Episode 14

To directly examine evidence and records and create legal arguments? There had never been a test like that in the original story, even until the end.

‘If I had to say… yeah, it’s kind of similar to that.’

Among the example materials that Professor Jang Yong-hwan had shown, there were a few that I recognized.

The prosecution preparation group that Jang Yong-hwan led.

In the original story, he had shown those kinds of materials to his advisees and had explained the process of writing briefs.

It was a kind of teaching material to help them understand criminal practice.

For reference, those were all for second and third-year law school students. It meant that they weren't something that you would show to prospective freshmen.

But how did the bizarre idea of having a test with that come about?

‘What does he want, exactly?’

I glanced around and saw that everyone else was in a similar state of panic.

Except for one person.

“Hey, master.”

“Is this really… a huge deal?”

Lee Ha-roo asked with a face that was still half-asleep.

“Yeah, it’s a huge deal.”

“You’re just giving us video materials, so isn’t it the same kind of test in the end? If anything, isn’t an open book test great because you don’t have to study?”

“It’s not that simple.”

I recalled the words that Jang Yong-hwan had left behind.

• Instead of the facts that have been neatly arranged to fit exam law, you will have to dig through countless pieces of evidence and records to find the issues directly and establish your own arguments.

What was the law studying that we had done so far?

In the end, it was about properly understanding legal principles and precedents and cramming them into our heads.

And then, you just had to pour that out well on the exam paper.

Naturally, exam problems were also designed to evaluate that ability.

That was why, when creating problems, they had no choice but to present only facts that matched the precedents.

That was so that someone who had studied properly and knew the legal principles of those precedents could solve the problem, and someone who didn’t couldn’t.

The fact that there was a definite answer that wouldn’t cause any objections was also a benefit.

If they wanted to ask about the legal principles regarding a sales contract, they would present a type of contract that the precedents saw as a sale.

If they wanted to ask if there was intent to commit a crime, they would present a case where the precedents saw that there was enough intent.

For example, let’s say that a question was given where A stabbed B’s carotid artery, which was located in the neck, and made a 10-cm deep wound, but luckily, he survived thanks to the hospital.

In such a case, precedents generally stated that since the act of stabbing the carotid artery was obviously something that could be expected to be fatal, that there was intent to kill.

The conclusion was that there was an intent to kill, and since the result of the killing didn’t happen, it was attempted murder.

But what if it was the abdomen instead of the neck? What about the arm?

Even if the area itself wasn’t fatal, what if it was a situation where you could expect excessive bleeding or death due to loss of blood depending on the depth?

What if the knife was rusty and contaminated?

Like this, there were countless cases that were ambiguous to judge in reality.

Incidents that didn’t fit into the legal principles perfectly.

Evidence where it was difficult to clearly grasp the facts.

The job of a legal professional was to create an argument that would somehow pass legally and bring a result that was advantageous to the client, even with those things.

“But they’re trying to make us do that.”

This was no different from making a newborn who had just started taking their first steps do paragliding training.

Whether it was in terms of difficulty or in terms of the abilities required, it had nothing to do with the previous tasks.

“Legal principles are just the basics that you have to know before going out to the field. And we’re just prospective freshmen who haven’t even properly learned those basics.”

“Is that what it is?”

“That’s what it is.”

Even I, who had experience with the bar exam, had never experienced something like this.

There was something called a record-type problem, where you had to solve problems by looking at the case records, but that was a course that you would learn when you got to the training institute.

I, who hadn’t even gone to the interview, had no experience with record-type problems.

Not to mention, I had never handled this kind of evidence material before.

“Oh, an announcement came out!”

At that moment, someone looked at their smartphone and shouted.

Everyone hurriedly took out their smartphones or laptops, and I also opened my laptop and connected to the school’s website.

[Notice regarding the second evaluation for prospective freshmen pre-law program (new!)]

As expected, a new notice had been posted.

The author was… Professor Jang Yong-hwan.

[Exam Scope: Civil Law - General Provisions of Civil Law, Law of Property, Law of Obligations (excluding Family and Inheritance Law) / Criminal Law - General Theory of Criminal Law, Specific Theory of Criminal Law

Source of Materials: Problems are created by partially transforming or editing records related to actual cases. Video and audio materials are fabricated materials created by professional actors and are not real.

Exam Format: After looking at the problem, you will first write your answer on the answer sheet, and then you will have an oral evaluation based on that.

Exam Time: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Evaluation Method: You will enter the exam room in randomly assigned pairs.

In civil cases, you will be divided into the plaintiff and the defendant, and in criminal cases, you will be divided into the prosecutor and the defense, and each of you will develop your argument from your respective position.

After that, if you are able to maintain your claim and receive a correct answer judgment from the examiner, you will get 10 points.

If you accept the other party’s argument and the other party’s argument is judged to be correct, you will get 5 points.

If you maintain your claim but receive an incorrect answer judgment, you will get 3 points.

If you accept the other party’s argument and it is judged to be incorrect, you will get 0 points.

• Issues regarding the Civil Procedure Act and Criminal Procedure Act will not be included: The procedural law principles play a large role in solving actual cases, but they have all been edited out considering the progress of the course.

• In criminal law, the sentencing (determination of the sentence) and the discretionary mitigation of punishment will not be considered.

• A sample problem has been attached below, so please refer to it.]

It was a rather complicated method.

If you drew a correct argument and didn’t give up on it until the end, you would get the highest score, but even if you just accepted the other party’s argument when it was valid, you could get 5 points.

On the other hand, if you maintained your argument until the end but were wrong, you would get 3 points, and if you changed your argument and were wrong, you would get 0 points.

I could feel that they wanted to evaluate your conviction, judgment, and flexibility all at once.

“There’s a sample problem.”

“Yeah. Should we at least try to get a taste of it?”

I clicked on the attached file at the bottom of the announcement.

“…Hey. The file size is 5 GB?”

“That’s insane.”

What kind of crazy test was this, where one problem was 5 GB?

Was it appropriate for a test that was only two and a half hours long?

I had no idea how much the volume was.

They should have at least compressed it a bit.

I opened the downloaded folder.

A 60-page case record.

Five audio files.

Eleven video files that were called CCTV recordings.

And a few image files.

…I closed it again.

“I’m already getting dizzy.”

“Me too.”

It was a rare moment where Lee Ha-roo and I agreed.

But after briefly looking at the contents, I felt like I had a grasp of it.

I was still angry at the ridiculous amount of materials, but it was still a ‘test problem’ in the end.

And a problem always reflected the intentions of the person who had created it.

While the problems of a typical law exam measured the memorization of legal principles and precedents, these problems were designed to target a different point.

If I looked at what information they were revealing and what information they were hiding, I could read the intentions behind it.

Getting the right answer was ultimately the process of revealing the path that the test-maker wanted.

Test-taking skills were about being skilled in that process.

And that was my area of expertise.

“…Hey, Park Yoo-seung.”

Han Seol, who had been silent for a long time, came to me.

“What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“This test, I mean. You have to choose a subject.”

That’s right.

If we had to take a test like this for both civil law and criminal law, our bodies wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

But it was probably due to Professor Jang Yong-hwan’s last bit of mercy, that we only had to choose one subject for this second evaluation.

I answered immediately without thinking.

“I’m going to choose criminal law, no matter what.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m more confident in that.”

Civil law was excessively large in volume.

Even if you could look up precedents, it would take forever to even figure out what you had to look up.

There were also a lot of requirements and exceptions that you couldn’t know just by looking at the legal articles.

There was no way that you would have enough time to finish reading the records, reviewing the evidence, extracting the issues, writing the answer, and preparing for the oral evaluation all in four hours.

On the other hand, criminal law had a smaller volume compared to civil law.

It was also relatively easier to grasp the thread of the problem using the legal articles, and it was also more intuitive to know which precedents you had to look up.

Besides, I also liked criminal law more and was better at it since I wanted to become a prosecutor.

“Haa… What should I do?”

Han Seol muttered with a worried voice.

“You have nothing to worry about.”

“Right. The second-ranked student is being arrogant. So arrogant.”

“Arrogant? I’m genuinely worried, you know!”

Now that I looked at her, her shoulders were trembling.

“…If the test is like this, then there’s nothing that I’m better at than others.”

I finally realized what Han Seol was worried about.

Han Seol was basically good at studying.

And she studied a lot.

In fact, in most cases, those two words were just a repetition of each other.

She had invested more time than anyone else and had digested an overwhelming amount of memorization.

That was the same when she was preparing for the college entrance exam, for her undergraduate exams, and for the first evaluation in the pre-law program.

There was never a time where something that Han Seol didn’t know would be printed on the test.

Although she sometimes made mistakes because she was weak at making impromptu decisions, basically, a test for Han Seol was just the act of writing what she knew as she knew it.

That was Han Seol’s unique advantage.

“It’s different this time. Everyone can look up precedents as much as they want.”

That advantage had completely disappeared, at least for the second evaluation.

“I’m scared. It’s my first time with a test where I don’t even know what to do.”

Han Seol had always been fully prepared.

That meant that she had something to rely on.

That was why she was feeling even more fear at this situation, where she was facing the same kind of confusion as everyone else for the first time.

The high-speed ship that had been running without getting tired had lost its direction.

Of course, this was also part of the growing pains.

People grew stronger by bumping into things themselves, failing, and breaking.

In a way, this test might have been something that Han Seol needed.

‘That’s true, but…’

I looked at Han Seol’s eyes for a moment.

Her pupils were shaking with unusual anxiety.

“Han Seol. You should just do civil law.”

“……Huh?”

“If you choose civil law, you’ll definitely do well. Well, not definitely, but you’ll do pretty well.”

“But, this time…”

I cut off Han Seol’s words.

“Civil law is a time attack. No one will be able to read that entire volume and extract all the issues that they have to search for within the time limit… That is, unless you already know most of the precedents by heart.”

“I, is that how it is?”

“If you can’t do it, the others will be even worse. Look at me. I don’t have confidence in memorization, so I ran away to criminal law.”

Han Seol was surprisingly lacking in confidence.

Even though her skills were already more than enough.

If there was someone who told her that she could do it, she would be able to move forward without wavering.

“If you can’t trust yourself, then trust me. Have you ever lost out after listening to me here?”

“……No.”

“Then that’s that.”

It was true that the time where you wandered and suffered was what made people grow.

But if possible, wouldn’t it be better to grow while suffering less and being less painful?

So, I decided to show her a slight signpost.

“Okay, I’ll try.”

Her shoulders had already stopped trembling.

* * *

The remaining days of the pre-law program passed by in a flash.

The classes were always packed, and if you were faithful to your pre-studying and reviewing, you wouldn’t have much free time in a day.

I invested that time into studying the specific theory of criminal law.

From murder to perjury, I organized the outlines of the main issues that you had to judge for each crime and trained myself to recall them while looking at the legal articles.

It was okay if the specific contents of the precedents were gone.

You could look them up during the test.

But to quickly grasp the structure of the issues while comparing them to the legal articles, you had to at least have the related contents in your eyes.

“There’s too much. Are they crazy?”

“Stop complaining. Criminal law is still better than civil law. If you had chosen civil law like Han Seol, you wouldn’t have been able to sleep either.”

“Guaaaah.”

Han Seol had accepted my advice and chosen civil law, and Lee Ha-roo had chosen criminal law.

Whatever the reason, criminal law had a higher chance of working out even if you hadn’t studied that much.

Even then, it was too much for Lee Ha-roo. She would groan every time I dragged her to the library.

‘Han Seol… she must be doing well.’

Aside from class time, I had barely seen her over the past few days.

That was because we were all busy studying our respective subjects.

Even amid that, the group evaluation score had steadily accumulated, and we had finally achieved a perfect score of 40 points.

The only remaining hurdle was one.

“We will now begin the second evaluation. Please enter your assigned waiting rooms.”

On the morning of the last day of the pre-law program, which had finally arrived, I grabbed the doorknob and flung open the door to the waiting room.