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单词 legal education
释义

Legal Education


Legal Education

 

(1) A body of knowledge about the government, administration, and law. Possession of a legal education serves as a basis for professional legal activity.

(2) The system of training students to become legal specialists. Such training is given in educational institutions that are devoted to the study of law.

The elements of legal education in each period of history have corresponded to the level of development of legislation and jurisprudence. Certain information on law was included in a general education in ancient times; for example, judicial oratory was taught in the schools of the Stoics in ancient Greece. Gradually jurisprudence took shape as an independent educational discipline, and in ancient Rome a distinct system of legal education developed. Knowledge of law in ancient Rome was originally a privilege of the priests. In 254 B.C, however, Tiberius Coruncani-us, the first plebeian high priest, declared that he would explain the law to anyone who wished to learn. The Roman jurist Pom-ponius wrote that Tiberius Coruncanius was the first to teach law publicly.

The first private law school where teachers gave lectures, answered questions, and conducted debates with students was organized by Sabinus in the first century AD. In the fourth and fifth centuries there existed several such schools with a four-year period of instruction—in Rome, Constantinople, Athens, Alexandria, Caesarea, and Beirut; students in these schools studied the works of famous Roman jurists, with primary attention being devoted to the Institutes of Gaius and the works of Papinian and Paulus. In 533 the emperor Justinian issued a special charter on the introduction of a five-year course of legal study; the curriculum included the obligatory study of his own Institutes, Digest, and Code.

In the early Middle Ages, there was no specialized legal education. In the tenth century, however, a school was founded in Pavía for instruction in Lombardic law. At the end of the 11th century, a law school was established in Bologna; it later became a university, where in the mid-12th century Roman law was studied by several thousand students from various European countries. Between the 12th and 15th centuries in a number of European countries the leading university law faculties taught primarily Roman law. Not until the end of the 18th century did the curricula of law faculties come to include the law of the country in which the faculty was located.

Beginning in the 16th century, attempts were made in Russia to make jurisprudence into an independent subject of study. It was proposed that instruction be offered in canon and civil law in the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, which was founded in 1687. In 1715, Peter I was given a Proposal for the Establishment in Russia of an Academy of Policy for the Use of the State Chancelleries. From 1703 to 1715 in Moscow the Naryshkin School taught such subjects as ethics, including elements of jurisprudence, and politics. In accordance with the General Statute of 1720, a college was formed for iunkera (noncommissioned officers of noble birth), who were supposed to engage in the practical study of jurisprudence in the collegia; the college was abolished in 1763, however. When the Academy of Sciences was founded in 1725, provision was made for the creation of a chair of jurisprudence, and from 1725 to 1765 the subject was taught at the Academy University. In 1732 the School for the Nobility was opened; its curriculum included the study of theoretical jurisprudence.

In Moscow University, lectures on law were first given in 1755; however, systematic lectures and instruction at the law faculty began in 1764. In 1767, S. E. Desnitskii and I. A. Tret’iakov, the first Russian professors of law, began teaching courses in the field. Law was taught at all universities founded in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries, including the universities of Kharkov, Kazan, Dorpat, St. Petersburg, and Odessa. Jurisprudence was introduced in the Demidov Juridical Lycée at Yaroslavl, and in 1835 a law school was opened that provided a higher legal education for dvoriane (noblemen).

In the USSR jurists are trained in the five-year programs offered by university law departments or the four-year programs of law institutes. There are also evening and correspondence programs that require five to six years for completion. The curriculum is designed to give future lawyers both specialized knowledge in a certain area of legal activity and a broad legal background enabling them to fill any position requiring a legal education.

Therefore, along with social and economic sciences (political economy, philosophy, the history of the CPSU, and scientific communism) and general-education disciplines (such as foreign languages and logic), a broad range of legal subjects is taught, including the general theory of the state and law, the history of the state and law, the history of political and legal theory, state law (of the USSR, foreign socialist countries, and bourgeois and developing countries), administrative law, civil law, land law, labor law, kolkhoz law, finance law, criminal law, criminology, the judicial system, international law, civil procedure, and criminal procedure. The three general areas of specialization are government administration and the system of soviets, legal service in the economy, and service as a judge, procurator, or investigator. In addition to courses in their area of specialization, law students take a supplementary group of specialized courses and are given on-the-job training in the organizations where they will be employed in the future. The Academy of Internal Affairs trains legal specialists for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the military law department of the Military Institute of the Soviet Army prepares specialists for the Armed Forces of the USSR.

In such countries as the USA, Canada, and the developed capitalist countries of Western Europe, legal education is very widespread, and such training is a sort of tradition. Law schools train personnel for various positions in the government apparatus and prepare lawyers to defend the interests of the ruling class.

After World War II, there was a reduction in the number of law students in capitalist countries, but in the mid-1950’s the number began to increase again. All bourgeois states have experienced a crisis in higher education in general and legal education in particular; this fact is recognized even by bourgeois scholars and the agencies of state power and administration. The redesigning of legal education is directed toward combining theoretical study with practical preparation and with a narrower legal specialization. At law schools, instruction is also given in such disciplines as sociology, psychology, and economics, and great attention is devoted to the study of politics.

There are law schools and institutes in virtually all countries. In France after 1968, universities were divided into branches, which replaced the previously existing faculties. For example, the University of Paris now has 13 branches, six of which offer specialized law programs. In such countries as the USA, Great Britain, and the Federal Republic of Germany, a law degree qualifies a person to hold a job that deals purely with law or that requires both legal and nonlegal skills. Additional qualifications are required, however, in order to find employment as an attorney or prosecutor or in certain governmental capacities. For example, in France a law graduate must pass supplementary examinations and obtain a certificate known as the qualifying certificate in order to become a judge or attorney. In Scandinavia and Latin America, a legal education alone is sufficient qualification for such positions.

Legal education is organized into various stages of instruction. In such countries as the USA, Great Britain, and Mexico, the first stage consists in a three-year program, after which the degree of LL.B. is awarded; the second stage consists in a one-year program, after which the LL.M. is awarded. Certain universities also offer a third stage, providing higher legal preparation; a J.D. is conferred upon completion of this program. In France legal education encompasses two two-year stages—general preparation (after which a diploma is received) and specialized training (after which the student becomes a licensed practitioner of law). The title of doctor of law is conferred on those who complete an additional, more advanced program of study and write a dissertation.

REFERENCES

Shebanov, A. F. luridicheskie vysshye uchebnye zavedeniia. Moscow, 1963.
Ocherki po istorii iuridicheskikh nauchnykh uchrezhdenii v SSSR. Moscow, 1976.
Eisenmann, C. The University Teaching of Social Sciences. Paris, 1973.

P. S. GRATSIANSKII and A. F. SHEBANOV

Legal Education


Legal Education

There were no law schools in colonial America. Those who sought a legal career had several options. They could embark on a self-directed course of study; they could serve as an assistant in a clerk of court's office; or they could travel to England to study at the Inns of Court. The most common method of obtaining a legal education, however, was through the apprenticeship system.

The apprenticeship system allowed men (it was generally unavailable to women) to acquire education and experience by working under an experienced practitioner. Ideally, an apprentice would spend several years learning both the law and the practical aspects of a law practice. The quality of apprenticeships varied greatly, however, depending on the administering attorney's skill and attention. Some apprenticeships were merely a source of cheap labor. Thomas Jefferson once commented that the services he was expected to render as an apprentice were worth more than the instruction he received.

In 1779, Jefferson helped found the first chair of law, at William and Mary College, and appointed his mentor, George Wythe, to fill it. Yale, Columbia, the University of Maryland, and Harvard followed suit. The positions they established were part of the general university curriculum and were typically filled by practitioners rather than academicians. This early movement to emphasize the scholarship of law gained little momentum because most lawyers believed that apprenticeships provided sufficient legal training. In 1784, however, proprietary (for-profit) law schools began to spring up, which spurred the transformation of legal education.

Proprietary law schools were essentially specialized and elaborate law offices. The first and most famous was Connecticut's Litchfield Law School. Its 14-month course provided instruction in subjects such as property, contracts, procedure, master-and-servant, and commercial law—similar to the subjects of some of today's first-year law school classes. Litchfield graduated about one thousand students in its 49-year history, including 2 future vice presidents, 101 congressmen, 28 senators, 14 governors, and scores of distinguished state jurists.

The advent of law professorships, proprietary schools, and bar associations brought some standard of form to legal education. These standards deteriorated, however, thanks in part to Andrew Jackson, who was elected the seventh president of the United States in 1828. Jackson, a lawyer, considered himself to be a champion of the common person. State legislatures quickly followed his lead, eschewing anything elitist and reasserting authority formerly delegated to bar associations. Bar admission standards declined. Nearly anyone who could show "good moral character" was permitted to practice law, regardless of any knowledge of the field. bar examinations, if required at all, were usually perfunctory.

Standards dropped even at Harvard Law School, which was founded in 1817 as the first academic law school. By the end of the 1820s, students who were denied admission to Harvard College could go directly into the law school; the school also quit giving exams. In 1829, however, Justice Joseph Story of the U.S. Supreme Court became a Harvard Law professor and augured Harvard's emergence as the first modern law school. In 1870, Christopher Columbus Langdell became dean of Harvard Law School, essentially launching the modern era of legal education.

Langdell believed that law could be taught as a science. Rather than listening passively to lectures and reading treatises, Langdell's students dissected reported case decisions. Using a technique known as Socratic dialogue, professors bombarded their students with questions, forcing them to analyze the facts, reasoning, and law in each case. In addition, Langdell grouped related cases together, devoting separate books to different topics. Langdell's method of instruction through dialogue and case-study is standard in today's law schools.

Langdell also instituted tighter admission standards, expanded the program from two to three years, and raised graduation requirements. Other university law schools soon began to adopt some of Harvard's lofty standards.

The American Bar Association (ABA), founded in 1878, along with the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), formed in 1900, worked to consign apprenticeships to the pages of history. In 1917, 36 out of 49 jurisdictions still required a period of apprenticeship, but future lawyers could substitute law school. In the last half of the nineteenth century, a high school graduate could enter most law schools, but the ABA and the AALS worked to steadily increase admission standards. By 1931, 17 states required two years of college before admission, and 33 had a three-year law curriculum. Just eight years later, 41 states required at least two years of college. Today, law schools require prospective students to have a four-year degree from an accredited college or university.

Professional legal development continues throughout a lawyer's career. In 1975, Minnesota was the first state to mandate Continuing Legal Education for practitioners, requiring 45 hours of approved legal study every three years. Since then, the majority of states have established rules that require some form of mandatory continuing education, although requirements vary by state. Continuing education is also required for attorneys who wish to be board certified as specialists in a certain area of law. Certified legal specialist programs are offered in many states, and are accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA).

The law profession, like many others, was slow to open up to women. The first woman lawyer in the United States was Arabella Mansfield, who became a member of the Illinois bar in 1869. Mansfield studied in her brother's law office, and was admitted to the bar despite the fact that Illinois legislation required any person applying for bar admission to be white, male, and over 21 years of age. Ada Kepley was the first woman in the United States to earn a law degree. She graduated from Union College of Law (now Northwestern University Law School) in 1870. By 1930, most U.S. law schools were admitting women, but not Harvard Law School. The school remained closed to women until 1950. Although women were finally accepted into law schools, the number of women who attended was scant. Until the mid-1960s, less than 3 percent of law students were women. Those numbers surged during the 1970s. Today, women make up almost 50 percent of U.S. law school admissions.

Desegregation of law schools came no more quickly than it did to other educational institutions, despite the pivotal role lawyers played in the desegregation process. Since the 1960s, minority enrollment in law schools has increased, but the numbers still remain low. In 1960, about one percent of law school students were African American. By the late 1990s, that number had grown to only 8 percent. As a result, a number of schools have active recruitment programs to help ensure greater diversity in their student body.

When schools use race as a factor in the admissions process, however, critics charge that they are violating constitutional rights. Such charges have led to a number of controversial cases, including Grutter v. Bollinger (288 F. 3d 732 [2003]), in which a prospective white student contended that she was denied admission to the University of Michigan Law School because the school uses race as a deciding factor in admissions. In a 5–4 opinion, the Supreme Court ruled that the school's admission policy did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because there was a "compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body."

Further readings

Alexander, Stacy, et a1. 1999. Legal Education for the 21st Century. Edited by Donald B. King. Littleton, Colo.: F.B. Rothman.

Cooper, Byron D. 2002. "The Integration of Theory, Doctrine, and Practice in Legal Education." Erasing Lines: Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors 1 (October): 50–64.

Drachman, Virginia G. 1998. Sisters in Law: Women Lawyers in Modern American History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.

Gee, E. Gordon, and Donald W. Jackson. 1977. "Bridging the Gap: Legal Education and Lawyer Competency." Brigham Young University Law Review 1977.Katz, Barry E. 2002. "A Degree of Specialization." Student Lawyer 31 (December): 22–6.

"Narrow Use of Affirmative Action Preserved in College Admissions." June 25, 2003. CNN.com: Law Center. Available online at <www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/23/scotus.affirmative.action> (accessed September 17, 2003).

Rose, Jonathan. 1994. "The MacCrate Report's Restatement of Legal Education: The Need for Reflection and Horse Sense." Journal of Legal Education 44 (December).

Schwartz, Bernard. 1974. The American Heritage History of the Law in America. New York: American Heritage.

White, James Boyd. 1999. From Expectation to Experience: Essays on Law and Legal Education. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.

Cross-references

Affirmative Action; Case Method; Law School Admission Test; Legal Specialization.

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