Yonsei University was established in 1885 in the turbulent period of late Chosun, in order to raise leaders who serve the country and humanity based on the principles of "truth and freedom" and the spirit of Christianity.
To realize this founding purpose and philosophy, Yonsei College of Law was established in June 1950. Since its foundation, Yonsei College of Law has nurtured competent individuals to meet the demands of the times and has sought to establish the rule of law and democracy in our society.
In June 1993, Yonsei College of Law organized a development committee to resolve social problems of the times and become a global research and educational institution. The committee set the educational goals of Yonsei College of Law as follows:
- Training Lawyers to Practice Democracy and Justice
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Korean society was dominated by authoritarian and undemocratic political system until the early 1990s. In order to mature into a free and democratic society, the role of legal experts with willingness to practice democracy and justice was absolutely necessary.
Therefore, Yonsei Law School set its first educational goal to nurture lawyers who practice democracy and justice and take these as their academic indicators.
To this end, our school has reformed the curriculum, contents and instruction methods with democratic elements, and also has strengthened the practical training by upgrading educational facilities.
- Practice of Legal Education Suitable for Globalization and Informatization
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In the late 20th century, globalization and informatization has emerged as a new trend of our time. If our legal education does not actively go with this stream, it will lose its domestic and international competitiveness.
To overcome this crisis, Yonsei Law School has set up the educational goal of practicing legal education appropriate to this flow of globalization and informatization. Yonsei Law School has been promoting academic exchanges with leading universities abroad, establishing curriculum related to new and advanced fields, and planning to build an information infrastructure.
- Specialization and Diversification of Legal Studies
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As globalization and informatization spread, Korea lacks legal experts with knowledge and experience comparable to the diversified professional lawyers in developed countries.
Therefore, specialized and diversified legal studies in education and faculty research are essential to deal with legal issues in an equal relationship with advanced countries.
For this reason, our school set ‘specialization and diversification of legal studies’ as the third educational goal, and set concrete plans such as expansion of human resource for research, recruitment of professors in new fields, and revitalization of research institutes.