The Gazette 1972

it is generally acknowledged that the academic role of the university is a limited one in law and that the bones and muscles of the intellectual habits cultivated in the law school must be covered with the flesh and blood of the skills and techniques necessary to survive in the professional world outside the law school.

sity, has meant that largely it is the full-time teaching staff in the law schools who have become the greatest influence in the shaping of curricula and syllabuses. But even now they have to tread warily because they have to retain the confidence of the profession to ensure that recognition of the law degree for professional qualifi- cation purposes is maintained. Consequently, the courses will often include some subjects which would be con- sidered by an English or Irish diehard academic to be too "technical" or "vocational" to be included in an academic degree course. But, as previously indicated, there is already in some Australian jurisdictions a post-graduate period in which such subjects as are not included in the degree course but are required for professional qualification may be undertaken, and this tendency is growing. This is also the position in New Zealand where the law graduate, if he wishes to enter the profession, must pass examin- ations in six "practical" subjects which cannot be taken during the law degree course (Civil Procedure, Con- veyancing and Draftmanship, Evidence, Legal Ethics and Advocacy, Office Administration and Accountancy, Taxation and Estate Planning). (The system in Scotland is not dissimilar). In any event, whether or not included in the degree course, these subjects are normally taught only in the universities, but by part-time lecturers who are practising members of the legal profession. Further, there is a growing recognition by nearly everyone in- terested in legal education that it is not within the frame- work of the law degree that full professional com- petence can, or even should, be acquired. This, allied with a growing disenchantment in Australia with the mediaeval system of training by service under articles and by pupillage, has led to the belief that formal prac- tical training is also necessary and that this should be systematic and perhaps given in an institution specially created for the purpose, whether or not it is associated with a university. Pioneer work has already been carried out in Victoria and elsewhere, and at the Australian National University in Canberra the Federal Govern- ment has allocated funds for a "legal workshop" (to be m operation from 1972) in which law graduates will work for six months in a simulated office situation as au alternative to articles of clerkship. These develop- ments are a reflection of the current dissatisfaction with existing training methods. The truth is that even in the closely integrated struc- tures of law degree courses and professional qualifi- cations as have hitherto existed in Australia and New Zealand it has been found to be impracticable to attempt to cover in the law degree courses all the necessary facets of systematic training required to produce a per- son fit to practise law. The role of the university in the making of the lawyer is a vital one, and it is indeed °nly in the university that the intellectual pursuit of an education in law should be offered. As the Scottish Faculty of Advocates stated in its memorandum to the 9°nrod Committee, "the most important single prin- ciple . . . has been the recognition that the proper place for the teaching of law is a univeristv." (Para. 69.) But Post-graduate vocational training in Australasia

Other professions

The Ormrod Committee, however, in looking at edu- cation for nine other professions, found a different attitude. In para. 80 it is stated: "There are not many in the other professions who advocate a clearly distin- guished formal academic course and an organised prac- tical training course, probably because it is generally expected that the university degree will be universal, and will cover both 'academic' and 'professional' re- quirements — or that there is no real distinction be- tween these concepts." There are perhaps some in the world of law also who would agree with these views, for one of the most difficult tasks is to distinguish "academic" and "practical" (or "vocational") subjects in law. The attitude of many American law teachers is that there is no branch of law or practice which is not fit to be taught at a university law school; it is all a question of how it is taught. Despite the many approving references to medical education throughout the Ormrod Report, it stops short at recommending a fully integrated degree structure such as exists in medicine. (These medical references are without doubt a consequence of the Chairman's unusual career, for he switched from law to medicine, and after a war-time medical career turned back again to the Bar.) Perhaps the Committee, though, in evolving its proposals, realised that too close a parallel cannot be drawn between medicine and law. These two great dis- ciplines are very dissimilar in their basic approaches and methods, and the nature of the disciplines must determine how they are taught. But, leaving aside the fundamental difference between the physical and social sciences, is there not a fallacy in the belief that there is not even now the same distinction between academic education and professional (or vocational) training in medicine as exists in law? Certainly the degree structure in medicine is very different from that in law, for all medical education is theoretically within and under the control of a single entity, the medical school, and ultim- ately the student emerges with a university degree (or professional diploma) which is a qualification for prac- tice in itself. (Full registration is subject to his serving satisfactorily a period of compulsory internship, with which may be compared the period of limited practice after qualification for solicitors recommended by the Report). To that extent, there is integration, but surely a clear distinction exists between the pre-clinical years of basic or ground-work teaching and the later years of clinical or applied training. Relations between the Law Schools and the profession in England The Report was anxious that firm links should be established between the law faculties and the profession 13