University of Kansas School of Law - Shingle Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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Law Students-Ancient and Modern. In attempting to compass with a compara- tively few lines the field of legal education, one undertakes an impossible task. Let me rather, therefore, try to present a few facts concerning lawyers and their studies, which may prove of interest, although void of log- ical connection. In the early days of ancient Rome there was no distinct professional class of lawyers. In the year 450 B. C., the Decemvirs, in re- sponse to the popular demand for the codi- lication of the laws, prepared those immortal statutes known as the Laws of the Twelve Tables. After the Twelve Tables, the Col- lege of Pontifices was the repository of law learning, and the control of the calendar gave the college the control of the calendar of the courts. The earliest record I find of a Roman law- yer is that of Tiberius Coruncanius, who was the first plebeian powt-ifeav mawifrnus, in 281 B. C. He was the first to put out his Ushin- gle, or to declare himself a professional lawyer. His act must have had many fol- lowers, because in 203 B. C., seventy-eight years later, the Lex Uinciu. prohibited legal advisers from receiving any compensation for their services. This principle pervaded the Roman law for centuries. Services were gratuitous. Clients frequently- made large presents to their legal friends, but nothing could be' exacted. Indeed, I believe it is the law in England, to-day, that even there, and in these times, a barrister's services are, in principle, gratis, and that no action can be maintained for legal assistance. Before Cicerofs time, however fCicero was born 106 B. CJ, there was a distinct and recognized profession of the law. There were three classes of lawyers-namely: ' 1. The J urisconsults fJu1'isconsultij. 2. The Advocates fzlclfznoccztij. 3. The Orators or Patrons fOratores, Patlronij. The great authorities in the Law were the Jurisconsults. In this class was Cicero, and Servius Sulpicius Rufus, who was con- sul 50 B. C. Of Rufus it was said, by Cicero, that he was the greatest Roman lawyer of his day. The Jurisconsults gave opinions K1-esponsaj upon legal questions. They did not appear in court. The Advocates, something like the En- glish attorneys and counsellors, were friends at court, accompanying one into court, giv- ing advice and directions. These men, how- ever, did not speak in behalf of clients. The third class, the Orators or Patrons, was the conspicuous class. T'hese were the public speakers and the pleaders. At differ- ent times the same man might be in a differ- ent class. Cicero often appeared in court, but then as an Orator, not as a Jurisconsult. Time, however, does not suiiice to enter into details. In imperial times there' was little practice of the Law as such. The sov- ereign was the Law, and only a limited num- ber of Advocati was permitted to attend each place of justice, thus making 'fthe Law one of the earliest of monopolies. In 534 A. D. the great jurist Tribonian, under order of the Emperor J ustinian, com- piled the Code o-f the Roman Law, which is the basis to-day.of the magnificent system of the Civil or Roman Law. This spread with Roman influence over a great part of Europe, and the codes of the continental European nations, to-day, are the success- ors of the Code of Rome. In J ustinian's time there were three great schools of law, one at Rome, another at Constantinople, a third at Berytus, modern Beyrout. YV e think we have advanced because we have changed our two-years course to three. T'hese Roman schools required five years. Such little glimpses as are afforded us of the procedure in Roman law courts show that human nature was the same then as now. In those days there were rant- ing fellows who sawed the air, and who supposed they were objects of admira- tion to gods and men as they substituted rubbish and bombast for legal argument. The Roman poet Martial tells us of a poor client who entreated his lawyer, a long- winded speaker, to say something about the real issue, a simple matter of the ownership of three goats. The suffering client exclaimsz ffYou, with full lungs, and with pounding of the bar with your fists, make a noise about -51-

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JUDGMENT FOR PLAINTIFF. A youth and a maid strayed by the seag A brilliant and young attorney was he, A maid worthy of wooing was she, And in these words he filed his plea: Oh fair judge, my pelzlion hear, And grant, oh gentle court, my prayer,- My slaiemeni I will verqy, And the best evzkienee supply. '4My sm? is but on justice based, My heart is cruelly ddaeed- In fact is broken quite, unless You gran! relief to my a'z's!ress. 4'Wherefore said for! so great Demands, as damage, as I state In this my humble, closing prayer, This hand I hold, so small and fair. The maiden, blushing, hungiher head. What matter if no word she said? What could she do but grant the plea, When no one answered it, you see? The moral is as plain as it is truezz In caurlzezgf make the judge a parbf, too. Grace Barnelt -70-

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the battle of Cannae, the war of Mithridates, the peridy of the Carthaginians, about Sulla and Marius, and Mucius. Say something, I pra.y you, about my three goats. It is a long step from Rome to England, but most students of the English Common Law fail to appreciate the debt that the Com- mon Law owes to the Roman Law. In fact, it was due to the antagonism and the regret- ful rivalry between the two systems that modern English law schools, if they can be called law schools, arose. The universities of England, being under 'the control of the ecclesiastics, offered cour- ses in the Canon-and Civil Law, but refused to teach the Common Law of England, which as a. scientific system was discredited and even despised by the clergy. In this state of affairs, Blackstone tells us, that upon the fixing of the courts of common pleas at YVest- minster, by King John, the lawyers gathered in that vicinity, and having purchased the old town houses or the inns fnot public tav- ernsl of Earls Gray and Lincoln, also the assembly halls of the Knights Templar, the four great inns or halls of the law courts were instituted-namely, Gray's Inn, Lin- coln's Inn, the Middle Temple, and the Inner Temple. Blackstone is doubtless mistaken in the time of the origin of the English law courts, and with Lord Mansfield we may more safely say that the exact time of the institution of them is uncertain. YVe do know, however, that Fortescue, who died a few years before Columbus discovered Amer- ica, tells-us that in his day over two thou- sand students were studying Law in the various Inns of Court. The names of the greatest of English jurists have been connect- ed with these halls, where for centuries young Englishmen have resorted to read La.w with their preceptors and to listen to readers of the Law, appointed by the governing com- mittees or the benches as they are still called. Coke, Holt, Hale, Blackstone, Hard- wicke were at different periods entered here. There is no doubt that in the early days the Inns were great schools, requiring rigid ap- plication and close study. In later days, however, even in Blackstone's time, they had become mere travesties upon legal study, were farces of la.w schools. Finally, one could be called to the bar if he 'fhad kept twelve terms at the Inns. A termis attend- 77 ' ance was proven by the number of dinners one had eaten there, ive dinners at least be- ing the minimum attendance at a term, It followed, therefore, that if one could prove that he had eaten sixty dinners at the Inns, he was, peer sc, entitled to 'fadmission to the bar? No examinations of any kind, it seems, were required. At the present time, however, all is changed for the betterg In the vicinity of the new Palace of Justice, upon 'the Strand, in London, the old Inns still have their quar- ters. Examinations are now rigid, and to- day one cannot be called to the bar before he has passed successful examinations in Jurisprudence, Civil Law, International Law, and English Law. They are not law schools as we understand the term, with: regular classes, but the benchers appoint lecturers or readers whose exposition of the Law matriculants may hear, and, if they wish, ap- ply in due time for examination. The old Inns used to give titles or degrees, known as Nbarristerv and 'fsergeantf' To-day the title of sergeant is no longer given, and a ba.rrister's ambition is to be enrolled a Q. C. fQueen's Co-unsell, which may be attained after a stated term of service at the bar. The English barrister is more like the Ro- man patromcs than our lawyer. An attor- ney in England, is one of a distinct class of lawyers. The 'fattorneyv prepares the papers, the pleadings, the case. No barris- ter is permitted, in general, to appear with- out the intervention of the 'fattorneyff Our Bachelor of Laws is an American institution. In the universities of Germany there are four faculties or schools: one of Theology, one of Medicine, one of Philosophy fincluding'Languages, Mathematics. Sciencej, and one of Law. The degree there given is the doctorate, which can be obtained only by one having a preliminary education equal to that of a college course. It will be remem- bered that in this country, Harvard, at thc present time, and Columbia, beginning in 1903, require a college education as the standard of admission. ' But say, I pray you, something about my three goats. It is time now to speak of our own schools. It is interesting to note that for a hundred years after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth 'there was not a lawyer in all New England. Possibly, ' -72-