CHAPTER XIV.

LEGAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE.'

In response to a circular letter, a copy of which is here inserted, a great amount of information, both in writing and in print, has been received relating to legal education in the following countries: England and her colonies, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, Russia, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Copies of the circular letter in English and French were sent to the ministers of public education or instruction in the countries referred to. In many instances the letter was by the ministers referred to the faculties of law of the universities, the deans or librarians of which confined their reply to sending printed catalogues and regulations. Very few entered into a minute reply to the questions submitted, so that it becomes necessary to con fine this summary statement concerning legal education abroad to a few essential points. For the sake of convenience the matter is grouped under the following heads:

Requirements for Admission to the Study of Law in Europe.

Statistics of European Law Schools, 1890-1891, showing number of professors and students, and proportion of those who fail. Names and location of law schools. Expenses of students.

Proportion of law students to population.

Entering the profession and grades of lawyers

Sources of jurisprudence in Europe.

Courses of study in law.

Methods of instruction. To this is added a list of questions used in Cambridge and in the inns of court, London, England.

The Circular of Inquiry.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., February 28, 1891.

In the summer of 1890 the American Bar Association directed its committee on legal education and admissions to the bar to prepare a report on legal education. At the request of that committee, this Office submits the subjoined inquiries respecting the teaching and study of the law to educational officials in various countries

1

Compiled, translated, and in part composed by Dr. Klemm. See note to Chapter XIII, page 376.

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and to institutions in which legal studies are pursued. Any information furnished will be gratefully received, and a printed copy of the committee's report will be sent to each official and institution contributing to the same. An early reply will be appreciated, as the information will be needed in April.

Respectfully,

WM. T. HARRIS,

U. S. Commissioner of Education,

1. The committee would be pleased to have all the information conveniently to be procured from the following countries:

4. The United States; each of the States and Territories.

B. England, Scotland, Ireland, autonomous colonies of England, especially Canada; the Australian colonies and New Zealand; Hindustan and Burmah.

C. France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Holland, Greece, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia, Japan, and China.

D. Such other countries as may be reached.

2. In each of the countries named all the information practicable regarding the number of institutions teaching jurisprudence, with the number of instructors and students in jurisprudence.

4. The number and names of such institutions. B. The following information about each:

1. (a) Number of instructors in jurisprudence. (b) Grades of instructors; the duties of each grade. (c) Have such instructors, or any of them, other occupations as practicing lawyers, or is their entire time devoted to such institutions. (d) Remuneration of such instructors; amount of salary or remuneration of each grade. Is it paid by fees of students, or is it a fixed salary?

2. (a) Number of students. (b) Average age of students. (c) Fees of students; tuition; library; other fees. (d) Other expenses of students, giving as far as pos sible the cost of a legal education, including the personal expenses of students for board, etc.

3. Income of such institution, and whence derived. (a) Endowment. (b) States grant. (c) Fees of students. (d) Other revenues.

4. Expenses of such institution. (a) Salaries of instructors. (b) Rent of buildings, etc. (c) Other expenditures under head of expenses.

5. Library of such institution. Number of volumes; annual increase, etc.

3. Qualifications of persons desiring to enter such institutions as students of jurisprudence.

4. Age and personal requirements.

B. Previous education. (1) Studies required. (2) Length of such preliminary study. (3) Whether required to be in institutions under Government supervision or by other methods.

C. Other requirements.

4. Course of study in such institutions and degrees conferred, etc.

A. (1) Number of years in course. (2) Length of scholastic year. (3) Number of exercises per week and length of same. (4) Number of hours devoted to each of the principal subjects of study. (5) Order in which studies are pursued. (6) Division of students into classes. (7) Method of teaching in such institutions, whether by lectures, recitations, practical exercises, etc.

B. Examinations. (1) The frequency of and method of examination pending the course. (2) Are the examinations at the close of the course conducted by the instructors of the students or by others? If the latter, by whom?

C. (1) Degrees conferred and requisites for attainment of each. (2) Privileges attached to each degree.

5. Government of students.

A. Supervision of studies, by whom exercised, and extent of.

B. Supervision over conduct.

C. By whom are offenses tried?

D. Punishments.

6. A. For what occupations is the course in jurisprudence intended to qualify students?

B. The requisites for admission to each occupation; what restrictions as to age, sex, citizenship, etc.

C. Are there any other methods of entering those occupations where such institutions exist? If so, in what do they differ from those already referred to?

D. If no institutions exist, how are persons educated for the legal profession? 7. Is any auxiliary study, such as study in an office of a practicing lawyer, or other study intended to give students practical knowledge, required, or if not required, is it the custom? If so, what is the extent of such study and the regulations or customs governing it?

8. The division or grades of lawyers (barristers, attorneys, etc.) with the requisites, to enter each grade.

9. How far are the institutions referred to under the supervision or control of the State? How far is the conferring of degrees controlled or restricted by the State? 10. May persons intending to follow any of the occupations referred to in paragraph 6, A, pursue their professional studies under individual instructors without connection with any such institution?

11. Is admission to the occupations referred to restricted as to citizenship? If foreigners admitted, on what terms.

12. The societies among the students for mental improvement; the membership and character of such societics.

NOTE. The committee would like to have any catalogues or other printed matter relating to legal education, intended for the information of the public, published by the institutions or by Governments referred to.

II. REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION TO THE STUDY OF LAW IN

EUROPE.

Admission to the bar in all continental countries is obtained through the universities which are professional schools for the four learned professions-theology, medicine, law, and philosophy. In England and America the colleges and universities are chiefly schools for general culture; only a few offer provision for thorough professional studies. While in England and America the erroneous idea is still predominant that a collegiate education need not necessarily precede professional study, in continental Europe it is made a conditio sine qua non. Each continental university is divided into faculties (law, theology, medicine, philosophy), though not everyone has all the four faculties. A few have only two faculties (law and theology, or medicine and law). To become a lawyer a young man must have graduated in jurisprudence at a university. No bar examination is held, but the degree admits him to the bar unless he aspires to a Government position in either the judicial or the executive branch; in that case the candidate has to pass through rigorous state examinations.

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The requisites for admission to the university are substantially the same in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In France and Italy they are not quite so extensive, but may still be considered to be a collegiate or classical education. In Spain, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Russia, this preparatory education is similar, embracing the classical languages, the higher mathematics, natural science, and history, geography, and history of the world. In some countries this secondary education is more thorough than in others, but essentially it is the same in all countries.

In England secondary education has never become public education. From six to twelve years of age the boy attends an elementary school (either a board or a church school, both of which are aided by public grants). An examination determines the close of the elementary period. He then enters one of the numerous undefined and unclassified secondary or preparatory schools, or (if his means allow him) one of the so-called public schools (Eton, Harrow, etc.), or studies at home under a tutor. It is quite immaterial to the authorities, how or where he obtains his preparation. An examination determines his fitness for admission to the study of law. The following rule is in force in the inns of court:

"Admission of students: Every person, not otherwise disqualified, who shall have passed a public examination at any university within the British dominions, or for a commission in the Army or Navy, or for the Indian civil service, or for the consular service, or for cadetship in the three Eastern colonies (Ceylon, Hongkong, and the Straits Settlements) shall be entitled to be admitted as a student without passing a preliminary examination. Every other person applying to be admitted as a student shall, before such admission, have satisfactorily passed an examination in the following subjects: The English language, the Latin language and English history. Such examination shall be conducted by a joint board, to be appointed by the four inns of court."

In France the preparatory course of a law student is as follows: The primary school concludes its course with the pupil's twelfth year of age, but most of those who intend to pass through secondary schools enter special preparatory elementary schools, and at the age of ten years enter a lyceum, the course of which is usually completed at the close of the eighteenth year of age. Graduation from a lyceum entitles to admission into the University of France, that is, into any of the numerous "facultés" or parts of the great university that embraces the academic and professional instruction of entire France. An outline of a course of study pursued in lyceums in France is here inserted to show the requirements of admission to the study of law, a study which lasts from three and a half to four years.

(1) French.-Grammar finished; extracts from French classics, poetry and prose; compositions, literary and scientific; prosody.

(2) Latin.-Grammar, prosody; extracts from Phædrus, Ovid, Nepos, Virgil, Cæsar's

Gallic War, Quintus Curtius, Lucretius, Livy, Cicero, Horace, Pliny, Sallust, Tacitus; reading, writing, translation.

(3) Greek.-Grammar, paradigms and syntax; extracts from Xenophon, Lucian, Homer, Herodotus, Euripides, Sophocles, Plato, Plutarch, Aristhophanes, Demosthenes; reading, writing, translation.

(4) German or English.-Grammar. English texts.-First year: Edgeworth's Tales, Aiken and Barbauld's Evening's at Home, Primer of English History. Second year: Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, Franklin's Autobiography, Primer of Greek History. Third year: De Foe's Robinson Crusoe, Irving's Voyages of Columbus, History of Rome. Fourth year: Vicar of Wakefield, Tales from Shakespeare, Macaulay's History of England, Vol. I. Fifth and sixth years: Julius Cæsar, The Deserted Village, The Traveller, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Extracts from English historians. German texts similar to the English.

(5) History.-First year: Ancient History of the Orient-Egypt, Assyria, Palestine, Phoenicia, Persia. Second year: Greece. Third year: Rome. Fourth year: Europe, particularly France from 395 to 1270 A. D. Fifth year: Same up to 1610. Sixth year: Same up to 1789. Seventh year: Cotemporary history and philosophy. (6) Geography.-First year: Europe and the Mediterranean basin; the oceans. Second year: Topography of Africa, Asia, Oceanica, and America; principal states, cities, commercial ports, European possessions. Third year: Topographical and political geography of France and Algiers. Fourth year: Physical, political, and commercial geography of Europe. Fifth year: The other continents. Sixth year: Physical, political, and commercial geography of France and its colonies, also administrative and economical aspects.

(7) Arithmetic and mathematics.-First year: Review of fundamental rules; common and decimal fractions; mensuration; elements of mathematical geography. Second year: Rule of three, percentage, simple interest, discount, mensuration of solids; arithmetic completed. Third year: Plane geometry. Fourth year: Algebra through fractions, plane geometry completed. Fifth year: Algebra through equations of the second degree; solid geometry. Sixth year: Geometry and trigonometry; cosmography or astronomy. Seventh year: Review of entire course in mathematics with practical applications.

(8) Natural history, physics, and chemistry.—First year: Zoölogy (vertebrata and articulata). Second year: Botany, grand divisions of vegetable kingdom (phanerogamia and cryptogamia). Third year: Geology. Fourth year: Physics, properties of matter, mechanics. Fifth year: Physics, electricity, magnetism, acoustics. Sixth year: Chemistry, inorganic and organie. Seventh year: Physics and chemistry, optics, and review of both sciences extended in practical applications. Anatomy and physiology of animals and plants.

(9) Philosophy in seventh year: This course consists of lectures and the reading of one Latin, one Greek, and two French authors. It includes an account of sensibility, intelligence, and volition, of formal and applied logic, of conscience and duty, family and country, of political duty, of labor, capital, and property, of immortality and natural religion.

(10) Drawing.-First and second years: Perspective with shadows, drawing from ornaments in relief, from architectural fragments, from the human head. Third year: From architectural fragments, the human body, from prints of bas-reliefs; some mechanical drawing of architectural designs. Fourth, fifth, and sixth years: Decorative figures, caryatides, friezes, Dorie, Ionic, and Corinthian columus, the human figure, and figures of animals.

In Germany and Austria the boy, after completing his elementary education, enters a gymnasium (classical secondary school), a typical course of which is here submitted in outline:

(1) Religion.-Biblical history of the Old, and especially the New Testament; cat.