Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/669

 THE GREEN BAG

law — primary rights and remedies — sub stantive law and procedure — criminal and civil law, etc. These lectures are like a map, showing to the student all the different ways, high roads and side trips which he will have to take not only during his university course but through his entire life as a lawyer. At the same time he is guided to the main street entering the Kingdom of European Continental Jurisprudence by two courses of lectures — one in the history of Roman law and one on the fundamental principals of Roman law. He comes to know and to admire, in these lectures the most striking and — at least for the European continent — the most important creation which mankind has ever produced in the province of Juris prudence. The admirable system of Roman Law and the clear everlasting truth of its general principles are the good sharp tools with which the German student has to erect and to work out the building of his knowl edge, and which help him to understand, to revive and to systematize the seemingly dead letters of codes and statutes. The student has finally to cover in this half year a general course on the history of German law, that is, the historical develop ment of the specific German principles which have not been extirpated by the powerful invasion of the Roman law, — the history of this invasion itself, and the modern process of codification. These historical lectures are usually accompanied by a description of the general principles of German law as they have been developed either out of the old pure German rales or by the reception and modification of the Roman law. ' The second and third half year are devoted almost entirely to the exact study of the new German civil code. In the third half year the student may attend also lectures on civil procedure and continue this most important subject in the following semester. This and the two last half years are devoted chiefly to the study of the other divisions of the public law as bankruptcy, criminal law, criminal procedure, administrative law,

ecclesiastical law, international law, and to the remaining subjects of private law not regulated by the civil code — as commercial law, negotiable instruments and maritime law. Besides his specific juridical studies, the student hears in his University course lectures on Psychology, Logic and especially on Economics, to which subject great attention is paid by the Government and the Boards of the Universities. All these lectures are presented in a merely theoretical, scientific way, without reading cases and without question and answer. Outside these theoretical lectures, the student has to hear in his last three or four semesters seminars on the German civil code on civil procedure, penal law, and criminal procedure. In the great majority of the German states there are no examinations between the several half years. Freely and without trouble the student passes from one to the other. If he likes the professors of his first university he may remain there for the entire time of study; if not, he may move from Heidelberg to Berlin, from Koenigsberg to Bonn, as he pleases. Only in one impor tant state (Bavaria) a so-called zwischenexamen —• intermediate examination —• takes place after the third half year, the subject of which is chiefly Roman Law and the general principles of German Private Law. Outside of the regular course many students use their not at all over-filled uni versity time to obtain the degree of Doctor at Law. This degree is merely a title not necessary and of no importance for the lawyer's career. I think this fact is often misunderstood in America, where the German doctor's degree seems to be sometimes con sidered as the special proof of having gone through the University. This idea is wrong for as I have said before every law student has to visit the University for a period of at least three years. The Doctor's degree is in fact no more than a superfluous ornament to a man's name. Its almost only practical