Doctor of Laws

“ If I may be allowed to interpolate, an old law professor of mine used to present the curiosity of the law: that a judge is held to responsibility for no knowledge of the law whatsoever, that a lawyer is held to a reasonable knowledge of the law, and a layman is held to an absolute knowledge of all the laws. It works inversely as to facts, or facts of common knowledge. ”

“ Form these habits now: learn all that may be learned at your University, and bring all your acquisitions and your habits to the study of the law, which you say is to be your profession;—and when you come to this study, come resolved to master it—not to play in its shallows, but to sound all its depths. There is no knowing what a mind greatly and firmly resolved, may achieve in this department of science, as well as every other. Resolve to be the first lawyer of your age, in the depth, extent, variety and accuracy of your legal learning. ”

“ How rejoice in the institution of those renowned hot-beds of law, the Inns of Court: by the aid of which, had not the rage for enacting laws kept pace with the rage for studying them, there were hopes that the whole kingdom would in time have been so learned in the science that every man might indeed have become his own lawyer. ”

“ See lord Bacon's proposals and offer of a digest.
For I think it is past dispute that those gentlemen, who resort to the inns of court with a view to pursue the profession, will find it expedient (whenever it is practicable) to lay the previous foundations of this, as well as every other science, in one of our learned universities. We may appeal to the experience of every sensible lawyer, whether any thing can be more hazardous or discouraging than the usual entrance on the study of the law. ”

“ There are no further requirements of scholarship. [52]
D.Litt., D.Sc., D.C.L. Candidates who have taken the Bachelor’s degree in Letters or Science may proceed to the Doctorate in the twenty-seventh Term from the date of their matriculation. Bachelors of Civil Law cannot take the degree of D.C.L. until the expiration of five years from the time of their admission to the B.C.L. In any case, all candidates for the Doctor’s degree in Letters, Science, or Civil Law are required to submit a dissertation [68] which has contributed to the advancement of knowledge in their particular field. ”

“ Therefore the various state governments have taken a happy middle position in these matters, and their responsibility for the separate institutions has been made even less complete in that the degrees of these institutions carry in themselves no actual rights. Every state has its own laws for the admission of a lawyer to its bar, or to the public practice of medicine, and it is only to a small degree that the diplomas of professional schools are recognized as equivalent to a state examination. ”

“ In our law schools the teaching of medico-legal science is not as general as in schools of medicine. Of 35 law schools, only 10 have professors of medical jurisprudence. Of these 6 are lawyers, 1 is a physician, 2 are graduates in both professions, and 1 is a doctor of divinity. ”

“ They, constituting the University, are the "hope of the State in the direction of its practical affairs; in teaching the lawyer the better standards of his profession, his duty to place character above money making; in teaching the legislator the philosophy of legislation, and that the constructive forces of legislation carefully considered should precede every effort to change an existing status ”

“ When we study law we are not studying a mystery but a well-known profession. We are studying what we shall want in order to appear before judges, or to advise people in such a way as to keep them out of court. The reason why it is a profession, why people will pay lawyers to argue for them or to advise them, is that in societies like ours the command of the public force is intrusted to the judges in certain cases, and the whole power of the state will be put forth, if necessary, to carry out their judgments and decrees. ”

“ When the lawyer prepares his own case and makes the argument, as he generally does, he acts in the capacity of both attorney and councillor. In the court of chancery the lawyer is denominated solicitor, and in the admiralty court, proctor. Before a person is permitted to practise law in our courts, he is required to pass through a regular course of study, and afterwards [216] undergo an examination before persons learned in the law.
2. This profession has its foundation in the numerous and complicated laws which have been adopted by men, to govern their intercourse with each other. ”

“ No one will pretend, that he, who is to make laws, ought not to be well instructed in their nature, interpretation, and practical results. But what would be said, if, upon such a theory, it was to be seriously urged, that none, but practical lawyers, ought ever to be eligible as legislators? ”

“ The University to have exclusive jurisdiction in suits wherein scholars, scholars servants “or common minister of the University” were one of the parties. Also to hear and determine plaints concerning victuals or contract for victuals arising in the fair, except in cases between a burgess and a foreigner not privileged of the University, which should be heard before the Mayor, &c. The court of the Chancellor &c. within the fair to be a court of record with all powers according to the statutes of the realm, or the laws and customs of the University. ”

“ The most important point of all is the proper choice of subject titles. Laws should be indexed under the general subject or branch of the science of jurisprudence, or the subject-matter to which they belong, not too technically and not too much according to mere logic. ”

“ The chemist, the physician, etc., studies his subject because he wants to become a chemist, physician, etc., but the lawyer studies law not because he wants to become a lawyer, but because he wants to become an official, and as he has no especial interest he chooses his state position in that branch in which he thinks he has the best prospects. It is a bitter truth and a general rule—that those who want to study law and the science of law are the exceptions, and that hence we have to acquire a real interest in our subject from laymen, from our experts. ”

“ Hence it may be a measure of policy with them, to introduce the student, in the first place, to the study of political law, in the hope of making on his raw and unpractised mind, such an impression, as may secure his approbation of the existing order of things. The faculty of investigating legal questions, and forming legal opinions, may almost be regarded as an acquired faculty; so that, in the earlier part of his researches, the student necessarily acquiesces in the doctrines which are pronounced ex cathedra by his teacher. ”

“ The court found that 'The most extensive activities of the State Bar are those directed toward postgraduate education of lawyers,' and that 'Post-graduate education of lawyers is in the public interest because it promotes the competency of lawyers to handle the legal matters entrusted to them by those of the general public who employ them.' 10 Wis.2d at page 246, 102 N.W.2d at pages 412-413. ”

“ It is a matter of congratulation, too, that large success has attended the examination in Law, The Examination in Law. because the University examination in Law is not an examination in the knowledge which qualifies a man to be a successful practitioner,—it is not a knowledge of cases and decisions and practice—it is a knowledge of the principles of law and jurisprudence ”

“ The office of a practising lawyer was the only place in which the law could be learned, if at all. The eminent authority just mentioned thus sketched the process of legal training in his day: “It is a most melancholy state of things. There is nothing like education for law students now. ”

“ Graduates in Arts. To you, Graduates in Law, in Medicine and in Teaching, I will say but few words. Graduates in Law, the danger, which will chiefly beset you in applying the knowledge you have acquired to the active work of your profession is that of gradually ignoring the principles on which a sound system of Law is based. To avoid this you must remain always students of Law as the science of gradually perfecting the social relations of mankind. You must ever bear in mind what is the end of all Law, "the harmony of the world." ”

“ A bachelor of law must have studied six years, and after five years more he could become licentiate. In filling a paid teachership, the doctor was chosen next in age of those holding the diploma, unless a great majority of the scholars objected, in which case the rector and council decided. This liberal constitution for the scholars is in harmony with the code of Alphonzo X., soon after 1250, in which the liberty of instruction was made a general principle of law. ”

“ From the ranks of the Bar, more frequently than from any other profession, are men called to fill the highest public stations in the service of the country, at home and abroad. The American lawyer must thus extend his researches into all parts of the science, which has for its object human government and law: [Pg xxvi] he must study it in its grand outlines as well as in the filling up of details. He is as frequently called upon to inquire what the law ought to be as what it is. ”

“ The curriculum of legal subjects in which lectures are given and examinations held is calculated to give a student a sound fundamental knowledge of general principles, as well as an elementary acquaintance with the rules of modern English law. Jurisprudence, Roman law, Constitutional law and International law are taught, as well as the law of Real and Personal Property, the Law of Contract and Tort, Criminal law, Procedure and Evidence. But the law tripos and the law schools suffer from remoteness from the law courts, and from the exclusively academical character of the teaching. ”

“ Candidates for the bar ordinarily prepared for practice by reading in a lawyer's office, a good old method that perhaps has some merits, but one which did not, save in the case of a teacher of exceptional qualifications, give a uniform preparation or an insight into the principles of legal philosophy. As the general level of education advanced, however, the advantages of some systematic instruction in law became more and more apparent, and it was not long after the establishment of the University before demands for a Law School began to be heard. ”

“ Why are you not a lawyer?”
“Rosalie, I made an effort, many an effort, to get admitted to practice, at the bar of S——. I had thought myself well qualified, for I had studied legal science with what you call an attraction—a vocation for the profession. For several years past I had read law con amore; yet, through the want of familiarity with the technicalities of practice, I failed to get admitted as a practitioner before the court.” ”

“ The faculties of medicine confer the degree of doctor of medicine. The faculties of theology confer the degrees of bachelor, licentiate and doctor of theology. The faculties of law confer the same degrees in law and also grant “certificates of capacity,” which enable the holder to practise as an avoué; a licence is necessary for the profession of barrister. ”

“ The two are, in fact, only earlier and later developments of the same social fact, depending for their evolution upon the play of human qualities in the necessary relations of society.
The second great practical lesson which will be taught by comparative jurisprudence is, as I have said, the knowledge of the true relations of custom and law to legislation. Law is the statical, legislation the dynamical side of the same fact. The lawyer studies what is, the legislator what ought to be. The jurist is he who studies what has been, what is, and what ought to be. ”

“ Not only has the average lawyer become a less representative citizen, but a strictly legal training has become a less desirable preparation for the candid consideration of contemporary political problems. ”

“ LL.B. An abbreviation for Legum Baccalaureus, Bachelor of Laws. In American colleges, this degree is conferred on students who fulfil the conditions of the statutes of the law school to which they belong. The law schools in the different colleges are regulated on this point by different rules, but in many the degree of LL.B. is given to a B.A. who has been a member of a law school for a year and a half. ”

“ Of recent years, however, there has been a change in the attitude towards the teaching of law. It has come to be recognized that our law is a changing and developing force, and that the adaptation of fundamental legal principles to the advancing demands of modern society, both through legislation and through judicial decision, furnishes a field for research and investigation which demands the highest type of scholarship and training. ”

“ It must be allowed, indeed, that, in societies so small that their members are, in general, contented with little more than the bare necessaries of nature, a few rules will be sufficient; and every man of a tolerable capacity will, with a reasonable degree of observation, be, in some measure, qualified to be his own lawyer. ”

“ You have pledged yourselves faithfully and carefully to fulfil the duties of your profession, on all occasions to maintain its purity and reputation, and never to deviate from the straight path of its honourable exercise by making your knowledge subservient to unworthy ends. Act out this promise, and the University will have no reason but to rejoice in any success you may attain. It is well known that peculiar temptations assail a Lawyer, and he must be a man of strong moral purpose and principle, who can put those temptations away from him. ”