University of Michigan Law School - Quad Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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new and unseen forces govern human action. The permanency of a modern idea, as an active force, is 1lTlCC1't3'lU3 4' The flower that smiles to-day A To-morrow dies, All that we wish to stay Tempts and then flies. What is this world's delight ? Lightning that mocks the night, Brief even as bright 'K This is quite true in the science of 'legal education, if there be such a science. Perhaps a glance at the early history of an institution, which has stood the test of many years and has been marked for its vigorous and wonderful growth, may give us some suggestions regarding methods that have come to stay, and may make more definite in the hills above us the outlines of a field in science. We refer to the primeval law school in America. Mr. I-Ieron, of Dublin, in his work on the H History of juris- prudence , says that the United States has surpassed England in the matter of legal education, and calls attention ff to the superior education which American lawyers receive, and to the schools of law established throughout the United States Q Professor Brice in ff The American Commonwealth , attributes the recognized attainments of the members of the legal profession in this country 'fto the extraordinary excellence of many of its law schools . We are accustomed to think very highly of legal education in Eng- land, and always refer to her Inns of Court. In the Law Quaffleffbf Rnewkw of 1892, Sir Frederick Pollock, writing of improvements contemplated in the Inns of Court said Hif worked with zeal and intelligence, the Inns of Court may, possibly, within a few years be not much inferior, as a center of legal instruc- tion, to an average second rate American law school . Very recently Lord Russell, Lord Chief Justice of England, addressed the Council of Legal Education in London on this subject. I-Ie carefully reviewed the work of American law schools and the 1T1C'EhOdS'adOpted here. I-Ie quoted approvingly Mr. Pollockis remark and then made this conservative statement: 'fEnough has: Ithlnkp been said by me to show that we must bestir our- s lv s if - ' '- . - - e C We 316, in this country, to keep our place in the march of ' - v ' . . . . educatlonal Pf0g1eSs . Why these enconiiuins from foreign critics? 'Ihey are so recent! Wl who are engaged 111 educational work must not take too much io deserves this praise? We

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C Q YQSIQYCIGV Gf llwtgal CIIICGUOII .l.. T HE STUDY of the Hhas been generally I Nw. ' fails to decoy the student mind. New paths .i lx and the charm of native verdure are more ' 'S' attractive To the young and the old the 4 1 aroma Of a living flower is more exhilara- P 14 1 ting than the ashes of roses. We are ab- W , sorbed in the present, All respect, but few W love, the past. Occasionally curiosity in- duces us to stare at some castle ruin or moss covered cathedral. lVe may go so far as to sniff our nose at an Egyptian mummy, or carry an obelisk over several thousand miles of sea. What of it? It is well to honor the past, but much better to study it.' 'These relics are something more than the solemn monumentsof mistaken ambition. They represent not the failures, but thersuccesses of our ancestors in social development. We may properly. ask, not simply what they did so long ago, but how they did it, in order that we may befable to do as well. There is a quite 'prevalent silent consciousness that the past is a mistake, that the present is almost perfect, and that the future is dubiously uncertain., This conceited and at the same time pessimistic view oflife is not healthful. Mistakes have been made and are being made daily. A mistake is an educator both to the man who makes it and to the man who learns of it. On the other hand there is no certainty that a method of work is wrong because it is old. We are justly proud of the achievements 'of the present generation in every Held of science, but no generation is a qualified judge of its own. Many of our new ideas areitoo much loved to live long. Our present will soon be past and an impartial eye will review us. In a few cycles the idols of our civilization may become petrified and IO

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credit to ourselves. Most of us had nothing to do with the mak- ing of the product approved of. Possibly those who taught us law are somewhat responsible for the reputation we enjoy. We Hrmly believe in the American law school of to-day, but in selecting methods of instruction and in planning for the future we should be careful lest we undo what our teachers did so well for us. We can afford to study and often follow the old masters. Those young men of the colonial period in our history who were ambitious to become lawyers were seriously embarrassed. There were no law schools, and very few law books. A practicing lawyer of highest rank was not then overburdened with legal litera- ture, in the way of text books, reports of periodicals. He. could carry his entire library in his satchel. T' This paucity of legal litera- ture was not entirely prejudicial. The lawyer of- that period was thrown upon his own resources, and was ,guided simply by the general principles announced by Blackstone, Coke, Britton and Fleta. He took up a concrete case and applied to it an educated common sense. By the force of his logic the court was compelled to agree withhim, and a principle of jurisprudence was established. This historical fact is largely responsible for the development of many men of great intelligence and power, and many of them signed the Declaration of Independence. The existing conditions were decidedly athletic, and strengthened the intellectual muscles. There was little for a man to rest upon but himself. There were no large public or private libraries worth mentioning,.and there was not in America any public school of law, before the period of the American Revo-lution. Our independence once established, important changes in legal H education followed. It became apparent that the law office could not meet the demands of those seeking knowledge in the science of jurisprudence. Attempts were made to organize schools of law. W'e will give an account of these attempts in their chronological order, from the most authen- tic sources: p . Fzvxrf. A professorship in law at lVilliam and Mary college in Virginia in 1782. The work done here was purely academic and not along the lines of professional education. Saofzfi. The Litchfield school established in Connecticut by Tapping Reeve in 1783. Here his great work on Domestic Relations was created, and here judge Gould wrote and delivered to