Court asked to let men in Ewha law

By Seo Ji-eun
The Constitutional Court said yesterday it received an official request last month by two male law school applicants to order Ewha Womans University to stop discriminating against men. Ewha is a school for women.

The two applicants are the ones who had filed an earlier petition for a constructional ban on the foundation owning the women’s university. That case is currently under review.

According to the court, the men said that “Unless the result of the court’s review of the petition we made earlier comes out before applications currently open for 2010 close, male law school applicants will have their right to equal education infringed upon.” They say Ewha is involved in “outright sexual discrimination.”

Ewha is one of 25 universities nationwide that obtained approval by the Education Ministry in August of last year to run law school programs in graduate schools. The first recruiting took place late last year and the first class of students is currently enrolled.

Korea had long relied on a uniform national bar exam to pick judges, prosecutors and lawyers, but the law schools as graduate course option has been introduced to diversify the selection process. Some 2,000 students enrolled at the 25 schools for the 2010 year, with Ewha recruiting 100 of them. The petitioners argue that while female law school applicants have 2,000 chances to land in a law school, their male counterparts have only 1,900 chances.

Ewha has allocated its enrollment to women only.

By Seo Ji-eun [spring@joongang.co.kr]