I Became a Law School Genius

Chapter 32

Episode 32

Han Il-gu's research lab was located on the top floor of the law building.

After passing through a quiet hallway where people rarely went, I opened the door to his lab and was greeted by a mountain of law books and papers piled up like a fortress.

"Come in."

As I stepped inside, Han Il-gu closed the door behind me with a thud.

"Actually,"

Han Il-gu began quietly.

"I know it too."

It was a rambling first sentence.

"That my classes are not welcome. That the students are fed up with broad, in-depth law as an academic discipline... The truth is, it's not all your fault."

"..."

"It's just, this law school system made it that way."

Han Il-gu looked out the window into the distance.

"It's only three years. Law is such a grand and profound discipline, there's no way you can conquer it perfectly in just three years. In the end, what matters is how efficiently you study and pass the exam... the students have no choice but to focus on that."

'So he knew it all along.'

"But. But still."

He was still standing with his back to me.

"Someone has to protect it."

"Protect what?"

"Law as an academic discipline. Learning and teaching. Depth and foundation."

Han Il-gu continued.

"Many things have changed over time. Now, the entire law school as an educational institution is only focused on the students passing the bar exam and producing impressive outputs. From what I've heard, our professors' lectures are now more tailored to the exam than those of so-called star instructors in the cram school district."

Isn't that enough? He added.

"At least one person. Just one person, even if it's only to appeal that the pulse of academic law hasn't been cut off in this country, and that I am the one who is protecting it, isn't that okay?"

"..."

Han Il-gu's back, as he spoke, somehow looked very tired and lonely.

A small fighter who was fighting alone against the tide of the times.

Whether I agreed with his conviction or opposed it, I could feel the weight of what he was carrying.

"I said that I wanted to show Park Yoo-seung something."

Han Il-gu opened a drawer and pulled out a file, handing it to me.

"Professor, this is."

"It's a thesis that I finished writing today. It's something that I wrote for personal research purposes, so I probably won't publish it."

Han Il-gu waved his hand as if to tell me to leave.

"Take it. Read it through once, and I'd like to hear your thoughts."

And then, Han Il-gu added.

"How you 'utilize' this is up to you, Park Yoo-seung... let's say that."

'Why would he suddenly give me an unpublished thesis? Ah, could it be!'

How I utilized it was up to me? As I mulled over those words, something suddenly occurred to me, and I flipped through the file.

The title was plastered on the first page in large letters.

[The Scope and Limits of Autonomy of National Universities - Focusing on the Scope of Application of the Principle of Legal Reservation]

The principle of legal reservation.

That was a keyword that was included in Lee Ha-roo's program 'Easy-Peasy', and it was also included in the range of this midterm exam.

'...Did he put it on the exam? This?'

A question that evaluated the precedents related to the autonomy of national universities based on the principle of legal reservation.

Considering Han Il-gu's usual exam style, it seemed like it could easily appear.

'This is a blind spot.'

I had previously argued that the topics that Han Il-gu considered important when creating exam questions, that is, the topics he had researched relatively recently, would be the ones that would appear on the exam.

This had been proven by the existence of theses that were connected to all of the past questions.

But if that was true, wouldn't the topic he was researching 'right now' be the content that Han Il-gu was most interested in and considered most important?

I hadn't thought that he could also set questions from an unpublished paper that he was still writing.

That was only natural.

How could I have possibly predicted that a professor, who was already busy with administrative work and preparing for lectures, would also be writing a new research paper while also working on the midterm exam?

Most law school professors didn't leave behind even a tenth of the academic writings that Han Il-gu did.

It was only possible because he had devoted his soul to academic law.

'The fact that he deliberately gave this to me means that he put it on the exam, right?'

The subtle emphasis and accent in his words when he told me to utilize it as I saw fit.

Unless I was completely oblivious, there was no way I couldn't understand that.

In some ways, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The summaries that we had prepared in the study group were also top-notch materials, but this was practically like being given the question and answer all at once.

But.

'Is it okay for me to just accept this?'

It was different from collecting and reading published papers.

Those were materials that anyone could access, and since you didn't know exactly which paper the questions would be drawn from, we had divided up the work and prepared for it by gathering people.

But this paper was different.

Since it was unpublished, only I could see it.

Moreover, it was given to me by the professor who was directly setting the exam.

This was practically a leak of the questions and cheating.

"Professor."

"..."

The great legal scholar was facing me.

No, that wasn't it. Standing there was just a human being.

"Unfortunately, I won't be able to do that today."

'Ah, is this that scene?'

"I have an urgent matter to attend to, so I have to leave for a while. Therefore, there will be no class today."

It was a scene that had also appeared in the original story.

On this day, Jang Yong-hwan would leave to meet a witness of 'a certain case' that he had been tracking for a long time since he was still a prosecutor.

It was an important matter that was related to the reason why Shin Seo-joon entered Korea University Law School and the final boss of the original story.

It seemed that the main scenario was starting to unfold.

I had to stay alert if I didn't want to get swept away.

'In the Law School' was a very eventful story.

There were quite a few things that I had to do to prepare, and I had somewhat organized them in my head.

However.

The thing that I had to focus on right now was a more immediate problem.

"So, is it a cancellation of class?"

Someone raised their hand and asked.

"It's like you're asking if you're finally free."

Haha, laughter filled the lecture hall.

"Unfortunately, that's not it. You're paying millions of won per semester in tuition, so how can a professor just abandon class just because of personal reasons?"

Jang Yong-hwan raised one hand.

"Teaching assistants. Are you all ready?"

As if that was a signal, the teaching assistants marched into the lecture hall from the front and back, carrying large paper bags.

"Are these the right bags, Professor?"

"Yes. Please distribute them."

Question marks appeared on the students' faces.

But I knew. I knew what was inside those bags.

"...Exam papers?"

Han Seol, who had received her bag and opened it, muttered.

In front of her were several sheets of exam questions, neatly arranged.

Looking at them briefly, they seemed to be multiple-choice Criminal Law questions.

A similar bag was dropped in front of me.

"Those are the questions that I made for this exam, but ultimately decided not to include. In short, they're waste."

But, Jang Yong-hwan added.

"Even if they're waste, they're questions that I made. I can guarantee their difficulty and quality. And for you all, it's also an opportunity to get a sense of how this exam will be."

"Ooh..."

The students, who had been doubtful at first, now carefully picked up the exam papers as if they were touching a precious treasure.

As Jang Yong-hwan had said, these exam questions were the best teaching materials for preparing for the Criminal Law midterm exam.

Both in terms of the level of the questions and the style, they were almost identical to the midterm exam questions that Jang Yong-hwan would set.

But Jang Yong-hwan wasn't someone who would give out free candy like this.

Everyone knew well that there was no way that would be the case.

"Today's class will be replaced by solving these questions. Those who have solved them all can submit them to the teaching assistants and leave, but."

It wouldn't be a good idea to just solve them carelessly and submit them in order to leave quickly. Jang Yong-hwan added that.

"If you look at the course syllabus, it says that 10% of your grade is reflected in your assignments. That score will be replaced by the results of the exam papers you submit today."

In other words, it wasn't just a simple practice question.

Since it was reflected in the grade itself, you had to do your best to solve them.

10% was a considerable proportion that could change your ranking by dozens of places.

"Oh, what do I do."

"I'm doomed. Multiple-choice questions can only be solved by memorizing them until right before the exam."

"I only glanced at the first page, but there are so many confusing things..."

Only then did the students seem to realize the situation, and complaints were heard from here and there.

Even if it was an exam on the same concept and the same range, the way you prepared for multiple-choice and case-based exams was completely different.

In case-based exams, you had to write long texts yourself.

Therefore, you had to memorize the entire logical structure of each issue and the core keywords of the legal principles so that you could recite them even if you were woken up in the middle of the night.

Instead, you could refer to the law books, and the topics that were set were limited to the major issues that had room for logical disputes and interpretations.

Therefore, the amount you had to memorize was surprisingly small. You just had to internalize each one as if it was etched into your bones.

On the other hand, with multiple-choice questions, anything could be asked.

Even a minor one-line precedent conclusion could appear, and they could put in a choice that was slightly different from the law.

Therefore, the number of things you had to memorize was overwhelmingly large.

Instead, you only needed to be able to read the choices and distinguish whether they were true or false, so you didn't have to go as deep.

It was enough to read it several times and become familiar with it.

This kind of broad and shallow knowledge was very volatile by nature.

That was why a person who had read it ten times a long time ago was much less likely to solve the questions than a person who had read it twice right before entering the exam hall.

Exam takers were always creatures who prioritized efficiency above all else.

In the end, that meant that studying for multiple-choice questions had no choice but to be postponed until the very last minute.

'Because it's a waste to read it beforehand, since you'll forget it anyway.'

Therefore, a multiple-choice exam that was given without any prior notice was like a bolt out of the blue.

It was a structure where even someone with great skills couldn't be properly prepared.

Especially if the test maker was Jang Yong-hwan, a master of setting malicious traps, it went without saying.

"Don't be too scared."

Jang Yong-hwan comforted the students.

"It's not shameful to not be prepared for a surprise multiple-choice exam. Well, unless you're someone who has scraped up all the multiple-choice choices from previous years, marked them somewhere, and reads them repeatedly every day, it's natural to not do well."

Jang Yong-hwan said as if he was joking.

"Surely, there can't be a crazy person among the first-year students who is already doing that, it's not like they're third-year students preparing for the bar exam, right?"