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

Law School Culture: A Visit to Rutland
video cameras and other modern security equipment. To the left
are several large, cluttered notice boards. The time-tables show that
every undergraduate takes four courses every year, each involving
two lectures and one tutorial spread over twenty two teaching
weeks. Nine of the twelve courses are compulsory, comprising six
"core subjects" required by the profession, together with Legal
Method, European Union Law, and Jurisprudence. 11 The student
notices relate mainly to the sale of books, places on vocational
courses, recruiting visits by law firms, the schedule of the campus
law clinic, and Law Society events. Given time we could learn
quite a lot about the life of the school by decoding these messages
in some detail. The initial impression is of orderly, efficient, unobtrusive
regulation.
Front right are two recent exercises in public relations: a framed
collage of photographs of all members of academic, administrative
and secretarial staff, some 40 in all, indicating titles, but arranged
strictly in alphabetical order. This gives a rather favourable impression
of the gender and ethnic balance of the academic staff. Immediately
opposite is a case exhibiting a sample of recent publications
by the Faculty, four slim monographs, about a dozen fat books
addressed to the student market (three of which are past their third
edition), and a number of offprints with obscure titles, which some
might think are self-addressed. No room could be found here for
rather more lucrative publications such as nutshells (or other student
aids), contributions to loose-leaf practitioners' services, and
occasional journalism. First impressions suggest that this is primarily
a teaching institution, which is quite vocationally oriented, but
which is trying to build up its research profile. These impressions
are generally correct. In 1993 Rutland was judged to be "excellent"
in teaching, but was disappointed to have been awarded a
rating of three in the Universities Funding Council Research assessment
exercise in 1992, rather than a coveted four or five. 12
Facing the front entrance is an already decrepit, but sturdy,
1980s lift which grunts and rattles and pauses as if to complain at
having to cope with the demands of several hundred inmates and
numerous other invitees, licensees, trespassers and sneak thieves.
If we take the lift to the third, floor and cross to the attic of one of
the old residences, we shall find a small staff reference library—a
convenient facility that provides the basic tools of the orthodox
academic lawyer: law reports, statutes, a few mainstream journals,
the London Times, Current Law, a recently installed Lexis terminal
(giving access to the standard legal database) and hardly any books.
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