Episode 12

Even though we called it a study retreat, what we did was the same as usual.

“Agency isn’t difficult, Ha-roo. In the end, you just have to look at these.”

“Umm…”

“Whether the agent has the authority to act as an agent for that act. If not, whether apparent agency is established or not. If it is, whether it’s an abuse of the representative authority or not.”

“…My head already hurts.”

While Han Seol was explaining to Lee Ha-roo, I was continuing to do what I needed to do.

‘What I need to invest my time in now is the multiple-choice questions.’

There was no need to look at the essay-type questions separately.

I had done the work of finding the issues in a problem and constructing an answer so much that I was sick of it.

What I had lost and what I was lacking now was not my technique, but the raw materials.

Even if I found the issues, if I couldn’t remember the precedents that matched them, it would all be for nothing.

In the end, it meant that I had to memorize individual pieces of knowledge, and there was no better way to beat that into my eyes and brain than studying multiple-choice questions.

‘Where did I stop looking at the past exam questions… I think it was around agency.’

I opened the collection of past exam questions and glared at it.

[Question]

‘A’ entered into a sales contract with ‘C’ as an agent of ‘B’, but ‘A’ did not have the authority to act as an agent for the sales. Which of the following explanations regarding the legal relationship in this case is incorrect?

① In judging whether ‘A’’s agency act falls under apparent agency exceeding authority, the existence of a justifiable reason must be judged based on the time of ‘A’’s agency act.

② If ‘A’ is a spouse of ‘B’, apparent agency exceeding authority with daily household affairs as the basic authority may be established.

③ In a lawsuit for the performance of the above sales contract filed by ‘C’ against ‘B’, if ‘C’ claims that ‘A’’s act falls under valid agency, it cannot be seen that that claim includes a claim that ‘A’’s act falls under apparent agency.

④ If ‘A’ is a sub-agent of ‘B’, ‘A’’s agency act cannot fall under apparent agency exceeding authority.

⑤ Even if ‘A’’s agency act is recognized as apparent agency after the extinction of the agency authority, apparent agency exceeding authority may be established.

‘It’s a typical problem that tests whether you know the precedent conclusions or not using an O/X format.’

It was a type of problem where they took the wording from the precedents and put it into the answer choices.

This kind of problem didn’t require any high-level solutions such as thinking of legal principles or checking your understanding.

Because they were all frequently asked precedents, the answer had to come out reflexively as soon as you saw it.

‘The answer is 4. Because a sub-agent’s agency authority can also be the basic agency authority in Article 126.’

I checked the correct answer and nodded my head with satisfaction.

My skills had definitely improved a lot compared to when I had first transmigrated.

If it was before, I would have just been thinking, ‘Oh, what was this again?’ while trying to recall my memories.

Of course, if I had done that, I wouldn’t have been able to solve the problems in time.

It was still only the beginning of the vast civil law, but I was feeling quite good because it felt like I was regaining at least a fragment of my former glory.

Using the overflowing motivation that I had, I flipped through the pages quickly.

‘This one is 1. An agent who has only been granted the authority to enter into a contract doesn’t have the authority to postpone the payment date, but an agent who has been granted a comprehensive power of agency does.’

‘This one is 5. Unauthorized agency is strict liability.’

‘This one is 2.’

‘This one is…’

I could feel the empty spaces in the legal system that I had within me being filled with knowledge, bit by bit.

Ah, it was enjoyable.

How long had I dreamed of such a life?

I was so immersed in solving problems for a long time.

When I came to my senses, it was already late at night, and dawn had arrived.

“Knock knock.”

I raised my head at the touch of someone patting my shoulder.

It was Lee Ha-roo.

“What’s wrong?”

“Can you explain this a bit?”

She was shaking her problem sheet, and her eyes were half closed.

“Where’s Han Seol?”

“Unnie just fell asleep.”

When I turned around, Han Seol was snoring while lying face down on the desk.

Unlike me, who had been studying alone, or Lee Ha-roo, who had just been sitting and listening, she had been working hard to teach Lee Ha-roo since the afternoon, so she must have been exhausted.

Should I let her sleep for a bit?

I brought a blanket and covered her shoulders instead of waking her up.

“Huh. What a flirt.”

“Stop talking nonsense and let’s look at the problem.”

Since Han Seol was down, I had no choice but to fill in.

I picked up the problem that Lee Ha-roo had brought.

[Question 3.]

• ‘A’ lent 20 million won to ‘B’ on March 1, 2000, and ‘B’ promised to repay the money by June 1, 2000 (assume that there is no interest).

However, when June 1, 2000 came, ‘B’ intentionally started to avoid ‘A’ by not answering ‘A’’s calls or moving around.

On August 28, 2010, ‘A’, who had finally found ‘B’ hiding at a relative’s house, demanded the return of the money that he had lent to ‘B’, and ‘B’ argued that ‘A’’s claim was subject to the statute of limitations, so he had no obligation to repay the money.

Can ‘A’ receive the 20 million won back? (15 points)

“What? Did we already get to the statute of limitations?”

“Seol-unnie’s explanation was super good.”

If we got to the statute of limitations, that was the end of the scope for this pop quiz.

Of course, even if she had gone through it once, she wouldn’t be able to write a proper answer sheet that was at least ten lines long, so we needed to repeat and practice from now on.

But it was still fast.

I didn’t know if it was because Han Seol was good at teaching or because Lee Ha-roo was quick. It was probably both.

“So, how do you solve this?”

I organized how I would explain it in my mind.

What was a statute of limitations?

It was a regulation that stated that if a person did not exercise a particular right within a certain period of time, even if they had that right, they would lose that right.

In other words, legal rights also had an expiration date.

It was a topic that could become endlessly malicious if you made it difficult or used minor details, but fortunately, this problem wasn’t that difficult.

“When you write the answer for this problem, what’s the first thing you have to do?”

“What is it?”

“It’s to check how many points it’s worth.”

In essay-type exams, the points of the problem are proportional to the length of the answer.

That’s because the number of issues that serve as a basis for grading changes.

“Generally, a 10-point problem only asks for one issue. A 15 to 20-point problem asks for two. And a 30-point problem or higher may ask for three or more.”

Therefore, if the points were different, then you had to write the answer differently, even if it was the same question.

For example, in this problem, the bad debtor ‘B’, who had run away to avoid paying back the money, was claiming that his debt was gone because the statute of limitations had been completed.

In this case, the structure of the answer sheet would be divided into two large parts.

One was to review whether the statute of limitations for ‘B’’s debt had actually been completed.

The other was to see if there was a way to get back at this despicable debtor.

Since it was a 15-point problem, you just needed to make a separate outline and describe the two most important issues from each part.

First, there were three requirements for the statute of limitations under civil law.

1. It must be a right that is subject to a statute of limitations.

2. The holder of the right must not exercise the right even though they can.

3. That state must continue for a certain period of time.

“‘A’’s right is a loan claim, so it’s subject to a 10-year statute of limitations under Article 162, Paragraph 1. Requirement 1 is clear. The date that ‘B’ promised to pay the money back was June 1, 2000, so it has already been more than 10 years by August 28, 2010, right? If there are no other special circumstances, requirement 3 is also clear.”

If this had been a 30-point problem, I would have had to make separate outlines for requirements 1 and 3 and review them thoroughly.

But since this was a 15-point problem, we could just state the basis for the requirements that were met and move on.

The problem was requirement 2.

It wasn’t that ‘A’ didn’t exercise his right on purpose.

It was just that he had no way of getting the money back because the despicable debtor ‘B’ wasn’t answering his calls and was running away.

Whether it could be said that this was ‘not exercising the right even though they could’ seemed like there was room for debate.

And this was the core issue that we had to write in a separate outline.

“Precedents view the meaning of ‘being able to exercise the right’ as there not being ‘a legal obstacle’ and not a ‘factual obstacle.’ Therefore, even if you simply didn’t know of the existence of the right or couldn’t exercise the right due to the absence of the debtor, the statute of limitations still continues to run.”

In other words, the fact that ‘B’ was running away and his location was unknown was just a factual obstacle.

So, that was unrelated to the completion of the statute of limitations.

Therefore, requirement 2 was also met, and in the end, it was correct that ‘A’’s right was subject to the completed statute of limitations.

“But is this the end? No. ‘B’ is too despicable if we leave it like this.”

If they ruled this way, all debtors would just borrow a lot of money and then run away from their creditors until the statute of limitations was completed.

There was no way that we could let that happen.

“So, precedents bring in the ‘principle of good faith’. In cases where the debtor has made it impossible or extremely difficult for the creditor to exercise their right, and the statute of limitations has been completed, the debtor’s claim that the statute of limitations is complete is a violation of the principle of good faith or an abuse of rights, so it cannot be allowed.”

The principle of good faith, literally, was the basic principle of civil law that said that people should keep their word and fulfill their obligations to each other in social life.

In short, it meant that they wouldn’t protect even those who were trying to be sneaky to avoid paying back money.

And this was the second issue.

You just had to make a separate outline for the principle of good faith, describe the basis of the precedents, and then give the conclusion.

“Conclusion. ‘B’’s argument is unfair according to the principle of good faith and cannot be allowed. Therefore, ‘A’ can make a claim for the return of the lent money to ‘B’.”

It wasn’t a difficult problem after all.

If you knew the basic requirements of the statute of limitations and just two precedents, then it was an easy problem to solve.

But Lee Ha-roo was frowning as if there was something that was bothering her.

“Is there something that you don’t understand well?”

“It’s not that I don’t understand it… I just don’t like it.”

“What part?”

“The principle of good faith. What even is that?”

Lee Ha-roo pouted.

“I understand the structure of solving civil law problems, where you check the requirements and come to a conclusion. It’s kind of similar to the logic of coding. But if you can just nullify everything with a weird principle at the end, then what’s the point?”

Her voice was full of complaints.

“How is that any different from a judge making a decision based on their own will?”

I could see why she would feel that way.

It wasn’t just Lee Ha-roo.

Students who were from a science or engineering background often experienced a lot of confusion and skepticism when they encountered this point in law.

People often described law as ‘math in a foreign language.’

But for those who were from a science or engineering background, that was completely a lie on the packaging.

They would develop an argument by pretending to be extremely logical and looking into all sorts of things, and then they would completely overturn all of the planning they had done with just one sentence, saying, ‘That’s not fair.’

If that was the case, then what was the point of memorizing all of the vast scope of law like you were reciting it?

“Anyway, liberal arts guys’ fields of study have no depth, no depth.”

“Hey. You came into those liberal arts guys’ den with your own feet, and you have a big mouth.”

“But, ow!”

Lee Ha-roo, who had received a flick on the forehead from me as punishment for her impudent words, made a crying face.

I chuckled and continued.

“Well, what you’re saying isn’t wrong. Law is definitely different from natural science or math. It’s far from being made up of a completely perfect logic, or being an objective truth.”

“Then why?”

“Because law is an invention that people made to save people.”

“…To save people?”

I nodded my head.

“I could explain it to you now, but… you’ll understand its meaning on your own someday.”

“Be honest. Are you just making something up because you don’t have anything to say?”

“You little…!”

Lee Ha-roo glared at me suspiciously and then took her problem sheet and went back to her seat.

Then, she sat there quietly, thinking about something intently, and then shook her head and started solving the problems again.

“To save people…”

It seemed like I could hear that monologue.

‘Yeah. This is enough for now.’

With just a promise and necessity, she would somehow do the required studying.

Lee Ha-roo was that kind of person, and the scope that she had to study had been reduced thanks to the jokbo.

There was no need to force Lee Ha-roo to understand or persuade her.

Before long, she would bloom with her talent and find her own path with all of her heart.

I just needed to push her a bit to make that time come a bit earlier than in the original story…

But today wasn’t that day.

I watched Lee Ha-roo, who was struggling, for a bit, and then turned my head back to my collection of problem materials.

* * *

“The pop quiz scores are out. They’ve been posted on the bulletin board, so please check your scores.”

The study retreat went smoothly.

Han Seol, who had woken up from her nap, drank the cocoa that I had made for her and continued to teach Lee Ha-roo until the morning.

From Saturday afternoon, when things had become somewhat structured, we had repeatedly reviewed my material several times.

After repeatedly reviewing it until the paper was worn, we could now spit out the answers as soon as we saw the problems.

On Monday morning, as we dragged our feet to the lecture hall, we became confident that our hard work hadn’t been in vain.

‘Easy. Super easy.’

As expected, all of the problems that Professor Park Soo-geun had given were in my material.

He had changed the location of the answer choices or used slightly different numbers, but that wasn’t enough to trick us, who had been studying with bloodshot eyes.

I glanced at Lee Ha-roo and Han Seol, and as expected, the speed at which they flipped through the problems was noticeably faster than the other students.

We had trained enough.

“Hey, did you do well on the pop quiz?”

“No, I completely messed up. Why were there so many problems that I was seeing for the first time?”

The conversations that I could hear around me were quite welcome.

Of course, it was natural that they were seeing them for the first time.

Mock exams were relatively more messy compared to the actual bar exam, and the issues that professors who were from an academic background emphasized also often appeared.

That meant that there were also many problems that the prospective freshmen had probably never seen before.

“They said that the scores for this are also going to be calculated by group, right? Which group do you think will be first?”

“It’s definitely going to be Group 6, right? Shin Seo-joon is in that group.”

“That’s right. The others in his group were also all within the top 20 in the first evaluation. The balance is completely broken.”

“What about Group 10? There’s Han Seol and that guy, what was his name. That guy who answered well last time.”

“Hey, there’s no way that they’re going to be first. Don’t you know that he was 139th place in the first test? Being good at presenting is different from being good at studying.”

“That’s right. And one of them doesn’t even come to class, so it’ll be a miracle if they even get in the middle, let alone first place.”

“Ah, is that so? I feel bad for Han Seol…”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Who was saying that someone was pitiful?

‘Just you wait, you guys.’

As soon as class ended, I confidently headed towards the bulletin board to check our group’s scores.