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

Law in the Universities: The Historical Context
In 1984 the Heads of Law Schools argued that law is one of
the most cost-effective disciplines, but its development was being
impeded by the fact that almost all innovations in legal education—for
example, EC Law, the use of new technology, new kinds
of skills training—involved a marginal increase in unit costs. 72 Even
if it was special pleading, the case was cogent. For a time vicechancellors
and even the UGC were reluctantly responsive. However,
from 1993 the Government reinstated the traditional view,
by placing law and politics at the bottom of the scale of public
funding. 73 Thus for the last 20 years or so at both the academic
and vocational stages we have had a modified version of
Ormrod-on-the-cheap.
Economic factors have not all been adverse. Over the years
demand for legal studies has been both buoyant and steady not
only at home, but also from overseas students, many of whom from
Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia have been able and willing
to pay "full-cost" fees. This combination of strong demand and
low costs has probably been the single most important factor in
the continuing expansion of university law schools within a publicly
funded system. It has also protected law more than most other
disciplines from the worst effects of financial cuts and squeezes,
as we have moved away from an elite system in the direction of
a mass system of higher education, without a proportionate
increase in public funding. But not all law faculties got a correlative
benefit from funds accruing to the university and, as in other countries,
law's revenues have often been used to subsidise other
departments. The continuing demand for undergraduate places
may also have been a conservative force in that it has meant that
university law schools have not been under any sustained pressure
to explore other outlets for their services.
CONCLUSION
In 1994 there is a sense that, despite a period of adversity, law as
a discipline in this country (as in other relatively wealthy anglophone
countries) is generally more diverse, more interesting and
more ebullient than it was 23 years ago. The most significant developments
have been in the realm of ideas, and I shall deal with these
in later chapters. So far I have been concerned with institutions and
infrastructure. In this respect one can make some quite confident
generalisations about a rapidly changing scene. If one compares
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