Korea

Law and society scholarship in Korea has developed in tandem with and responded to changes in Korean society. This discipline initially made its appearance in the 1960s and 1970s amid the modernization of Korean society and is sometimes seen as a part of the discussion on “law and development.” Scholars argued that the country's history of Confucian tradition and colonial heritage was responsible for the failure or malfunction of newly adopted modern legal systems. Thus, Korean sociolegal scholarship paid attention to legal history, legal culture, and legal attitudes. Here, the primary concern was how to explain malfunctioning from a cultural perspective and overcome or disconnect traditions that people regarded as obstacles to modernization.

Since the 1980s, significant development has occurred in Korea, due in large part ...