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

What are Law Schools for?
ibid. Chap. 3.
see below, Chap. 4.
Undergraduate intakes range quite widely. In 1991-92 the average intake for
former polytechnics was 73, for "traditional" universities the average for middle
range law schools was about 130-150, but the populations varied from over 700
in Oxford and Cambridge to under 200 in City, SOAS, Lancaster, and Surrey. P.
Harris and S. Bellerby, A Survey of Law Teaching 1993 at p. 36, Wilson, op.
cit., at pp. 156-158.
Jill Cottrell, "10 + 2 + 5; a Change in the Structure of Indian Legal Education",
(1986) 36 J. Legal Educ. 331.
C. Mallat, The revival of Islamic Law (1993) Chap. 1.
R. Stevens, Law School (1983) at p. 8.
On the history of accreditation of law schools by the American Bar Association
see Susan K. Boyd, The ABA's First Section: Assuring a Qualified Bar (1993); for
a more critical view, see Robert Stevens, Law School (1983), op. cit.
e.g. Stephen Maher, "Clinical Legal Education in the Age of Unreason" (1992)
40 Buffalo L. Rev. 809.
Jerome Frank, Courts on Trial (1949) Chap. xvi. The most important attempt to
apply Jerome Frank's ideas was Antioch Law School, which closed down in 1988;
it was in due course was replaced by the District of Columbia School of Law,
which was prepared to conform more to established orthodoxy. On Antioch see
T. Anderson and R. Catz, "Towards a Comprehensive Approach to Clinical Education:
A Response to the New Reality," (1981) 59 Washington U. L. Q. 727
International Legal Center, Legal Education in a Changing World (1975) at p. 39.
On NLSIU, Bangalore see (1989) Commonwealth Legal Education Association
Newsletter, pp. 11-12.
See further, William Twining, "Developments in Legal Education: Beyond the
Primary School Model", (1990) 2 Legal Education Review 35.
The Ormrod Committee originally recommended that "conversion" should take
two years (paras. 112-115) but this was reduced to one year; for a critique of
the present situation see Peter Birks, "Short Cuts" in P. Birks (ed) Reviewing Legal
Education (1994).
Legal education was within the terms of reference of the Royal Commission on
Legal Services (Benson Committee, reported 1979) and the Committee on the
Future of the Legal Profession (Marre Committee, reported 1988), but neither
made much impact.
The recent ACLEC Consultation Paper on The Initial stage (June, 1994) states that
it has not ruled out any models, but sees lack of available resources hampering
any substantial move away from the present structure (para. 1.19).
By 1994 strong pressure had built up, mainly from the Society of Public Teachers
of Law, to extend the period of "conversion" of non-law graduates to two years.
Since many universities already provided for an accelerated law degree for graduates
this could have the effect of the universities acquiring a virtual monopoly
over the initial or academic stage of professional formation. However, even if
conversion were made more rigorous, it would not necessarily be the case that
the non-law graduate route would be effectively closed off, for conversion
courses could be offered by non-university institutions or conversion might not
involve any formal instruction. See generally the papers by Peter Birks and Robert
Stevens in Reviewing Legal Education (1994), op. cit. at n. 23. The Advisory
Committee in its consultation paper on The Initial stage was unequivocal about
the survival of the non-law graduate route: "Nevertheless, the law degree route
cannot be the only one." op. cit. n. 25 at para. 4.27.
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