TRENDS IN LEGAL EDUCATION

Modern legal education is expanding both in quantity and in scope, and university legal education has become dominant everywhere. The opportunities for university and professional education in law increased greatly after World War II. In England and Wales, for example, where before the war only the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and London produced significant numbers of law graduates, there are now more than 50 academic law departments. A particularly noteworthy development has been the increase in female law students, now consisting 30 to 40 percent of law students in most countries. The number of students admitted to law schools in the United States tripled between 1961 and 1980. After that demand for legal education began to level off and even decline.

Since the late 1960s universities in several countries have departed from the rigidity of the prescribed syllabi to allow a greater range of student choice in selecting subjects. In most countries, more attention is paid to foreign legal systems, transnational law, and comparative law. In some countries non-legal subjects have long been part of the syllabus, in others where law as a first degree specialization has comprised only law studies; there has been a tendency to include non-legal studies, joint courses in law and social subjects, or a more sociological approach to law.

Most law schools are trying to find a middle path between being mere trade schools or citadels of pure theory. The criticism is often made that made these efforts result in a type of education that is not practical enough to be really useful in resolving day-to-day legal problems but not as rigorously theoretical as a truly academic disciple ought to be.

1. What are main spheres in which any lawyer should get a basic knowledge?

2. What are the main differences in Anglo-American and continental ways of law studying?

3. Can the main purpose of legal education be described as knowledge of “the law”? Why?

4. When was the sudden turn in the amount of law school graduates in 20^th century?

5. What were the only universities in Great Britain before World War II where students could get a degree in law?

6. Is there a tendency in some countries to include only non legal studies or to expand syllabi?

7. What is a criticism of law schools which follow the path of being something in between of classical citadels of pure theory and trade schools?

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