NEWSLETTER - THE CAU VOL.19

Back in the late 1940s, Korea was just liberated from the Japanese colonial rule and grappled with turning itself into a democratic nation. There was an urgent need for political and legal education not just to uphold a right to participate in the politics directly and indirectly, but nurture mature democratic citizens–basic building blocks of a law-governed country.
As part of an effort to meet the demand of the time, Chung-Ang Culture Institute, the educational Foundation of CAU, held a meeting of the board of directors in August 1948, where it decided to change the name of the College of Literature into the College of Laws & Politics and establish the Department of Laws and Politics. In October 1948, CAU first recruited entrants of the Department of Laws and Politics, and the maximum number that could be admitted to the department were 160. It was highly competitive, showing a ratio of seven to one.
CAU acquired the official approval for establishing the Department of Law & Politics from the Ministry of Education on May 24th, 1949. CAU started to construct Heerak Building in March 1949 to meet the increasing need for university facilities and advance to the status of comprehensive university. Construction of Heerak Building was completed on May 15th, 1950, just before the outbreak of the Korean War. Back then, students used this new building only for two weeks and had no choice but to move to a temporary university building in Songdo, Busan, evacuating from Seoul due to the war.
CAU spared no effort to offer high-quality legal education even in the middle of the Korean War. After branch campus in Iksan was opened on October 31st, 1951, Prof. Park Gwang-seo was in charge of Case Study in Legal Affairs, Legal History, History of Legal Thoughts, and Roman Law, and Prof. Park Chang-geon taught Case Study in Civil Law, Civil Law III, and Civil Law IV.

CAU changed the existing Department of Law & Politics (that consisted of Law major and Politics major) into the Department of Law in 1952. And afterwards in 1953, CAU reformed its school system, in which it transformed the School of Law & Literature (that was comprised of departments of Literature, Education, and Law) into the Faculty of Law & Politics (that consisted of departments of Law and Political Science). This once again changed into the College of Law & Politics in 1954 that included not only departments of Law and Politics, but also departments of Public Administration and Journalism. Later in 1968, the name of the College of Law & Politics changed into the College of Law that incorporated the Department of Public Administration.
In 1955, CAU established the Department of Public Administration under the College of Law & Politics for the first time among Korean private universities and for the third time among Korean universities. The Department of Public Administration was founded on Anseong Campus in 1983.
Departments of Law and Public Administration, consisting of outstanding faculty and students, faced a transformative change when CAU was designated as law school by the government. As a result, just as other universities with law school, CAU’s Department of Law no longer recruited new entrants from 2009. CAU recruited law school entrants and created the School of Open Major, instead. The university introduced the School of Public Service, the College of Public Service in 2009, and later in 2010, integrated the Department of Public Administration with the School of Open Major, resulting in today’s School of Public Service under the College of Social Sciences.

As CAU decided to establish the Department of Law & Politics in 1948, this required expansion of university facilities. As such, the university newly constructed Heerak Building, and its construction commenced in March 1949. Although the construction of Heerak Building was completed in 1950, students were able to use the building for only two weeks in the wake of the Korean War. Heerak Building was used by the College of Pharmacy students from April 1954 to April 1956, and served as university library for a short period of time. And afterwards, female students used Heerak Building as dormitory until it was abolished in February 1996.
Jinsun Building, dedicated to the College of Law & Politics students and currently known as Seorabol Hall, was built together with University Theater in November 1961. Jinsun Building, a four-story building with one basement floor, made of reinforced concrete and bricks, had 16 large and small lecture rooms and 3 office rooms.

CAU’s College of Law was later relocated into Student Union Hall. And after an independent building for the College of Law was built in the 1990s, its students were able to study in a more pleasing environment.

The construction of new Law School Building commenced on then-building site of University Theater of Seoul Campus in November 2003. Once the building was completed, it became the largest building among independent college buildings in Korea with a gross floor area of 34,684m², equivalent to 10,500 pyeong. Law School Building, a fourteen-story building with three basement floors, was completed in April 2007. The building includes a mock courtroom with 120 seats, modelled after the criminal courtroom of Seoul Central District Court, and the state-of-the-art lecture rooms, equipped with video recording & play devices and electronic desks. The building lived up to the international standard and enabled CAU to offer high-quality legal education to its students.

After renewed as the College of Law, it provided a variety of scholarships in an effort to attract talented students and offer quality education. Most of all, those with good academic performance were eligible to take an entrance exam of CAU’s preparatory class for national examinations. If they passed the exam, they had access to its facilities including reading rooms, bedrooms, library, cafeteria, and recreational rooms. As such, CAU not only supported these students both physically and mentally so that they could concentrate on their studies, but helped them to draw good results by providing special lectures, given by examination committee members.

“CAU graduates who work as police officers, notwithstanding their low salaries, joined forces to deliver as much as KRW500,000 of scholarships to their alma mater. They specifically asked the university to support CAU students–in particular, those who prepare judicial and civil service examinations.” (released in Chung-Ang University Newspaper on September 18th, 1969)

In addition to support at the university level, a number of CAU graduates made a contribution to helping their junior students. For instance, 37 CAU graduates working as police officers including late Park Byeong-hyo, who matriculated in 1953 and majored in law, made a charitable donation to CAU in 1969. Park, who had passed the 13th high-level judicial examination in 1960, served as chief superintendent of Security Department in 1969. He later became the 9th and 10th member of the National Assembly. On top of this, Kim Jung-tae, who graduated CAU’s Department of Public Administration in 1975 and now serves as chairman of CAU Alumni Association, delivered KRW300 million in total as university development funds from 2009 to date. These funds have been used to support CAU’s School of Public Service students as well as those who prepare national examinations to become a government official of the administrative or legislative branches.

In 1973, College of Law faculty raised funds to provide scholarships to their students and conducted a trial exam for better preparing national examinations. Such effort led a growing number of students to apply to CAU’s preparatory class for national examinations. This ultimately enabled the university to produce a large number of successful applicants in judicial and civil service examinations.

CAU provided unwavering support to its students and continued to produce a wealth of talent. That’s why CAU’s College of Law gained much popularity. Following the 1979 academic year’s admissions, preliminary college entrance examination scores came to play a pivotal role. In addition, major universities introduced a special admission policy, in which they reflected 100% of preliminary college entrance examination scores to determine admissions. As such, applicants did not have to take the main college entrance examination. Under this examination policy, applicants with relatively higher scores (at least 286) were able to get into CAU’s College of Law in the 1980 academic year.
CAU, back then with a 60-year history, operated a variety of talent development programs. As a result of successful implementation of these programs, together with enthusiastic faculty and students’ strenuous efforts, CAU’s College of Law was designated as one of the best universities in the legal field by the Korean Council for University Education under the Ministry of Education in 1999.

The College of Law encourages its students to get into the preparatory class as earlier as possible so that more students can pass national examinations. Likewise, the preparatory class plays a significant role in producing successful applicants of national examinations.

CAU ranked fifth in the number of those who passed the Korean civil service examination in 2015 by producing eleven successful applicants. In addition, CAU Law School ranked first in the ratio of those who passed seventh bar exam to admission quota in 2018. The seventh bar exam applicants were those who graduated in February 2018 and were eligible to apply to the exam for the first time. CAU also took the third place among Korean universities in terms of the combined number of lawyers who became a superintendent through four special recruitment processes (The number stood at six). Likewise, CAU continues to uphold its reputation as the cradle of producing legal and administrative professionals.