I Became a Law School Genius

Chapter 14
『 Translator – Divinity 』

Examine evidence and records directly and construct legal arguments? Even until the end of the original story, there was never an exam like this.

‘If I had to say it’s similar to something… well, it’s similar to that.’

There were a few familiar things among the example materials that Professor Jang Yong-hwan showed on the screen.

The prosecutor preparation class led by Jang Yong-hwan.

Even in the original story, he once showed such materials to his mentees and explained the process of writing legal briefs.

It was a kind of teaching material to help them understand criminal practice.

And for the record, those mentees were all second and third-year law school students. In other words, it wasn’t something to show to prospective students.

But how did this bizarre idea of conducting an exam with that come about?

‘What does he want?’

I glanced around, and everyone seemed to be in a state of panic.

“Hey, Master.”

Except for one person.

“Is this really… that big of a deal?”

Lee Ha-ru asked with a sleepy face.

“Of course it is.”

“He’s just giving us video material, isn’t it the same exam in the end? If anything, isn’t it a jackpot because we don’t have to study with an open-book exam?”

“It’s not that simple.”

I recalled Jang Yong-hwan’s words.

“You will delve into numerous pieces of evidence and records, discover the issues yourselves, and build your own arguments, instead of neatly organized facts tailored for exam-oriented law.”

What was the law study we’ve been doing so far?

In the end, it was about understanding precedents and legal principles and cramming them into our heads.

And then, we just had to pour them out onto the exam paper.

Naturally, exam questions are designed to evaluate that ability.

Therefore, when creating questions, they can only present facts that perfectly match the precedents.

That’s the only way to ensure that those who have studied properly and know the legal principles of the precedent can solve it, and those who don’t know can’t.

Another advantage is that there are no objections since the answer is clear.

If you want to ask about the legal principles of a sales contract, you present a contract of the type that the precedent recognizes as a sale.

If you want to ask about whether it’s an intentional crime, you present a case where the precedent recognizes sufficient intention.

For example, let’s say a question is presented where A stabs B’s carotid artery in the neck, causing a 10cm deep wound, but B luckily survives at the hospital.

In such cases, the precedent generally recognizes the intent to kill because it’s natural to assume that the act of stabbing the carotid artery itself is fatal to life.

The conclusion is the intent to kill, with the result of the killing not occurring, leading to attempted murder.

But what if it was the abdomen instead of the neck? What about the arm?

What if the area itself wasn’t fatal, but depending on the depth, excessive bleeding or death from blood loss could be expected?

What if the knife was rusty and contaminated?

Like this, countless ambiguous cases arise in reality.

Cases that don’t perfectly fit the legal principles.

Evidence that is difficult to clearly understand.

It’s a lawyer’s job to take those things and somehow come up with legally sound arguments to achieve a favorable outcome for their client.

“But he’s trying to make us do that.”

This was no different from making a toddler who had just started walking do paragliding training.

It had nothing to do with the existing tasks, whether in terms of difficulty or the required skills.

“Legal principles are just the basics you need to know before going into practice. And we’re prospective students who haven’t even learned those basics properly.”

“Is that so?”

“It is.”

Even I, with my experience in the bar exam, have never experienced this.

There was a written exam where you had to solve problems by looking at case records, but that was part of the training at the Judicial Research and Training Institute.

As someone who couldn’t even get to the interview stage, I had zero experience with written exams.

Moreover, I had never dealt with this kind of evidence.

“Oh, there’s an announcement!”

At that moment, someone shouted while looking at their smartphone.

Everyone hurriedly took out their smartphones or laptops, and I also opened my laptop and accessed the school website.

[Information on the 2nd Evaluation of the Pre-Law School Program for Prospective Students (new!)]

Indeed, there was a new announcement.

The author was… Professor Jang Yong-hwan.

[Scope of the exam: Civil Law – General Provisions, Property Law, Law of Obligations (excluding Family and Inheritance Law) / Criminal Law – Entire General Part and Specific Part of Criminal Law

Source of materials: Questions are derived from actual case records with some modifications or editing. Video and audio materials are fabricated and created with professional actors, not actual footage.

Exam format: After initially writing down the answer on the answer sheet based on the problem, there will be an oral evaluation based on the written answer.

Exam time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Evaluation method: Students will enter the exam hall in randomly assigned pairs.
In Civil Law, they will be divided into plaintiff and defendant, and in Criminal Law, into prosecutor and defense attorney, each presenting arguments from their respective positions.

10 points will be awarded if the student maintains their argument without changing it and receives a correct answer judgment from the examiner.

5 points will be awarded if the student listens to the other party’s argument and concedes to it, and the other party’s argument receives a correct answer judgment.

3 points will be awarded if the student maintains their argument without changing it and receives an incorrect answer judgment.

0 points will be awarded if the student listens to the other party’s argument and concedes to it, and the other party’s argument receives an incorrect answer judgment.

• Civil Procedure Act and Criminal Procedure Act issues are not included: Although procedural legal principles play a significant role in resolving actual cases, they have been entirely edited out considering the syllabus.

• In the case of Criminal Law, sentencing and mitigation are not considered.

• An example question is attached below for reference.]

It was quite a complex method.

You could get the highest score by deriving the correct argument and sticking to it, but even just agreeing with the other party’s argument when it was valid would earn you 5 points.

On the other hand, if you stuck to your argument and it was wrong, you got 3 points, and if you changed your argument and it was wrong, you got 0 points.

I could feel his intention to include conviction, judgment, and flexibility as evaluation factors.

“There’s an example question.”

“Yeah. Shall we take a look?”

I clicked on the attached file at the bottom of the announcement.

“…Hey. The file size is 5GB?”

“That’s overkill.”

What kind of crazy exam has one question that’s 5GB?

Perhaps it was appropriate for a two-and-a-half-hour exam.

I couldn’t tell how much content there was.

He could have at least compressed it before uploading.

I opened the downloaded folder.

A 60-page case record.

Five audio files.

Eleven video files labeled as CCTV footage.

A few image files.

…I closed it again.

“I’m already dizzy.”

“Me too.”

It was a rare moment where Lee Ha-ru and I agreed.

But after briefly glancing at the contents, I felt like I was getting a sense of it.

Although I was still upset about the absurd amount of data, the fact that this was an ‘exam question’ remained unchanged.

An exam question inevitably reflects the intention of the examiner who created it.

If typical law exam questions measure memorization of legal principles and precedents, these questions would be designed with a different goal in mind.

By examining what information is revealed and what information is hidden, we can read the intention behind it.

Getting the answer right ultimately means uncovering the path the examiner wants you to take.

Exam skills mean being proficient in that task.

And that was my specialty.

“…Hey, Park Yoo-seung.”

Han Seol, who had been silent for a while, came over.

“What are you going to do?”

“About what?”

“About this exam. We have to choose a subject.”

That’s right.

If I had to take this exam in both Civil Law and Criminal Law, I wouldn’t have survived.

But perhaps as a final act of mercy from Professor Jang Yong-hwan, for this second evaluation, we only had to choose one subject to take.

I answered immediately without any hesitation.

“I’m definitely going with Criminal Law.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m more confident in that.”

Civil Law has an excessive amount of content.

Even if I could look up precedents, it would take forever just to figure out what to look for.

This was especially true because there were many requirements and exceptions that couldn’t be understood from the law articles alone.

Four hours wasn’t nearly enough time to complete everything from reading the records and examining the evidence to extracting the issues, writing the answers, and preparing for the oral evaluation.

On the other hand, Criminal Law had less content than Civil Law.

It was relatively easier to grasp the gist of the problem through the articles, and I could intuitively figure out which precedents to look for.

As a prospective prosecutor, I also liked and was better at Criminal Law.

“Sigh… What should I do?”

Han Seol muttered in an uncertain voice.

“What’s there for you to worry about?”

“Seriously. The second-ranked student is being deceitful. Deceitful.”

“Deceitful? I’m seriously thinking about it!”

Now that I looked, her shoulders were trembling.

“…If the exam is like this, there’s nothing I’m better at than other students…”

I finally understood what Han Seol was worried about.

Han Seol was fundamentally good at studying.

And she studied a lot.

Actually, in most cases, the two terms were synonymous.

She had spent more time than anyone else digesting an overwhelming amount of memorized information.

It was the same when she was preparing for the College Scholastic Ability Test, for university exams, and for the first evaluation in the pre-law program.

In any exam hall, there was never a question on the exam paper that Han Seol didn’t know.

Although she sometimes made mistakes due to her weakness in improvisation, for Han Seol, exams were basically just about writing down what she knew.

That was the unique advantage that only Han Seol possessed.

“This time it’s different. Everyone can look up precedents as much as they want.”

That advantage, for the second evaluation, had completely disappeared.

“I’m scared. This is the first time I’ve faced an exam where I don’t even know what to do.”

Han Seol had always been thoroughly prepared.

It meant that she had something to rely on.

That’s why she seemed to be more afraid of this unfamiliar situation, the same situation everyone else was in, which she was facing for the first time.

The express train that had been running tirelessly had lost its direction.

Of course, this was also a growing pain.

People grow stronger by facing challenges, experiencing failures, and breaking down.

In a way, this exam might be necessary for Han Seol.

‘But still…’

I looked into Han Seol’s eyes for a moment.

Her pupils were shaking with anxiety.

“Han Seol. Just do Civil Law.”

“…Huh?”

“If you choose Civil Law, you can definitely do well. Well, not definitely, but most likely.”

“But, this time…”

I cut Han Seol off.

“Civil Law is a time attack. You can’t read all that material and extract all the issues to search for within the time limit… unless you’ve already memorized most of the precedents.”

“I-is that so?”

“If you can’t do it, the other students will have an even harder time. Look at me. I’m not confident in my memorization, so I’m escaping to Criminal Law.”

Han Seol was unexpectedly the type who lacked confidence.

Even though her skills were already sufficient.

If there was someone to tell her that she could do it, she would be able to move forward without wavering.

“If you don’t believe in yourself, believe in me. Have you ever lost anything by listening to me since you came here?”

“…No.”

“Then that’s it.”

It’s true that time spent wandering and struggling helps people grow.

But if possible, wouldn’t it be better to grow with less hardship and less suffering?

So I decided to shine a small light on the path.

“Okay, I’ll try.”

The trembling in her shoulders had stopped.

***

The remaining days of the pre-law program flew by.

The lectures were always packed, and with diligently keeping up with previewing and reviewing, there wasn’t much time left in a day.

I invested that time in studying the specific part of Criminal Law.

From homicide to perjury, I organized the main issues to consider for each crime, and practiced recalling them by looking at the law articles.

It was okay for the specific details of the precedents to fade from memory.

I could search for them in the exam hall.

But to quickly grasp the structure of the issues while comparing them with the law articles, I had to at least familiarize myself with the relevant content.

“This is too much. Is he crazy?”

“Stop whining. Criminal Law is still manageable. If you had chosen Civil Law like Han Seol, you wouldn’t have been able to sleep like during the quiz.”

“Ugh.”

Han Seol took my advice and chose Civil Law, while Lee Ha-ru chose Criminal Law.

The reason was that, regardless of anything else, Criminal Law had a higher chance of scraping by even if you hadn’t studied as much.

Even that seemed like a lot for Lee Ha-ru, as she groaned every time I dragged her to the library.

‘Han Seol… she must be doing well.’

Except for class time, we barely saw each other these past few days.

We were both busy studying our own subjects.

Even amidst that, we steadily accumulated group evaluation points and finally achieved a perfect score of 40.

Only one hurdle remained.

“We will now begin the second evaluation. Please proceed to your designated waiting rooms.”

Finally, on the morning of the last day of the pre-law program, I vigorously grabbed the doorknob and flung open the door to the waiting room.