Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/99

 Tlic Green Bag. LEGAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN. II.

BY PROFESSOR JOHN .H. WIGMORE. III. THE Law School year begins (except at the Imperial University) about the mid dle of September, and ends in the middle of July, being equally divided into two terms. In the exceptad instance the year begins and ends a- few weeks later and earlier respec tively. At Keiogijuku the school year is the calendar year, and there are three terms; but the sessions seldom open at any school until after the time appointed, and practitically close a week or two before the sched ule date; so that, reckoning all the holidays, the total " rest," as the Japanese call it, is seldom less than four months in each year. It will have been noticed that the full course in all the schools occupies at least three years. In this respect the Japanese set us a good example. It is true that a larger number of subjects are taken up, but each one necessarily receives a less detailed treatment than with us. From our point of view, to be sure, the crowding of so many subjects into the curriculum is accomplished at the expense of thoroughness and careful work. It is certainly contrary to our ideas of the best education to find the average school requiring fifteen and twenty hours a week of attendance at lectures. The mere multiplicity of courses is in itself not with out reason; for experience teaches that the Japanese want from abroad only the broad principles of law, and will never make use of the detailed development of our jurispru dence (except by way of illustration in teach ing); and a much shorter time suffices for covering the ground of a given subject; but the number of lectures per week is excessive. It is, however, the natural outgrowth of the existing ideals of education among teachers as well as among students. To this a refer ence will presently be made.

Just who are the responsible persons in the arrangement of courses, choice of meth ods, etc., it is difficult to say. In the private schools we find at the head of the list a number of distinguished patrons; but these merely lend their names. Then comes a president, who takes a more or less active part in the administration. Below is a di rector, perhaps two or three, who may or may not be teachers, and usually are the real persons in control. In a few schools — notably the Semmon and the Keiogijuku — there is a council of twenty or so, elected by the alumni and the donors of funds from among themselves; and the decision of the Council is required in certain measures, — such as the fixing of salaries, the employment and dismissal of instructors, etc. But Japan proceeds on the Confucian principle, which we, in our politics at least, would do well to follow more closely : Rules count for little; find a good man, put him in office, and trust his discretion. In most associated undertak ings, including the schools, the Councils and Boards are generally satisfied to register their approval of whatever measures the trusted man may propose. If things do not go well, they have him turned out (that is to say, his ill health obliges him to ask for a vacation, which he prolongs indefinitely), and find an other. So that the conduct of the school is usually in the hands of one man, or a few men, somewhere on the staff, but not always in a conspicuous position, and not usually in possession of nominal control. In no school, as far as I am aware, is the corps of instructors, or a part of them, invested as a faculty with that general supervision of the school methods which they usually possess in our own country. This arrangement is, I think, often a source of disappointment to in structors engaged from abroad. They come