
Seoul National University appointed Berkeley Law alumnus Hong Sik Cho as the new dean of the Law School. Dean Cho received his LLM and JSD from Boalt Hall before becoming a professor at SNU Law School, where he has taught since 1997.
Dean Cho credits his Berkeley studies with turning him toward an academic career. “Before arriving at Boalt Hall, I had never thought about becoming a scholar and professor,” Dean Cho says. “Studying at Boalt Hall inspired me to introduce environmental law to Korea.” A speaker at the inaugural conference of the Korea Law Center, Cho plans to build more robust ties between SNU and Boalt Hall during his deanship.
“We could not be happier or prouder,” says John Yoo, faculty co-director of the Korea Law Center, who first met Dean Cho when he joined the Boalt Hall faculty in 1993. “Hong Sik Cho built on his outstanding J.S.D. career at Boalt to become a scholarly trailblazer in Korea. I am confident his tenure as Dean will continue his record of success.”
“His appointment symbolizes the deep relationship between Boalt Hall and SNU Law School, which has produced many of Korea’s leading scholars, judges, lawyers, and government officials,” Yoo says. Several members of the SNU law faculty have received LLM or JSD degrees from Boalt Hall or worked with Berkeley faculty as visiting scholars, such as former Dean and Professor Sang Jo Jong, who was a visiting professor at Boalt in Spring 2015.
After working with Boalt Hall Professors Joe Sax and John Dwyer, Dean Cho returned to Korea to become the nation’s first professor of environmental law. Dean Cho teaches environmental Law, administrative law, and general theory of law and policy at SNU Law School. Before joining the SNU faculty, he was a district court judge from 1989 to 1991. Dean Cho currently works as a member of Korea’s Presidential Committee on Green Growth, Sustainable Development Committee of the Ministry of Environment, and other governmental committees.
Dean Cho has published widely in various prestigious law journals, and contributed a chapter to the recent book, Current Issues in Korean Law, co-edited by Korea Law Center faculty directors Laurent Mayali and John Yoo. Dean Cho’s recent books include: Democracy and Market Economy (2007), The Justifiability and Limits of Judicial Governance (2010), Climate Change and the Rule of Law (2010), Case Book on Environmental Law (2012), and Energy Law and Policy in the Age of Climate Change (2013).