The world's worst oil spill took place on December 7, 2017 on the west coast of the country when Samsung Heavy Industries' sea crane collided with Hebei Spirits an oil tanker under a storm that broke free the crane barge from the three tug boats pulling it.  Among the more than 2 million volunteers who appeared over the next 3 months were about 250 students of law students who provided legal support for the victims of the oil spill by registering and facilitating the filing of their claims and advocating for "Unlimited Liability".  The international treaty and Korea's Commercial Code limited the liability of sea-going vessels by their tonnage except in cases of recklessness.  Such limitation would have made proper compensation a near impossibility.   

Encouraged by the success of the students' participation in the oil spill liability advocacy, Korea University decides to invest in creating the Global Legal Clinic (later changed to Clinical Legal Education Center). GLC decides to take on what it believes to the most important element of discrimination and vulnerability in the information age -- the blind people's web accessibility.  This was the Clinic's first encounter with digital rights which later bloomed into the Asian internet freedom project.