for a law school graduate to 56 AVATAR survive in the legal market Wath James Cameron really wants 38 Law and Beyond to tell us is that humans shuld leaen Civil Disobedience - Road of to commune with the Mother resistance and liberty Nature, just like Na’vis do. 51 The Thirt eenth Amendment Law, policy and values - Through 42 Thinking of Death P enalty Obama’s bank tax proposal 58 Lawyer Should Look Like It's not simple question about Lawyer! approval or disapproval of capital It is not surprising clients want their punishment. talented, high-priced lawyers to look like polished and professional in the face of them and even in court. 43 Green financ e Introduced Green Finance in Korea - the truth and falsity 32 From the law school t o the Assembly, moments of glory and desperation Incumbent a member of the National Assembly, Hong Jung-wook talks about his life and vision 44 Salvage Lessons fr om the R.M.S. Tit anic The story of the legal developments followed the discovery of the wreck of the Titanic A Judicial Oxymoron: The Alford Plea by Chris topher C. Yook (The George Washingt on Univ er sity Law School) By Chris topher C. Yook (Christopher C. Yook is a J.D. candidate, May 2011, at The George Washington University Law School; B.A. in Political Science, Johns Hopkins University. This article is adapted from a working paper entitled Another Argument Against a Judicial Oxymoron. The author welcomes comments at [email protected].) ast December, Mayor Sheila court accepting a plea possesses authority Dixon of Baltimore, Maryland to question the defendant about his crime. was convicted of embezzling For example, the judge may ask the $500 in gift cards intended for defendant to describe, in his own words, L1 the actual details of his conduct. This the poor. Dixon recently announced her resignation from office, but she has ensures that there is a factual basis for the avoided explicitly admitting that she defendant s conviction.4 actually committed any wrongdoing. She However in 1970 the highest court of the was able to do this due to a legal United States, the Supreme Court, mechanism called the Alford plea, which decided that judges may allow a allows a criminal defendant to accept a criminal conviction without having to confess guilt. The United States Constitution secures the right to a jury trial for the criminally accused.2 A guilty plea occurs when a criminal defendant agrees to forgo his right to trial and agrees to be convicted for a crime, usually in exchange for a reduced sentence. Plea bargaining is the process in which prosecutors and defendant agree to the terms of a plea. The prosecutor may offer to recommend a more lenient sentence (such as supervised defendant to plead guilty while release instead of prison) or may maintaining his innocence. This means eliminate some charges in exchange for a that a defendant can legally deny guilty plea. This process is very committing the crime, but can be important to the American legal system. convicted for the crime anyway. The case In 2008, over 96% of federal criminal establishing this new legal precedent was cases were disposed of by guilty pleas.3 North Carolina v. Alford, and the unique As a result, the American criminal justice guilty plea it created has been labeled the system depends heavily upon it. Alford plea. Normally, a defendant pleading guilty The defendant in North Carolina v. admits committing the crime and the Alford, Henry Alford, was an African- 1 Ian Urbina, Mayor Agrees to Step Down in Baltimore in Theft Case, N.Y. TIMES, January 5, 2010, at A20. 2 U.S. CONST. amend. VI. 3SOURCEBOOK OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE STATISTICS ONLINE (2008), http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/t5242008.pdf (of 82,451 total convictions in the U.S. District Courts, 79,842 were by a plea of guilty). Law Wave 5 American man arrested for a murder. He Alford faced the decision to either repeat offenders from carrying guns. was charged with first degree murder, an proceed with trial where he might have Federal law provides for an automatic offense for which he could have been been sentenced to death, or to plead guilty prison sentence of at least fifteen years if executed.5 Prior to trial the local to a lesser offense.8 The Supreme a person convicted of three prior violent prosecutor offered to reduce the charge to Court s reasoning has sustained Alford crimes is caught carrying a firearm.13 second degree murder, a non-capital pleas in the United States The Alford plea raises difficulties for offense, if the defendant agreed to plead courts for nearly four decades. A study courts attempting to apply a sentence guilty. Henry Alford denied committing reports that approximately enhancement such as the Armed Career the murder, but he accepted the 67,622 total prisoners incarcerated via Criminal Act. Although a court may use conviction nonetheless. During the plea Alford plea in 1997.9 an Alford plea for the enhancement, it hearing, the trial judge inquired whether Alford has been thoroughly criticized by must first determine whether a person s Alford had truly committed the crime, to legal scholars. Academicians have raised prior convictions qualify as violent which he responded that he had pled a variety of problems with Alford pleas, offenses. Normally a guilty plea contains guilty only because of the overwhelming but the complaints have generally focused enough facts for a court to determine the evidence against him, not because he had on the Alford plea s ethical implications. nature of the defendant s conduct.14 actually killed the victim. Upon These arguments focus upon the ethical However, a prior conviction entered reviewing the trial court s judgment, the dilemma of allowing innocent defendants through an Alford plea complicates the United States Supreme Court recognized to be convicted of criminal violations.10 court s inquiry, as the defendant is that Alford s assertions of innocence There is also the criticism that Alford denying the factual allegations.