| Globalization does not manifest itself only in the economic realm, and it also has great influence in other fields as well. Legal science is no exception. Different branches in legal science are working hard for the realization of globalization, esp. that of legal education. In order to produce legal talents who can meet up with worldwide competition, many institutional reforms have been carried out. Therefore, we find continental nations like Italy and Japan importing American style professional law schools, while South Korea is now also working towards this direction. Meanwhile, China is putting great efforts into the reformation and perfection of her system of judicial examination as well as reformation of legal education. The fact that China and South Korea are all working on the reform of their legal education makes it obvious that there are many problems in their respective system of legal education, that is, their legal education has not produced legal talents suitable of the age of rule of law, and the age of globalization.The goals of legal education of different countries reflect their respective history, traditional culture, and their basic conception of different values, etc. Therefore, we'd rather say that legal education is more comfortable with diversity than with oneness. From a global perspective, the goals of legal education can be classified into three types: legal education as the production of professional legal talents, legal education as a general education, and legal education as a comprehensive system combining professional as well as general education.With the acceleration of the process of globalization and the establishment of the WTO system, China and South Korea are beginning to conclude agreements and conventions of free trade wit different countries. These agreements and conventions have influence not only on the first and second industries, but also on the third industry. They make it a must to open up all the social fields, as a result of which, South Korea and America have decided to open its market of legal services within 5 years. This topic is by no means irrelevant against the backdrop of the signing of free trade agreements between China and USA. Under such circumstances, the lawyers no matter Chinese ones or Korean ones, who can only parrot their textbooks and legal articles and thus pass their judicial examinations, cannot survive the fierce competition among international legal talents.Furthermore, with the development of economy and the improvement of people's living standard and their consciousness, their social and cultural needs increase. The establishment of the rule of law cannot be realized solely by governmental activities. In order to build a harmonious society, our future laws should contribute to the protection of the rights and interests of disadvantaged groups. In order to achieve this, the professional moral education should be strengthened.At present, China and South Korea are all under a transitional period. The comparison and contrast between the legal education of these two countries will provide necessary experience for them. This helps in the cultivation of qualified legal talents and plays a vital role in the deepening of the understanding between these two countries.The system of legal education can be further divided into two aspect. The first is about the hardware, which include the length of schooling, judicial examination and the ways of learning and researching. The second is about the software, which is about the execution of legal education in different educational institutions. It is about the cultivation of legal talents required by our time and the training and granting of legal knowledge and legal techniques that are badly needed by the lawyers. This has a lot to do with the curriculum and the way of our education.The cultivation of legal professionals and the formation of the system of legal education are determined by different legal systems, legal cultures and educational systems, while at the same time they at least share common goals. There is no big difference between continental countries and common law countries concerning the basic legal knowledge and practical ability in the dealing with legal affairs. The most important point in this respect is the combination of labor and material resources into a social network. That is to say, in order to present labor resources needed by a society, we need different investments. The sound coordination of these factors can bring about the best possible outcomes, and this is the key to the system of the training of legal talents. The ability of the legal talents, their quick speed in response to social changes and requirements, all these are criteria by which we can tell the validity of the training system of different countries.In terms of these questions, Chinese as well as Korean scholars have performed incessant researches and discussions and many suggestions and advices have been presented. This is a fact known to all. In particular, South Korea imported the American style professional law school. China has also unfolded her reform of legal education. Since the year 1997, the directing committee of the discipline of legal science has reach agreement concerning the reform of the curriculum system and the common core subject.It is asserted in this paper that the current system of legal education in China and South Korea is inadequate for the effective training of legal talents. With the establishment of the WTO and the signing of free trade compact, a new world order of economy should be reestablished. This calls for legal talents who can protect justice and maintain one's legal interests a an ever-changing world. Therefore, China and Korea need highly qualified legal talents and the establishment of the training system of legal talents that can be comfortable with this training program. This system should on the one hand reflect the content of legal education, while on the other, it must meet the needs of our society for legal talents. The judicial examination which choose talents according to their marks should be abolished, while a process of the training of legal talents with the combination of legal education, judicial examination and judicial practice should be established. As the core of this"process", law schools are entering into a substantial period. Law school is training professional lawyers, and the lawyers thus trained should have their sense of justice for the 21st century. They should not only have profound legal knowledge, high professional morals, thinking and persuasion ability, they should also be equipped with intricate sense of social as well as inter-personal relations. They should be able to protect human rights and acquire knowledge of foreign laws and have an international vision.The framework of this paper is as follows:Chapter one dwells on the historical review of the legal education in China and South Korea. There are many similarities between these two countries. There were invasion of foreign powers, the anti-Japan wars, the cold war and the reform and development after the cold war. These can all have great influence on the legal education in these two countries.Chapter two focuses on the present state of affairs and existent problems in the legal education of these two countries. The analysis and comparison of the mode of education, educational process lead to the discussion and exploration of the major problems in the legal education of these two countries as well as the problems particular to each of them.Chapter three concentrates on the models of legal education in developed countries which are helpful for China as well as South Korea. The German legal education and American legal education are two typical models, while Japanese model is also worth discussing. Japan's introduction of American style professional law school and relevant problems are also touched upon.Chapter four is about the strong points of both countries. The introduction by South Korea of American style professional law school and subsequent discussion on the reform of legal education are performed and the merits that both countries can learn from each other are also discussed.The conclusion part of this paper concludes generally the core argument and further discusses the possible direction of development of the legal education in both countries against the background of the gradual expansion of globalization.
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