New to Korean Law
Korean law in plain words, for the people it is newest to.
For international students who have not learned it yet, and for migrants who live in Korea without ever having learned its law. Explained by a student, in English, and compared with the places we will go next.
Founded by Jaein Han
New quiz: Can I use this screenshot?Idem est non esse et non probari.
To not exist and to not be proven are the same. · a Latin legal maxim
One question, four ways in
When they are harmed, do they know what the law allows them to do, and can they prove it? Each project takes on that question at a different step.
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Step 1Find the data2/3 agencies answered (1 by phone)1 reply pending
Reporting without fear
Requests to three ministries: are migrant crime victims really spared from being reported to immigration?
ResearchingBorn here, not on record
Who falls through the gaps when children of foreign parents are registered at birth.
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Step 2Explain the law2 episodes published · reader count coming soon
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Step 3Give a toolIn progress review by support organizations, from November 2026
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Step 4Change the ruleIn progress petition and letter being preparedPetition in preparation
Petition: reporting without fear
So migrant crime victims can go to the police without being reported to immigration.
WritingLetter: born here, not on record
A letter to the Chair of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on birth registration for children of foreign parents.
The series
Our series for international students: real questions teens ask, each answered for Seoul, New York and London.
Swipe to see all episodes →
Can I record that?
Secret recordings: when they are legal, and when they count as evidence.
🗽💂Read → New Episode 2Is a screenshot proof?
KakaoTalk, DMs and group chats: what makes a capture hold up.
🗽💂Read →Can I film it?
Photos and video as evidence, and when filming is itself a crime.
🗽💂Does a doctor's note count?
Medical records, and why what you tell the doctor matters.
🗽💂What happens when I call 112?
The records a police call leaves behind, here and abroad.
🗽💂Does my diary count?
Notes and timelines: writing it down the right way.
🗽💂Will my friend's word help?
Witnesses and written statements.
🗽💂What should I never do?
Evidence you must never collect, and how it backfires.
🗽💂Where does my evidence go?
School hearings, courts and immigration: who sees it.
🗽💂Progress, in order
Earlier progress (3)
Chose the project's focus: legal literacy for teens and for migrant women, built around evidence.
Filed information disclosure requests with three ministries on the reporting exemption for migrant crime victims, and received replies from two of them.
Published Episode 1 of the Evidence Literacy series, “Can I record that?”: when secret recordings are legal and when they count as evidence, with two quizzes and a card news version.
Designed the first Bom Notes card in Korean, English, Vietnamese and Chinese, and built the Bom Notes prototype.
Published Episode 2, “Is a screenshot proof?”: messages as evidence, with a box on Korea's truthful-defamation rule and Jaein's proposal for school violence hearings.
🔍 What I got wrong · Jaein
I misread People v. Price from its summary, misunderstood hearsay, and missed KakaoTalk's rule change. Lesson: compare the exact wording, and check it is the latest version.Wrote Jaein's answers to the central question of each episode. Both take the same view: instead of one rule for every case, look at the circumstances and at who is able to check the evidence.
Why I started
I spent four years in Hong Kong, where the law grew out of English common law, before moving back to Korea, where it follows the civil-law tradition. I did not study either system then, but I noticed that the same question could get a different answer depending on where you stood.
At school I kept seeing the same thing in small ways: people got into trouble not because they meant to do wrong, but because they did not know the rule. Friends from other countries ate snacks on the MTR without realizing it was against the law in Hong Kong.
A snack on a train is a small thing. Not knowing whether you may record a threat, or whether reporting a crime could cost you your visa, is not. New to Korean Law started from that gap between what the law says and what people know.
JaeinJaein Han is a high school student in Seoul. She founded New to Korean Law, writes the Evidence Literacy series, and builds legal literacy tools for migrant communities.