On September 9, Korea University (KU) School of Interdisciplinary Studies held its first symposium, at the Veritas Hall located in the CJ Law Hall. Hosted by the Interdisciplinary Studies Scholarly Project team and KU Law Research Center, the symposium was participated by a total of four teams. The teams were selected in the preliminary sessions held during the summer vacation and each gave presentations on their thesis, which provided genuine legal solutions to certain social problems of Korea.

 

“Interdisciplinary Studies is a department that aims to nurture potential public leaders. Public leaders that our society wants cannot only be made through the knowledge we learn from lectures,” Bok Geumtae (’14, Interdisciplinary Studies), president of the department said. “Thus, we, the student council, professors, and researchers, came together to give students, who are eager to solve social problems, the chance to show their passion,” he explained the aim of this symposium.

 

This year’s symposium was held under the topic of “Human, Science, Technology, and Law.” After the presentation, two students of the discussion team (different from the presentation teams) would refute and raise questions on the content that the presenters gave. This rebuttal session was fierce, with keen questions going back and forth. Then followed the inquiry time in which the judges and the audiences could ask any questions.

 

The presentations were about various legal issues ranging from safety issues aroused with the increase of Personal Mobility Devices (PMD) to effective restriction of obscene materials through pornography. Eventually, the grand prize was awarded to the third presenters, who discussed about the limitations of the current uniformly programmed self-driving cars. The symposium ended with an awards ceremony, followed by a banquet.

 

With the symposium ending with success, Bok revealed his hope that this event would not merely end as a kind of show-off. “I hope that this symposium would be further developed as a distinctive program of Interdisciplinary Studies, and an excellent model of an educational program that school faculties and students together make,” he said.