독일 법조윤리규범의 실태와 시사점 - 변호사윤리를 중심으로 -

Abstract

With the recent exponential increase in the number of lawyers and concomitant expansion of the market, South Korea legal system is to encounter unprecedented problems and issues. In other words, the past paradigm of our legal ethics is not developed enough to systematically and logically resolve neither present nor future ethical conflicts in the law. Germany possesses legal system similar to South Korea - only with far more extensive history. It has been consistently reviewed and modified to resolve issues raised as Germany underwent significant economic development and reunification, and joined the European Union. Suffice it to say, German legal system is far more detailed and specific than South Korea’s. While two nations’ legal system are quite similar, there are much difference in several areas, namely, the overall structure of rules of legal profession; legal case acceptance; attorney fee structure; advertisement regulation; and attorney disciplinary regulation. Comparing the differences allowed us to discover the extent of shortcomings in the layout of South Korea rules of legal profession, and that advertisement regulations are either too ambiguous or too specified to function as positive regulation, which was the original intent. In regard to attorney fee structure, differences were particularly evident in the standard of legal fee computation and contingency fee. Lastly, two systems showed differences in procedures of disciplinary action for violating the rules of legal profession. Based on our study, we suggest a few modifications in the following four areas of South Korea legal system: the structure of regulations within the rules of legal profession,advertisement regulation, attorney fee regulation, and disciplinary regulation. Although it is imperative to review and revise the rules of legal profession to meet the needs of rapidly changing legal market, it is equally important to create a fair and just legal culture considering that a series of corruptions involving judicial officials have led to the public’s incredulity toward lawyers’ ethics. Such legal culture will require reawakening of ethical conscience from lawyers as well as individual citizens.