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Scales of justice recalibratedA free legal clinic at Jeju National University is ready to help you |
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| ▲ Professor Park Sun Ah works with students and pro bono lawyers to provide non-Koreans with free legal advice. Photo by Todd Thacker |
A new legal clinic for non-Koreans has hung out its shingle under the auspices of the Jeju National University Legal Counseling Center and the leadership of a young law professor and mother of three.
Founded by Prof. Oh Chang Su at the beginning of last semester, the clinic was set up to provide community outreach and offer free legal advice to migrant workers engaged in “3D” (dirty, difficult, dangerous) work and to women in multicultural families. Assistant professor Park Sun Ah, who became the chief of the clinic in December, spoke with The Jeju Weekly in her JNU office last month.
“Frankly speaking, when we started this kind of legal clinic for foreigners on Jeju Island, we were thinking of helping foreigners from third-world countries because they were [from] a socially disadvantaged group,” she said. “But we don’t limit our legal clinic to one group or another.”
As of this writing, no non-Korean has made use of the clinic, but “we’re just warming up,” Park said. “In 2010 there were 37 criminal cases brought against foreigners in Jeju District Court. In 2011 we will consult on foreigner criminal cases.”
The clinic offers basic legal advice and counseling, but if a client has a complex case or a serious charge brought against them, she said they would turn away neither accused nor victim. The clinic can refer them to a court or prosecutor’s office-appointed service like the Korea Legal Service Foundation.
However, Prof. Park added, social services for victims are understaffed, so the JNU legal clinic is considering offering specialized, professional victim counseling.
“We will actively work with other departments at the university,” she said. “The law school has just hired a Ph.D. psychology counselor. We will need that kind of qualified person in the clinic.”
The process for getting legal advice is straightforward. A client with a simple question comes to the office on the JNU campus, where an “on call” student will interview the client and later research an answer. This is then reviewed by Prof. Park before being relayed to the client.
If the case is particularly complex, the student consults with one of six pro bono lawyers and the JNU law professors on duty. The final recommendation, too, is reviewed by Prof. Park.
“Giving anonymous advice is not permitted,” she said, so clinic policy is to call someone in to the office if they email with a problem. In certain circumstances, the clinic would consider sending a student to the non-Korean’s home or workplace to hear their problem if they were unable to take time off work or afford transportation to the JNU campus.
With regard to the differences in how Koreans and non-Koreans perceive and use the law, Prof. Park thinks that when her students have first-hand experience, “it will be very useful for them” in their legal studies and later in their law practices.
“We have to learn about those kinds of cultural and ideological differences with [Western] law and legal philosophy.”
There are just 80 students in the two-year law school graduate program. Legal clinic duty is part of the second-year curriculum. Eleven students, many of whom speak English, Chinese, and Japanese among other languages, spend about three hours a week “on call” with Prof. Park, who spends about 10 hours a week “on call.”
“It’s a chance to practice like a lawyer,” she said, pointing out that in addition to helping the community, a legal clinic such as hers “is an important feature of good law schools. So as a criterion of the evaluation of a law school, the university invests about $30,000 per year.”
“Non-Koreans don’t have rules at their disposal to defend their human rights,” she said. “So, through community outreach activities we can know their difficulties in living and working on Jeju Island as immigrant workers.”
From this month, the student president and other students are planning to send out about 600 community outreach letters to non-Koreans living on the island. These letters will include information about the legal clinic and a questionnaire about life on Jeju.
Ultimately, about 40 law students will travel around the island to meet with clients and hear their concerns and problems.
“The final goal of that kind of activity is to promote human rights on the island,” Park said.
In addition to clinic and teaching duties, Prof. Park has three young children. She practiced law in her own small law office in Daegu after passing the bar exam in 2000. She decided to move to Jeju Island to take a professorship at JNU two years ago, saying she wanted to study more deeply and have more time to look after her children and raise them around “fresh air, sea, and mountains.”
“Being a professor seemed good, so I chose JNU,” she said, perhaps understating the competitive field of those vying to be a professor. “I’m very happy.”
To make an appointment to speak with an advisor at the legal clinic for non-Koreans, call 064-754-2989 or email legalclinic@jejunu.ac.kr. The Legal Clinic Center office is located at the graduate school of JNU’s Law Department, room 322. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. cnulaw.jejunu.ac.kr.
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