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

What are Law Schools for?
distraction and, if this involves the belief that all claims to detachment
and objectivity are vain and illusory, it "hits at the very heart
of the academic ethic." 3 Government influence through manpower
planning, "science policy", ad hoc research sponsorship, national
curricula, or direct political interference can undermine institutional
autonomy and academic freedom, the twin pillars of free
enquiry.
The bureaucratisation of universities, which Max Weber had predicted,
typically involves the proliferation of non-academic administrators
and of paperwork. Reductions and uncertainties in the provision
of public funds, after the boom of the sixties, created a crisis
of morale in many western universities and tended to distort the
age profile of the academic profession, leading in some instances
to the danger of the loss of a whole generation of scholars. As
universities have become more newsworthy, increased publicity
has bred concerns about public relations. The growth of "the
Research University" in some countries has often led to the neglect
of students by ambitious scholars; it threatens Wilhelm von Humbolt's
doctrine of "the unity of teaching and research"; it encourages
a culture of grant-seeking and "increased indifference to the
affairs of one's own university". 4 Finally, the internal unity of institutions
and, ultimately, "the unity of knowledge" 5 are threatened
by a series of forces that promote "the disagregated university".
These include "large numbers, specialization, external financial
support for particular research projects, and the intensification of
attention to government and politics which is characteristic of all
modern societies." 6
The common element in this catalogue, according to Shils, is
not that all these features of university life are in themselves
undesirable or avoidable, but rather that cumulatively, in varying
combinations, they place an increasing strain on university
teachers in performing their fundamental tasks of teaching and
research. Despite these strains, Shils concludes, universities persist
as the major centres of learning in most societies. 7
The Academic Ethic is a clear and forceful reaffirmation of von
Humbolt's vision of the university as society's House of Intellect.
Shils' analysis identifies some familiar points of tension in British
academic life: the relationship between teaching and research;
public accountability and the limits of institutional autonomy and
academic freedom; forms of university governance; externally
sponsored research; the relationship of the university to government
and the community; politicisation and bureaucratisation; the
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