The Gazette 1972

of "practical use", but this quotation from the Robbins Report does indicate some awareness by the Committee of the underlying problem which faces all academic law schools. It does not perhaps loom so large where there is a separation of the academic and vocational stages in the making of the lawyer. It arises more acutely where the law degree is one which constitutes a full (or almost full) qualification for practice. This is generally the position in Australia (and also in New Zealand), where the most striking feature of legal edu- cation is the important part played by the universities in comparison with the position in England. Thus in each Australian state the normal pattern is that the LL.B. degree will, subject to the requirement of a period of articles (one or two years in most cases) (or a period of pupillage after admission for barristers in the two states, New South Wales and Queensland, in which the profession is as strictly divided as in England and Ire- land), qualify the recipient of the degree for admission to the legal profession in that state. In some jurisdic- tions, there is also a small number of additional sub- jects of a vocational nature which, if not included in the degree course, has to be undertaken after graduation in order to qualify a candidate for admission. Even in the case of these subjects, the universities usually are in charge of the teaching and examining. In no case does this amount to a complete practical training course, though there have been developments in recent years tending in that direction, either in substitution for or as an alternative to articles or as supplementary to articles. However, unlike New Zealand where all entrants to the profession must hold the LL.B. degree of one of the New Zealand universities, it is still possible in Australia to enter the legal profession without obtaining a law degree, provided entrants have served four or five years in articles (but in the non-fused jurisdictions in the case of solicitors only) and have passed the specified professional examinations. In fact, apart from New South Wales, where there is the greatest shortage of university places in law, most entrants to the profession have a university law degree (normally now obtained on a full-time study basis) and also, in many cases, an Arts, Commerce or Economics degree as well. It may be added that both in Australia and New Zealand there is a uniform system of education for both barristers and solicitors in the university law schools. Thus required studies and examinations are precisely the same for both branches. This is the case even in the non-fused Australian jurisdictions where the only differences arise in die practical training, such as it is, outside the law schools. But in the other (fused) Australian states there is only one set of admission rules and so even those who intend to practise solely as barristers have to com- plete a period of articles. New Zealand too is a country with a formally-fused profession, though, as in Australia, in practice the division of work between barristers and solicitors tends to be maintained. But New Zealand has moved ahead of Australia in substituting limited practice (for three years) for service in articles for those who wish to prac- tise as solicitors. There is no system of pupillage in New Zealand, so that the newly-qualified "Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court" may, if he so decides,

take out a practising certificate exclusively as a barrister and set up immediately in independent practice.

The responsibility of integrated Law Schools

It will be obvious therefore that the important part played by the law degree in Australasia throws a heavy burden on the universities law schools. They have, of course, to aim at giving an education that will equip the student with the knowledge and the techniques to give him competence in the major sectors of current legal practice. But they must do more than this if the award of a university degree is to be intellectually and academi- cally justifiable. The courses, which extend over four or five years (plus an extra year if combined with an- other degree), consist not only of the essential pro- fessional subjects but also cultural studies in general perspective subjects( and in some schools in non-legal subjects as well), so that the law graduate should emerge with a liberal education in law, with some understanding of law, and not with just a knowledge of technical rules law. Thus it is recognised that the newly-qualified lawyer must have some appreciation of the purpose of law and its place in society. But the preservation of a proper balance between cultural and professional subjects in the limited period available, longer though this is than in Brit- ain and Ireland, is always a considerable problem which causes a great deal of intellectual anguish. The Boards of the Faculties of Law, which control the degree cour- ses, consist not only of all or most of the law school staff who are actually teaching the courses, but also of representatives of the Bench, Bar and solicitors who are inclined to place heavy emphasis on professional interests. These three "outside" elements do not, of course, always coincide in their viewpoints, let alone with those of the teaching staff, but they do attend the meetings and are not remiss in expressing their opinions. It was only after 1945 that the Australasian university law schools gradually shook off the shackles of almost complete professional domination, manifested not only by strict control of the curricula but also by most in- struction being given by practitioners on a part-time basis. They are now, by and large, well-developed in- stitutions, with their teaching, except to a minor extent, provided by full-time academic staff. A relic of pro- fessional control in New Zealand is that practitioners still "assist" the university law schools in setting papers and assessing the scripts in the case of subjects which count towards the professional qualification. Naturally during this period of great growth and de- velopment there were many controversies, and in some cases bad relations developed between law schools and the profession. (Canada too had its great rifts.) How- ever, in most jurisdictions there is happily now a some- what greater awareness on the part of the profession of the broader educational needs of the lawyers of die future and that much more than technical professional competence is required. This growing appreciation of the necessity for promoting an understanding of law in a social, economic, philosophical and political context best achieved in the intellectual environment of a univer-

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