Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/98

* LEGAL EDUCATION. 86 LEGAL EDUCATION. seem to preseiiliii" popular and not technical the average, about one year, so that now rather views of law to undergraduate college students more than half of the scliools oiler a course of and to the "eneral public, were founded rather three years. There has been a tendency to change carlv e •». at Williain and Alarv College in 1779, the method of study from the lecture aud text- at the College of Philadolphia in 170O. at Colum- book systems to the case system, which was in- troduced at Harvard by Professor Laiigdell ia 1870, and which gained a foothold at the All)any Law School in 188!i, and at the State University of Iowa and Columbia University in ISUO. There is diH'ereuee of opinion as to the merits professorship at I'liiladeiphia resulted in a course of the three systems of legal teaching — or, better, of lectures by .Justice .James Wilson, in 1790-91. of legal study. Under the lecture system the The professorship at Columbia was twice held by student first derives his knowledge at the lecture bia College in 17'.U, and at Harvard College in 1815 under the will of a testator who died in 1781. It is not clear when lectures were de- livered under the lirst of these professorships by its earliest incumlwnt. Chancellor Wythe. The Chancellor Kent, first from 1793 to 1795, and secondly from 1823 to 1826; and the work of Kent's "s«'eond li<ilding of the professorship was of a technical nature and produced the Commen- taries on American Law. The Harvard profes- sorship, called the Royall, was first held by Isaac Parker. The earliest class-room instruction in technical law was furnished not at the colleges named, but ill the famous private law school founded at Litchfield, Conn., by Tapping Reeve and main- tained until 1833. Tliis institution, though unin- corporated, was thoroughly organized, having a course of fourteen months, pursuing the lecture system, conducting examinations and moot- courts, and attracting in some years as many as fifty students from all parts of the United States. Thus in the case of Litchfield it is clear that there was a law school, whereas in some other cases it is difficult to say whether there was a law school or simply an ordinary law odice pay- ing extraordinary attention to law students. The Harvard Law School dates from IS17, when there were two ])rofcssors and when students who had completed tlicir general education began to come to Harvard for professional instruction; but the Harvard Law School was not conspicuous until 1829, when .Justice Story became Dane pro- fessor of law. There was a private law school in 1821 at Xeedham, Va,; and that, though it lasted but a short time, it was carefully managed is indicated by Taylor's .foiiruul of the Law School. There was a private law school at Northampton, Mass., in 1823 ; and this school ceased in 1829, when one of its instructors be- came Royall professor at Harvard, The Yale Law School dates from 1824, being apparently an outgrowth of a private school. There was a private law school at Winchester. Va.. in 1826, and during its short existence it produced Tuck- er's Commentaries on the Lnirs of liiv/inin. The law school of the University of Virginia was opened in 1826. The Cincinnati Law School was opened in 1833. There has been a steady growth of law schools in number and in attendance; and in recent years this growth has been so emphatic as to prove that the law schools are now recognized as the only places for obtaining adequate prepara- tion. In 1800-91 there were 54 law .schools, with 406 instructors and 5252 students. In 1900-01 there were 100 law schools, with 1106 instructors and 13,642 students. The numerical ailvances in these ten years were accompanied by other changes, most of them unquestionably changes for the better. The requirements for admission have been increased, so that now half of the schools require at least a high-school education, and three or four require a degree in arts or in science. The law course has been lengthened, on and from the lecturer; and the student very prob- ably takes notes and ultimately answers (luestions as to his understanding of the instruction given. Under the te.t-book system the student primarily derives his knowledge at his own room and from the statements made by text-writers; and he goes to the lecture-room to be questioned on his recol- lection and understanding of the statements in the to.xt-books, and to receive more light from the instructor. Under the case system the stu- dent primarily derives his knowledge of law at his own room and through his own analysis of select reported cases; and after extracting from these cases the ])ropositions of law necessarily in- volved in the decisions — the rationes decidendi — • he goes to the lecture-room to state and discusa these cases and to participate in the solution of hypothetical problems based upon them. Under each system there may be statements of law by the instructor, reading text-books, study cf re- ported cases, and discussion of problems; but, notwithstanding the possibility that each system may be so treated as to seem like some other, and notwithstanding the personal peculiarities which cause each instructor to pursue to some extent a method of his own, the distinction be- tween the several systems is in practice readily drawn, and each law school is commonly known, according to the .system to which it is princijially devoted, as a lecture school, a text-book school, or a case school, although some of them attempt to combine systems and thus are rather dilficult of classification. The 100 schools in existence in 1900-01 appear to have been divisible thus: lec- ture schools, 4 ; text-book schools, 82 ; case schools, 14. The condition of the 100 schools existing in 1900-01 is further indicated by the following figures. The schools connected with universities numbered 71. There were 25 evening schools; and there were 5 with separate evening and day departments, the remaining 70 having day departments exclusively, although many gave all lectures either before or after the usual hours of legal business. The academic year generally lasted between 30 and 40 weeks; but in three in- stances there was an academic year shorter than 30 weeks. The length of the course varied thus: one year, 7 schools; two years, 40; three years, 51 ; four years, 2, each of these two being an evening school unable to demand full work from its memliers. The schools with courses shorter than three years were almost exclusively in the South. Indiana, New York, and the northern part of the Pacific Coast. Of the 13.042 students. 2119 held degrees in arts or in science, and 33G6 took the degree of LL.B, in 1901. The value of grounds and buildings was $1,875,000. The en- dovment funds amounted to ,$1,151,920, The in- come from endowments and from tuition was