Korean Court Upholds Expulsion of Law Student at Judicial Research & Training Institute for Adultery

A male law student, expelled from the Judicial Research and Training Institute for having an affair with another law student, has just had his appeal to be reinstated denied. The male student’s mother-in-law made the situation public after her daughter committed suicide after finding out about the affair.

The male law student was charged with adultery and expelled from the JRTI. Although he was found guilty in a lower court of adultery, during the course of his appeal, the Constitutional Court ruled South Korea’s adultery law unconstitutional, thus acquitting him of criminal wrongdoing.

Although the law student’s criminal appeal was successful, the Court on Tuesday cited the seriousness of the case and denied his reinstatement to the JRTI. The female law student, with whom the male law student had an affair, was suspended from the JRTI for three months.

Before a South Korea’s law school system changed in 2007, students who passed the bar exam in South Korea still had to undergo two years of additional legal training at the Judicial Research and Training Institute before being able to be qualified as an attorney. An alternative path, now, exists that resembles the system in most States in the U.S.
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Sean Hayes may be contacted at: SeanHayes@ipglegal.com.

Sean Hayes is co-chair of the Korea Practice Team at IPG Legal. He is the first non-Korean attorney to have worked for the Korean court system (Constitutional Court of Korea) and one of the first non-Koreans to be a regular member of a Korean law faculty.

Sean is ranked, for Korea, as one of only two non-Korean lawyers as a Top Attorney by AsiaLaw. Sean’s profile may be found at: Sean C. Hayes