Episode 42

"I'm sorry for staring at you like that. But that hoodie, it's from the Korea University Law School, right?"

As the short-haired girl had pointed out, it was.

The original Park Yoo-seung, despite having been admitted to Korea University Law School by some unbelievable stroke of luck, was very proud of it.

Maybe that was why his room was stocked with several law school jackets and hoodies.

Since it was such comfortable clothing, I had been wearing it without much thought, but since I was in the central library, which was full of undergraduates, it seemed that I had suddenly become the center of attention.

It would be ridiculous to deny it, so I nodded obediently.

"Yes, well. You're right."

"Wow, it's real..."

Exclamations came from behind.

"I'll definitely follow you in two years!"

The well-built guy clenched his fist.

With the increasing difficulty of the law school entrance exam, the law school at their own university had become a hurdle that was by no means easy for Korea University undergraduates to overcome.

I had heard that there was a considerable percentage of graduates who went to other law schools in Seoul or down to the provinces, and that there was even a large number of people who retook the exam two or three times because they hadn't gotten into a law school that they were satisfied with, or they hadn't even gotten into one that was within the passing score range.

That was why the name of Korea University Law School was already like a dream for the undergraduates here.

Well, since most of the graduates went on to public office or large law firms, it wasn't strange that it was seen as a guarantee of success.

'Thinking about it like that, it's a little embarrassing.'

It was as if I had become someone who went around wearing a law school hoodie to show off in front of my juniors.

'Besides, it's not like I got it through my own efforts.'

The grades that I had gotten here were purely the result of my own abilities.

But the admission itself had already been done at the moment that I had possessed this body, so it was just awkward to be praised for it.

"Anyway, there are a lot of things that we can't figure out while studying, and we don't have anyone else to rely on... It would be really great if you could help us, senior..."

The short-haired girl trailed off with a pathetic tone, and now all four of them were staring at me with sparkling eyes, as if they had met a savior.

I gently placed the book that I had been reading halfway down on the desk.

It was a good thing.

My condition wasn't good enough to study seriously, and if it was the Law of Obligations at the level that undergraduates took, then the questions that they would ask would be limited to the basic areas.

It seemed appropriate as a warm-up, or rather, a brain-warm-up.

That was why I readily replied.

"Of course, it's not difficult."

"!"

The faces of the undergraduate group immediately brightened.

"However, if I help you, what are you going to do for me?"

I added a condition.

"Uh... what?"

The short-haired girl was flustered.

"I heard it briefly. You're all preparing for law school, right? That's why you're taking the Property Transaction Law class."

"Yes, that's right. That's why we're trying to get help..."

"If you want to become a lawyer."

I declared.

"You should get rid of the habit of relying on favors without compensation."

Lawyers had to be able to think in legal terms.

Thinking in legal terms, in a good way, meant that you were clear-headed, and in a bad way, it meant that you were petty and nitpicky.

The essence of what a lawyer did was, after all, to compare gains and losses, to calculate the weight of faults, and to create a balanced state.

If you wanted to gain something, you had to be prepared to give something in return.

A just and fair contract.

The exclusion of unjust enrichment.

That was the basic ideology of the Civil Code as the Law of Contracts.

"The Property Transaction Law that you are taking is also a class that ultimately teaches you that."

It was the essence of what you wanted to know.

"Ooh..."

"I never thought about it like that."

"Th, then what should we give you?"

The four undergraduates were amazed, and then they put their heads together and began to seriously consider what they should pay.

"Well, I just said that so you could think about it. It's not like I'm really going to receive anything."

I then laughed and waved my hand.

"If you guys become law school students later and meet a junior who is having a hard time studying, like you are now, then please help them well. That's enough."

"Senior...!"

There was no harm in having many talented juniors. Who knew, maybe the seeds that I had sown like this would come back in a good way later.

"So, what was the difficult part?"

"Th, this, it's this."

When I asked, the short-haired girl slid over a bundle of papers.

It seemed that she was the leader of the group.

Although she was a bit sly, I didn't dislike people who were assertive and self-assertive.

"Let's see. Is this... an OX problem?"

[16. Even if Eul forges documents to make it appear as if they purchased Gap's X land from Gap and registers the transfer of ownership under their name, and then sells it to Byung, if Byung believed that Eul's transfer of ownership registration was genuine, then Byung acquires ownership of the land -----(X)]

As I read the problem, the short-haired girl spoke.

"I don't know what this problem is asking, and why the answer is X. Since it says 'believed it was genuine', it seems like they should be protected as a third party in good faith like other provisions..."

"The professor is a bit evil."

"Huh?"

"This isn't a transaction law problem."

A bad swindler had played around with fake documents to sell someone else's land.

Could the poor victim who had been deceived, who didn't know anything, be protected?

To an outsider, the problem would be read like that. But that wasn't the essence.

"Article 110 of the Civil Code. An expression of intention caused by fraud or duress can be revoked. The remedy for fraud is the revocation of the transaction, not the attribution of ownership. The provisions related to transactional acts have nothing to do with this problem."

Rather, the core of the problem was a completely different concept.

"This is a problem that asks about the credibility of registration. It's a concept that's dealt with in the Law of Real Rights."

They probably hadn't even taught it.

Since it wasn't in the range of the class, and they hadn't taught it, there was no way they would know.

It was only natural that they couldn't find the answer even if they looked through the lecture materials.

"It's not that you guys are stupid and can't solve it."

"Th, then what about this?"

The short-haired girl pointed to another problem.

[29. In the case where a donation contract is made in exchange for an affair, since this contract is invalid, the person who receives the donation must return the donated item to the other party ------(X)]

"Isn't a donation in exchange for an affair an antisocial contract, so it's invalid according to Article 103 of the Civil Code? If it's invalid, then they have to return it!"

Article 103 of the Civil Code (Legal Act Contrary to Social Order) A legal act that has contents that violate good morals or other social orders is invalid.

There was a principle of freedom of contract in the Civil Code.

Contracts that people had agreed to and signed were, in principle, naturally valid, and the contents could be freely determined.

In a liberal democratic country, the government or power institutions did not interfere in the actions between individuals one by one.

However, that didn't mean that contracts that contained content that was clearly wrong, such as a contract to request a murder or prostitution, could be recognized as valid.

The 'donation in exchange for an affair' that the problem mentioned was also a typical antisocial act that was invalid.

Therefore, the short-haired girl's point was valid at first glance, but I shook my head.

"In the case where a contract is invalid due to a violation of Article 103, Article 746, Illegal Cause for Performance, is applied, so the compensation that has already been provided cannot be returned. The point is that you shouldn't even make that kind of bad contract in the first place, and we won't guarantee you any rights... But it doesn't seem like this is in your range either."

We were just about to have the midterm exam, but 'Illegal Cause for Performance' was a concept that was in the unjust enrichment part, which was quite far back in the Law of Obligations.

Unless they were going backward in the curriculum, there was no way that they would have already learned it.

"The problem is a mess, this one."

"So that's how it was..."

Undergraduate law classes didn't deal with overly in-depth content.

They also didn't include difficult precedents, and they usually only presented situations that could be solved at the level of the articles and basic legal principles.

Even so, it was unlikely that the excellent students who were attending Korea University wouldn't even be able to understand what was being said.

The problem was, as expected, with the lecture materials.

It seemed that the professor was just too lazy to create new materials every year, so it was a mistake that had come about as a result of patching things together.

"By any chance, who is your professor in charge?"

"It's Professor Choi Sung-cheol."

"Aigo, it's that guy again?"

It seemed that he was just doing the undergraduate classes haphazardly since they weren't related to the law school's performance.

If it was Choi Sung-cheol, then it was obvious.

After that, I answered the various questions that the four people had.

There were also problems that had mixed in things that weren't in the range, like the previous two cases, and there were parts where their understanding of the basic concepts and legal principles was weak, so I had to give them supplementary explanations.

"Thank you! I learned so much!"

When we parted, all four of them bowed deeply, with their bodies bent at a ninety-degree angle.

Since I wasn't in a condition to study anyway, I had just talked as if I was doing rehabilitation training, but to be thanked this much.

I was actually embarrassed.

"Hey, you're like a brother to me now! How can I ever repay this kindness... We have a lot of great people in our department, maybe we can set you up with a blind date, oh, ouch!"

"Ugh, what are you doing to a busy person!"

The well-built guy, who was already calling me brother after only meeting me once, ended up being dragged away by the short-haired girl, who had grabbed his ear.

I guess that was closer to his true nature.

I also waved goodbye to them, turned around, and headed home.

If fate brought us together, I might see them as my juniors later.

I wished them luck so that they could work hard and achieve their goals.

"Come to think of it, it seems like my aphasia has been cured."

Even just this morning, the letters had been bouncing off my eyes, but while explaining things to them, I had shown them scanned copies of my exam books and had looked up the laws, and I hadn't had any particular problems.

It seemed that teaching others was the easiest and most enjoyable way to study.

Teaching others...

Suddenly, a good idea came to mind, and after I got home, I opened my laptop.