What makes the relationship between a teacher and his/her student special? It might be an everlasting teaching, or presiding over the wedding ceremony (in the Korean standard), and, more specifically, invaluable guidance of the Ph.D. course. All those factors would apply to some people.

I think the duration of such relationship doesn't matter. It counts that the teacher has changed his/her student into a new person, or that he/she has established a new school, as witnessed by the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. I was taught by numerous teachers so far. Now I'm teaching a number of students at a college of law every year.

I'm very happy to have such an esteemed teacher of mine, who changed my career path from a bank to a college, and inspired me to research the law on secured transactions in transition economies.

When I was enrolled in Southern Methodist University School of Law, Dallas, Texas in 1993, I was quite impressed by Prof. Peter Winship in his class on the International Business Transactions. He showed me how interesting the international business law is! At the first class, he introduced himself as the "Spaceship" in the TV series of Startrack. It was a lot of fun. He encouraged the students to organize study groups for the presentation of each topic in his class. So I could learn from fellow J.D. students how to study in a group. He played as an entertainer like Lord Denning in explaining the case law in re the Fehmarn (1958) and Ocean Tramp Tanker Corp. v. V/O Sovgracht (1964), so-called the Eugenia case.

In December 2002, I met with Prof. Winship unexpectedly at the UNCITRAL working group session in Vienna - eight years had passed since I graduated from SMU Law School. He participated in the session not as a U.S. delegate but as a drafter of the Secretariat report to the working group. He told me he would have a chance to visit Seoul in 2003.

It was an international conference co-organized by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and UNCITRAL, and possibly by the Korea International Trade Law Association (KITLA). So I made a plan to welcome Prof. Winship on that occasion with alumni of SMU Law School. I renewed the SMU Law graduate list and contact points. A special lecture at Kyung Hee University was considered wonderful.

In Seoul, the weather was not so good during the last summer, but I'd like to show him some attractions of Korea. I suggested Prof. Winship three options - sightseeing in and around Seoul, visiting Odusan Observatory near the DMZ, or visiting Samsung Electronics factory in Suwon. He said OK and entrusted me everything on his itinerary.

Fortunately, Mr. S.H. Koo, Senior Legal Officer of Samsung Electronics, who is also a graduate of SMU Law Class of 1996, arranged for the visit to the Samsung Electronics show room in Suwon. And the next stop might be the mearby Korean Folk Village!

In the morning of Wednesday, September 24, 2003, I picked up Prof. Winship at the lobby of Grand Inter-Continental in Seoul and drove him to Suwon. So my students had to undergo the unscheduled multiple-choice exams and essay tests on that day.

He was delighted to find an electronic display saying "Welcome to Samsung, Professor Peter Winship" at the entrance of the exhibition hall. We were explained about the corporate history in the briefing room, and looked around the brand-new home appliances in the adjacent rooms. And he got to know the reason why there are so many "apartment forests" not only alongside the Han River but also in the countryside. He understood the average Korean homemaker wants to live in an apartment house equipped with built-in home appliances.

We went to Sambuja (meaning a father and two sons) Kalbi restaurant famous for Korean seasoned rib barbecue. At first, Prof. Winship was poor using chopsticks, but he learned how to use them to eat roasted beef. On the way to the Korean Folk Village, we dropped in Kyung Hee University Suwon campus. In the Folk Village, it seemed that we live in Korea hundreds years ago. He got sufficient information on folk items by means of automatically operating English-spoken headphones.

I hurried to drive him to the hotel. In the evening, he had a tight schedule. After a brief rest in the hotel, we went to the vicinity of Kyung Hee University, east of the downtown Seoul. A welcome dinner at a Japanese restaurant was waiting for him. He was greeted by the SMU graduates, and my colleagues in the legal profession. In the special lecture jointly organized by the Graduate School of International Legal Affairs and the Institute of Legal Studies, Kyung Hee University, he explained the remedies under the UN Sales Convention (CISG). When I heard of his slow and articulate voice again, I felt like I sat in his classroom of SMU Law School.

The International Symposium on UNCITRAL Conventions held at World Trade Center in Seoul on September 25 and 26 was highly successful in that it drew the wide-spread attention on the UN Sales Convention and other legal issues on the international scenes. On September 26, I had to present my opinion as a commentator to other speaker. In the beginning, I stated my acknowledgement to Prof. Winship, who was seated in the front line of the floor. My statement was interpreted into English simultaneously.
"Prof. Winship. Please, accept my special thanks to you."
"It is you that have changed my life from a bank employee to a professor of law. At first, I was quite interested in your class on international business transactions. That's why I authored a book on international business law upon returning to Korea. Secondly, you inspired me to do in-depth research into a proposed legal system on secured transactions in North Korea in a unification era. Thirdly, you showed me the way to professorship because you look same in the period of a decade."

Someone said they were touched by my statement. It was my candid acknowledgement. Even though Prof. Winship did not teach me how to prepare for the S.J.D. degree in the United States, I fully learned a lot of things from his teaching, scholarly works and other accomplishments. He acknowledged to regard me as one of his excellent students. I was delighted to be taught about everything from his teaching method and some useful encouragement on my preoccupation. I was so busy during the week, but it was an unforgettable time of my life.

Who is Prof. Winship?

- James Cleo Thompson Sr. Trustee Professor of Law
- B.A., 1965, Harvard University; LL.B., 1968, Harvard University; LL.M., 1973, University of London (London School of Economics); candidate for the J.S.D, Yale University
- E-mail: pwinship@mail.smu.edu
- Professor Winship teaches primarily in the areas of domestic and international commercial law including secured transactions, although he has also taught corporate law and seminars on American legal history, comparative commercial law, admiralty law, and law and ethics.
¡Ø You can download a copy of Prof. Winship's presentation in Seoul on the UN Sales Convention.

In the Korean version