The Nature of Korean Legal Culture and Challenges of Law Related Education in Civic Education

Abstract

Generally speaking, the legal culture influences validity and

appropriateness of learning contents in law-related education. The

purpose of this study is to comprehend marked characteristics of

Korean legal culture and to seek implication for developing appropriate

learning contents of law-related education in civic education. Because of

the impact of Confucian ideas on Korean legal culture after Choson

Dynasty, there is a little tendency to perceive that law is not a

facilitative tool for protecting individual rights but simply a punitive

tool for compelling ritual norms. Also Confucian ideas have an impact

on Korean legal culture which regards private connection as important

since private ritual norms are considered much more important than

law. These characteristics of Korean legal culture remained up to now,

because of unhappy historical experiences, for example, The Japanese

colonial days, ideological conflict and social disorder after Liberation

and Korean War. But these days, much changes are occurring in the

cultural context of Korean society such as improvement of social

structure, facing a multicultural society, emphasis on trust, emphasis

on citizenship internalization, preparation the unification and

globalization, and many others.

According to these changes in the cultural context, for developing Korean civil society, law-related education in civic education should

focus on reinforcement of learning legal cultural in formal curriculum,

cultivation of positive legal consciousness, strengthening a participatory

attitude, training a legal consideration, institutionalization of conflict

resolve, and development of a legal consciousness in everyday life.