Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/97

* LEGAL EDUCATION. slruction is given by persons who have never been eugagL'd in practice. Ix ExGLAXD. The study of the Corpus Juris Civilis and of the Corpus Juris Canonici seems to have entered the English universities as soon as they were founded; and, indeed, there is a commonly received opinion that the Lombard jurist Vacarius taught civil law at Oxford in 114U. a date eighteen years before the University of Oxford can be proved to have been in existence. The civil law continues to be taught in the Eng- lish universities. The canon law ceased to be taught after the Reformation. The common law found little recognition in the universities until recently ; and, indeed, even to-day the universities can hardly be said to be making a .serious at- tempt to become places for the professional study of law. The famous lectures on the common law delivered at Oxford by Blackstone, beginning in 1753, were addressed to audiences largely com- posed of undergraduates, and kept in mind to a considerable extent the needs of persons who, without intending to enter the profession, wished to learu the general features of the political and legal system of their country. To an American it seems strange that this auspicious beginning did not lead to a professional school of law ; but in fact such a development at the universities seems contrary to the desires of the imiversities and of the profession. Both Oxford and Cambridge have a considerable number of teachers of civil law and of common law : but the instruction gives less prominence to common law than to civil law and to such comparatively non-professional topics as constitutional law. international law, and analytical jurisprudence ; and the courses are taken chiefly by undergraduates as part of their preparation for the degree of bachelor of arts. There is provision, both by instruction and by appropriate degrees, for law study by gradu- ates in arts who expect to become lawyers, but these law degrees, of which fewer than twenty are annually conferred in each university, are taken chiefly by persons who'have pursued the requisite studies in London. Indeed, the Inns of Court, which alone have the power to call to the bar, continue to be substantially the only centres for a barrister's education. These four Inns — the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple. Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn — have been for about six centuries the learned societies to which every barrister belongs, and their historic associations, even independently of the conservatism of the profession, render it very difficult for legal education to become domi- ciled elsewhere. Theii origin, or at least their importance, seems to have some connection with the fixing of the Court of Common Pleas at West- minster by reason of the provision in Magna Charta requiring that court to sit in one place. A picture of the student's life about the middle of the fifteenth century is given by Fortescue. At that time there were ten Inns of Chancery, be- sides the four Inns of Court, and it was common for students to begin with the former and to com- plete their education at the latter. The total residence requisite for admission to the bar was apparently eight years. This time, however, was not wholly devoted to law, for other accomplish- ments, including singing and dancing, were pur- sued by the students: and, indeed, it seems to have been common for persons who did not con- template entering the profession to go to the Inns, rather than to the universities, for the final 85 LEGAL EDUCATION. embellishments of education. In those days, dur- ing the four terms of court, all barristers were resident in the Inns, and thus the students had excellent means of preparation for the profes- sion. There were systematic lectures, called readings, by barristers, and at public moot-courts and private boltings and even at meals the stu- dents discussed actual and hypothetical cases. There was, indeed, an atmosphere of law, much like the atmosphere of an American law school. In the sixteenth century students are known to have made great use of the yatura Brevium, the Old Tenures, and Littleton's Tenures; and the readings and mootings and boltings continued. After the middle of the seventeenth century Coke's Institutes became the chief text -book; and about the same time the old machinery of teach- ing began to be disused. In addition to" the means of study already indicated, it is known that stu- dents made collections of notes from the Year Books and other reports of cases and that they spent much time in copying pleadings. From the middle of the eighteenth century the student, while keeping his terms at his Inn by eating such number of dinners as proved his residence, began his studies by copying pleadings in the office of a special pleader, and passed thence to the office of a barrister in general practice, paying to these instructors such substantial fees as procured adequate guidance in .study. This remains the common mode of preparation. The student, after passing a preliminary entrance examination in grammar, composition, Latin, and the history of England — from which entrance examination he is exempt if a giaduate of one of the universities — enrolls himself in one of the Inns. He ne.xt keeps twelve terms by eating six dinners at the Inn each term — though members of the universi- ties need eat only three dinners each term. Mean- while he has probably been passing six months in the office of a solicitor in good conveyancing practice and a year or two in the office of a barrister with a good chamber practice, and thus he has learned, among other things, to frame statements of cases to be submitted by a solicitor to a barrister, to give opinions upon such cases, and to frame pleadings. Simultaneously he at- tends court and does the reading necessary for the examinations for call to the bar. "These examinations include Roman law and constitu- tional law; but they are devoted principally to the ordinary heads of English law and equity, and they cover the whole ground. In the absence of extraordinary circumstances, admission cannot occur tmtil three years after entering the Inn. The examinations are conducted by the Council of Legal Education, which is appointed by the Inns. The Council maintains lectures by readers and assistant readers, but these lectures are not largely attended, and, though established half a century ago. have not yet made much impression upon the system of legal education. The solicitors are under regulation by the Incorporated Law Society, which maintains lec- tures and examinations similar to those of the Council of Legal Education. The Incorporated Law Society, however, is the older body, and lec- tures and examinations for solicitors considerably antedate lectures and examinations for barristers. In the United .St.^tes. In America, as else- where, legal education was once obtained exclu- sively in lawyers' offices. Professorships entitled professorships of law, but devoted, it would