Blackstone's Tower: The English Law School - College of Social ...

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Law School Culture: A Visit to Rutland demic Registrar after attending an unofficial "interview" by this departmental committee. Eventually, after lengthy wrangling, the University reasserted the exclusive jurisdiction of its official Appointments Committee and in the more authoritarian 1980s the unofficial elected body faded away. A case-study of a number of contested appointments at Rutland, or elsewhere, would tell one a good deal about the governance of the institution. There tends to be less overt controversy at Rutland about the recruitment and selection of undergraduates, but here some of the deep ambivalences permeating law school culture are rather clearly revealed. The pluralism of our system of higher education involves applicants in a bewildering, time-consuming and anxietyridden process of choice of subjects and institutions. Some have decided on a career, most have not. A law school presents itself to school-leavers and other potential applicants for undergraduate places through glossy prospectuses, other written materials, Open Days and various kinds of informal contacts. Almost all law school prospectuses stress the twin themes that constitute the fundamental ambivalence of academic legal culture: on the one hand, we offer a general academic education which is a good preparation for a variety of occupations; on the other hand, our law degree satisfies the requirements of the initial stage of qualification as a barrister or solicitor and provides a good foundation for preparation for practice. There are considerable differences of emphasis in the publicity literature emanating from law schools. In many prospectuses the order of the two points is reversed or the vocational nature of the degree is deliberately emphasised. In some, flexibility and choice are the dominant themes. In a few, such as Warwick and Kent, the institution sets out to project a distinctive persona. This is most commonly done when the ethos is avowedly "academic", for example where there is a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary work or critical perspectives or transferable intellectual skills, but some are unequivocally concerned with preparation for legal practice. Not surprisingly, almost without exception law school prospectuses try to ride both horses, and in the process many fail to communicate a clear sense of direction or a distinctive image. Rutland fits the pattern. While an analysis of undergraduate prospectuses in law indicates some divergent patterns, 57 this form of literature conceals as much as it reveals. It needs to be read with the scepticism appropriate to any form of advertising, especially in the current market-oriented atmosphere. Open Days may be more illuminating, not only 82
Law School Culture: A Visit to Rutland because visitors can sniff the atmosphere, observe and ask questions, but also because they usually have direct access to students as well as staff. When I was responsible for "Open Days" at Warwick, my main task was to try to communicate to an anxious audience the nature and significance of what we considered to be a quite distinctive ethos. This involved a deliberately "soft sell", an attempt to deter as well as to attract potential entrants and to advise those who failed to get a place about other possibilities. At that time, competition for places in law was strong, the employment prospects of law graduates were good and public financing of students was much more generous than it became later, including discretionary awards for vocational training. My task was a relatively easy one, not least because most of our students had a strong sense of the distinctiveness of the institution, and one could rely on student guides on Open Days to reinforce rather than contradict the message. The situation in Rutland in the early 1990s was quite different. First, as we have seen, there is less of a consensus among the faculty about the objectives and ethos of the undergraduate degree. Secondly, the students are generally more vocationally oriented than their teachers and have more financial pressures than their predecessors. 58 In the absence of a clear lead from the faculty, student attitudes and expectations have a profound effect on the general atmosphere and morale of the institution. Thirdly, it is only recently that it has become apparent that a law degree is no longer an almost automatic passport to a professional qualification, if one can afford it. The combination of a recession, more stringent requirements for training, and other factors has led to a sharp decline in the number of training places relative to the number of aspirant practitioners. By 1993 it was estimated that perhaps as few as one third of law graduates could expect in future even to have the opportunity to qualify. For a place like Rutland this could have a dual effect: on the one hand, those who were determined to qualify would be likely to try to enhance their chances by applying to the more prestigious institutions, or they might try harder to get a good degree and be strongly influenced by their conceptions of "relevance". 59 On the other hand, those who had no firm career intentions or who were less well-placed to compete, for academic or social reasons, might be expected to be more sympathetic to the idea of a law degree as providing them with a good general education that would enable them to compete with other graduates in the general job market. 83
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THE HAMLYN LECTURES BLACKSTONE'S
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AUSTRALIA The Law Book Company Bris
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Published in 1994 by Stevens & Sons
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TABLE OF CONTENTS The Hamlyn Lectur
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The Hamlyn Lectures 1962 Lawyer and
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The Hamlyn Trust The Hamlyn Trust o
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ABBREVIATIONS (a) The following abb
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the course of th
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Preface There is an irony in arguin
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Preface Henry James' caretaker I wo
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Law in Culture and Society tures an
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Law in Culture and Society The Engl
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Law in Culture and Society by the I
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Law in Culture and Society narrow d
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Law in Culture and Society teric. T
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Law in Culture and Society have bio
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Law in Culture and Society lectivel
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Law in Culture and Society Snell on
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Law in Culture and Society cesses a
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Law in Culture and Society ated int
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Law in Culture and Society 3 Comm.
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Law in the Universities: The Histor
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Page 56 and 57: Law in the Universities: The Histor
Page 74 and 75: What are Law Schools for? distracti
Page 76 and 77: What are Law Schools for? view of e
Page 78 and 79: What are Law Schools for? and prest
Page 80 and 81: What are Law Schools for? of legal
Page 82 and 83: What are Law Schools for? continue
Page 84 and 85: What are Law Schools for? 91. While
Page 86 and 87: What are Law Schools for? ibid. Cha
Page 88 and 89: 4. Law School Culture: A Visit to R
Page 90 and 91: Law School Culture: A Visit to Rutl
Page 116 and 117: The Law Library is credited with re
Page 118 and 119: The Law Library A guide to the Bodl
Page 120 and 121: The Law Library cular obviously req
Page 122 and 123: The Law Library in a book entitled
Page 124 and 125: The Law Library "A case is the writ
Page 126 and 127: The Law Library have long troubled
Page 128 and 129: The Law Library are really primary.
Page 130 and 131: The Law Library "Is it not in the n
Page 132 and 133: The Law Library women and minoritie
Page 134 and 135: The Law Library British Isles. Ther
Page 136 and 137: The Law Library dence, Legal Histor
Page 138 and 139: The Law Library written by practiti
Page 140 and 141: The Law Library tioners' works, alt
Page 142 and 143: The Law Library information and ful
Page 144 and 145: The Law Library 28 S. Chibnall, Law
Page 146 and 147: The Law Library which see the Prefa
Page 148 and 149: Legal Scholarship and the Roles of
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Legal Scholarship and the Roles of
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The Quest For a Core somewhat diffe
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The Quest For a Core of the law, as
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The Quest For a Core content, it fo
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The Quest For a Core "Of course, la
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The Quest For a Core ive either ref
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The Quest For a Core worth remarkin
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The Quest For a Core In the late 19
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The Quest For a Core the vocational
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The Quest For a Core was essential
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The Quest For a Core riers" between
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The Quest For a Core new skills ort
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The Quest For a Core texts of their
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The Quest For a Core If I am asked
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The Quest For a Core Within the leg
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The Quest For a Core For example, w
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The Quest For a Core is a further a
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The Quest For a Core exposition of
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The Quest For a Core what and know-
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EPILOGUE Roland Barthes' marvellous
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Epilogue two reference groups who h
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Epilogue lent—tend to be excluded
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Epilogue Diversification might help
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Epilogue graduates will in future h
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APPENDIX English Law Teachers as Ac
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Appendix In respect of background,
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Appendix 65% of the rest. I have ma
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INDEX Academic ethic, the, 49-51, 5
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Index Kahn-Freund, Sir Otto, 105-10
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Blackstone's Tower: The English Law
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