Episode 59

"The prosecution previously presented this logic," Gu Min-hwan's weighty voice continued.

"Although Kim Gap-dong's actions may appear to be aiding and abetting, they should not be treated as simple aiding and abetting. He has a special duty arising from his position as A's son, and therefore, he is liable for murder by omission for the death that resulted from neglecting this duty."

"That was indeed the case."

"Then... the same logic should apply to Lee Eul-nam."

Gu Min-hwan declared softly.

"C Hospital entered into a medical contract with Kim Gap-dong and regarding A's life. As the other party to the contract, and as a medical institution, C Hospital has a justifiable obligation to treat and preserve A's life."

In a way, it was such an obvious point.

What could be a clearer truth than the fact that doctors have a duty to care for their patients?

"In a group with such an 'obligation,' stopping life-sustaining treatment and discharging A... isn't that a case of omission of duty?"

The murmuring grew louder.

"Are you saying...?"

"I'm saying that the charge is wrong," Gu Min-hwan countered.

"The charge that should be applied to Lee Eul-nam is not 'aiding and abetting murder,' but rather 'murder by omission,' just like Kim Gap-dong."

'As expected...!'

Right now, Gu Min-hwan was completely using the logic that I had presented earlier.

If a son letting his father die was a neglect of duty, then a medical team causing a patient to die was also a neglect of duty, and therefore, it was also murder by omission.

From the beginning, Gu Min-hwan had read all of my arguments.

And by using the exact same logic, he was planning to modify the conclusion so that I couldn't refuse.

Because denying his own logic was self-contradictory.

The moment I heard Han Seol's words, I realized that this was the strategy that Gu Min-hwan had been using all along.

'Come to think of it, Shin Seo-joon was also like that.'

• Senior Min-hwan enjoys overwhelming and complete victories.

• It's like taking your opponent's weapons and using them to defeat them... do you get what I mean?

When I looked back at the written document that I had written, I could see the points that Gu Min-hwan could approach.

And that was this argument of murder by omission.

"That's strange."

However, I pretended not to know and asked back.

"Didn't the defendant's side clearly claim innocence? With that, you're only going to become the principal offender of murder and make the sentence heavier."

"You're sloppy."

For a moment, Gu Min-hwan showed a sign of disappointment.

"Is that really who beat that guy?"

"We're in court. Stop the small talk and state your conclusion."

When I didn't waver, he clicked his tongue.

"......The charge that should be applied to Lee Eul-nam is murder by omission. However, this is just confirming what kind of crime should be examined. Whether or not the crime of murder actually holds up must be discussed from here."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'll start with the answer," Gu Min-hwan spat out.

"The defendant Lee Eul-nam does not have a legal, logical, or contractual duty that is substantial enough to establish murder by omission. Therefore, he is innocent."

"......What kind of wordplay is that?"

Han Seol suddenly stood up from beside me.

"Didn't you just say that a doctor has a 'duty' and must therefore be seen as murder by omission?

"I did say that."

Gu Min-hwan shook his index finger.

"But that's a general point. That if the medical team in charge of a patient's care causes the patient to die by stopping treatment, then murder by omission must be examined. That's just the general principle."

"So?"

"Whether or not murder actually applies to each individual member of the medical team must be determined by considering their status, role, and relationship with the patient or the patient's guardian according to the medical contract."

Gu Min-hwan cleared his throat and cited a precedent.

"91Do2951 Ruling."

It was a famous precedent that anyone who had studied criminal law would know.

"If the omission has the same criminal legal value as the act of infringing on legal interests, then it can be punished as a crime of omission."

The words "same criminal legal value" sounded ambiguous, but the actual method of judgment was simple.

It meant that if the 'duty' that the person who committed the omission was carrying was sufficiently heavy and important, then they would be recognized as having committed a crime of omission.

For example, let's say that someone finds a drowning person and just walks past as if nothing happened.

That doesn't mean that you can suddenly hold them accountable for 'omission' and apply the crime of murder to them.

But what if it was a rescue worker? What about a 119 emergency responder who had been dispatched after receiving a report?

It was the story that abandoning that duty, which had such a serious obligation to protect human life and maintain social trust, was a truly bad act.

Enough to be evaluated as being the same as directly committing murder.

In the end, the judgment of whether or not to apply the crime of omission was made by considering the weight and depth of the duty and the connection with the case.

If that was the case, the issue became simple.

How heavy and important was the duty that the defendant, Lee Eul-nam, had towards A?

"The defendant, Lee Eul-nam, was a 'duty doctor' working at the hospital at the time of the incident. He was only there to prepare for emergency situations or to manage the admission and discharge of inpatients."

"You're saying that..."

"He wasn't A's main doctor, nor was he even the signatory or the person in charge of the medical contract with Kim Gap-dong. He may have had a duty to faithfully perform his duties as a duty doctor, but it is excessive to demand that he have such a heavy duty to be fully responsible for A's life."

"That's ridiculous!"

Han Seol shouted in indignation.

"So you're saying that a duty doctor doesn't have a duty to be responsible for a patient's life? Then they shouldn't have the right to decide on a patient's discharge! If they can decide on discharging a patient whose death is obvious, then they should also be seen as having a responsibility that corresponds to that...!"

"Is there any basis for that?"

"......Huh?"

"It's a valid claim. But a claim alone is meaningless. I'm asking if you have a precedent to back that up."

"No, but that's..."

Only then did Han Seol seem to realize what Gu Min-hwan's aim was.

"In a criminal trial, the prosecution bears all of the burden of proving guilt. If there isn't a 'clear' basis to impose a duty sufficient to recognize murder by omission on a duty doctor, then the defendant Lee Eul-nam must be declared innocent."

In the end, Gu Min-hwan was attempting to have a battle of precedents.

And not precedents about big and important legal principles, or precedents that were meaningful for taking the bar exam, but a mudslinging fight over the recognition of minor factual relationships.

Normally, if it was a competition of bringing precedents, Han Seol would have an overwhelming advantage.

Because there wasn't a precedent within the scope of the bar exam that she didn't know.

But the problem was not that there were no precedents to bring.

"Oh, what should we do?"

Han Seol turned back to me with a panicked expression.

"There's no answer to precedents regarding the duty to act...!"

'Right. Rather, it's that there are too many.'

When it came to the issue of judging the crime of omission of a medical professional, precedents were rather erratic.

There was a precedent that recognized a duty for omission for even a nurse who was working at the hospital, and there were also cases where the court didn't recognize the crime of omission even for a doctor who was participating in the treatment process.

With this, it was impossible to prove a claim by bringing in precedents.

Even if you brought in a relevant precedent and shouted, "Look, based on this, a duty doctor also has a sufficient duty to act," the other side would clearly counter with, "No, this precedent doesn't acknowledge it," and there was no way to settle the fight.

It meant that it was a problem where the opinions weren't unified, even among judges.

That was why when they put out a question regarding the crime of omission in an exam, the examiners would only select very typical cases where the precedent was unified without any argument.

Like a police officer, or a bar owner regarding a customer, who I often used as examples.

When it came to medical professionals, since the precedents were so erratic, they rarely put it out as an issue for omission.

'It's that guy who forcefully dragged it into a crime of omission, and caused this mess.'

"Hmm."

Gu Min-hwan didn't even flinch as I glared at him.

Instead, he was just looking at me with inorganic eyes, as if to tell me to hurry up and present evidence.

"It's a mess."

"This is a problem that can't be solved with precedents... it'll just become a battle of who's more stubborn."

"Then isn't Senior Min-hwan more advantageous? He's someone who has been dealing with all sorts of incidents and factual records. In the end, you can't catch up to the breadth of his experience."

The voices whispering in the gallery also favored Gu Min-hwan in this fight.

If it was a problem where there was no right answer, then it was difficult to beat the experience of a real-world expert.

Especially since a police officer was basically a public servant who had to pull precedents and manuals out and use them to their advantage, so that they didn't do anything that they could get in trouble for.

Gu Min-hwan himself was confident in a battle of stubbornly sticking to his claims, so he must have been the one who had led it in this direction.

In that situation where everyone was predicting Gu Min-hwan's victory.

"......Ha."

I burst out laughing.

"Ha, ha ha."

"Why are you laughing? Have you given up?"

"How could I? I'm just laughing because it's ridiculous."

I asked Gu Min-hwan.

"Senior. Is this the reason and basis for your claim of innocence?"

"That's right."

"Then..."

I declared.

"This match is your defeat, Senior."

"......What?"

Gu Min-hwan's eyes, which had been unmoving, flickered for the first time when I said that he was defeated.

"It's true that you're amazing. You've used my logic to forcefully drag it into a problem where there's no answer, and you've created a stage where you can overwhelm everything with your experience and skills. I can't help but admire that meticulous planning and trickery."

However.

"To be honest, as a law student, you're a complete zero."

"......What are you trying to say?"

"I'll ask you. What is law to you, Senior?"

At the meaningless question, Gu Min-hwan showed a moment of disbelief, but it was only for a moment.

"You're just saying nonsense because you don't want to lose."

He quickly returned to his usual indifferent expression.

"But... I don't mind playing along. Alright. I'll tell you. Law to me is..."

Then he spat out the words.

"Just a game board where you have to achieve victory."

Nothing more, nothing less.

'I knew it.'

The only reason Gu Min-hwan came to law school was that.

To reveal his intelligence and logic, to show off the experience and skills he had built up as a police officer, and to defeat the self-proclaimed geniuses.

He had only entered this place to achieve that goal.

To him, law wasn't an academic field to learn and study.

It was merely a tool to defeat his opponents.

That was why he had only chosen the most 'efficient' methods to get a higher score and stomp over the people in front of him.

• Senior Min-hwan isn't actually that interested in law itself.

That method was similar to my way of studying, but it was fundamentally different.

I loved law more than anyone else.

If it was possible, I was someone who wanted to completely absorb every aspect of the profound legal principles that were rooted in the foundations of the legal system.

But in reality, I didn't have the time or the genius brain to do that, so I had started with the most practical issues.

Now that I had a bit of leeway, I was reorganizing the structure of my knowledge, including the general legal theories that connected the issues and even the dissenting opinions of the precedents, and making it perfect.

That difference.

It was what had allowed me to see what Gu Min-hwan couldn't.

"Do you have anything else to say? It's about time to stop trying to stall."

"Alright."

I looked at him for a moment.

There was a man who had treated the law, which had been my lifelong dream, as just an amusement to satisfy his own pride.

"Right now, there's one very serious error in the defendant's claims."

It was time to make him pay the price of that arrogance.

"That is..."

I was certain.

'You fell for it!'