Legal Education

By the beginning of the 18th century there may be said to have been no organized system of education. Students educated them selves from books, by attendance at the courts and by friendly dis cussion with one another and their elders. The dawn of a brighter day came with the lectures of Blackstone, first delivered at Oxford in 1753, and the publication of his Commentaries in 1765. He was created first Vinerian professor in 1758. The corresponding Cam bridge chair, the Downing professorship in English law, was not founded till i800. But his immediate successors did not make much contribution to legal education. Thus till well into the i9th century there was little or no organized teaching either at the universities or at the inns of court.

Maitland records that when Prof. Amos came to the Downing chair at Cambridge in 185o, the class in English law consisted of one M.A., one B.A. and two undergraduates. By this date the inns of court had begun to feel the necessity of putting legal education on a proper footing. Individual attempts were made by the inns to give instruction to their students. In 1833 the Inner Temple instituted two lectureships, one on common law and equity, and the other on jurisprudence and international law. Though the lecturers appointed were such lawyers as Starkie and John Austin the attendance was poor and the lectureships were discontinued. Other inns about this time instituted lectures for their own students with varying success; but no concerted action was taken until 1852 when the four inns, acting upon a report of a joint committee, founded a committee of the four inns, which is the present council of legal education.

The Council of Legal Education.

The council set up five readerships in jurisprudence and civil law, real property, com mon law, equity and constitutional law and legal history. No system of compulsory examination was at first instituted. Before call, students had either to attend the lectures of two readers for a year, or pass an examination held by the council. In 1868 a third alternative was provided of reading in chambers for a year.

In 1871, however, the old alternatives were swept away. From Jan. I, 1872, it was made essential to a call to the bar that the student should have passed a satisfactory examination. Teaching was to be provided in jurisprudence, international law (public and private), Roman civil law, constitutional law, legal history, common law, real and personal property, and equity. Three examinations were held in each year. Papers were set on all the above subjects : the students had to pass in Roman law, real and personal property, common law and equity.

The system of education and examination set up in 1871 con tinues, with modifications, to-day. The inns of court by their

council of legal education both teach and examine. To be called to the bar, the student must pass an examination in the speci fied subjects. It is not, however, a condition of call that he should have attended the lectures of the council, or indeed any lectures at any school of law or university. A certain number of men pass the examination without attending lectures either of the council or elsewhere ; notably men who have begun life in some other occupation. But the great majority have had a university education, and if they have not read law at the university, attend the council's lectures under the guidance of the council's chief educational officer, the director of legal education. At present the council provide a reader and assistant reader in Roman law, jurisprudence, international law and the conflict of laws; a reader in constitutional law (English and colonial) and legal history; a reader in evidence, procedure (civil and criminal) and criminal law ; a reader and assistant reader in the law of real property and conveyancing; a reader and assistant reader in the common law; a reader and assistant reader in equity, and a lecturer in Hindu and Mohammedan law. Lectures are given continuously during the day throughout the educational term, the attendance varying from 4o to 90, according to the subject.

The Bar Examination.

The examination for call to the bar consists of two parts. In part I. the subjects are Roman law, constitutional law (English and colonial) and legal history, crimi nal law and procedure, real property and conveyancing : for the latter subject, however, Mohammedan law or Roman-Dutch law may be substituted at the option of the student. The student can take any of these subjects separately. The second part consists of common law, equity, the law of evidence and civil procedure, and a general paper on those subjects. The student must take these subjects together, and, unless he receives special leave, cannot take them until he has kept six terms. A student who has passed an equivalent university examination in Roman law is excused that subject in the bar examination. There is an oc casional request from universities to extend this relief to other subjects also taught and examined in at the universities. The view generally held at the inns of court appears to be that the vocational examinations which they control should be conducted by persons who have professional and practical experience of the subjects in which they examine; and that for this reason it would be inexpedient, in the public interest, to allow university examinations with perhaps a more academic bias, and with vary ing standards, to be substituted.