ABSTRACT
The history of law and society studies in Korea is rather short. Although there were some precursors like Chong Yag-yong, who conducted pioneering legal studies on the basis of empirical methodology, the sociological perspective he pioneered unfortunately failed to flourish. Hahm Pyong-choon regarded legal culture as the infrastructure of the Korean legal system. There are several reasons for examining the contributions of Hahm as a representative scholar in Korean law and society studies in the 1960s and 1970s. In the process of the Korean democratization movement, the contribution of the so-called "human rights lawyers" has been crucial. Hahm recommended the adaptation of certain structural aspects as a way of solving the dissonance between the superstructure and the infrastructure of the Korean legal system. The period of Japanese colonial rule has exerted a more potent influence on Korean legal development than has the more remote legacy of the Yi dynasty.
