Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/219

194 the junior class, and they are required to master thoroughly certain prescribed portions. The introduction of this text-book work was made about 1879. Within the last few years the amount of that work has been materially increased, and extended to the senior class. In addition to Blackstone's Commentaries, the juniors are required to make a thorough study of Anson on Con tracts, and Stephen on Pleading. Members of the senior class from the Code States are required to attend recitations in Bliss on Code Pleading. One objection to an extensive use of text-books in law schools has been due to the fact that the most of our text-books on law have been written for the use of practitioners, and have been unsuitable for the use of students commencing the study of law, who wish to become familiar with principles, and not to be burdened with details. Moreover, it must be conceded that spoken words are more impressive than words that are read. So that, while the Faculty have recognized the fact that certain advantages may be derived from a judicious use of text-books, it has not been thought best in the Michigan Law School to adopt that method of instruction to the exclusion of the lecture system. The endeavor has been to make a wise use of both methods.

JAMES V. CAMPBELL.

The idea that law should be learned through a study of leading cases is not a new one, although the Harvard School has been the first to make any extensive use of such a system. Years ago Mr. Justice Bailey of the King's Bench deprecated even the use of text-books of any kind for a student of law, and declared that he would have him "read the cases for himself, and attend to the application of them in practice." It has always seemed to the writer that life was too short and the time that a student could spend in a law school was altogether too limited to permit one's acquiring a knowledge of law simply through a study of cases, and that while such a system might be advantageously used with students whose intellectual powers had been thoroughly developed and whose mental grip was strong, it was quite unsuited to the average student. While the system has not been adopted in its entirety in the Michigan Law School, a study of the leading cases has not been neglected, but has been insisted on to such an extent as in the judgment of the Faculty was deemed advisable.

The purpose of the school is to give instruction that shall fit students for practice in any part of the country; and the course of lectures now delivered is as follows:—