LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 5 October 1881, Page 2

LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

I * Legal education does not appear to he on a very, satisfactory footing in the Uuited States, The other dav the graduates of one of the Ne** -1 York schools of law were admitted to the Bar by tbe Supreme Court on the strength of their diplomas, while those on the Columbia College, with which the celebrated teacher, Professor Dwyth, is connected, were rejected. The diploma does not appear to testify to anything beyond the attendance of the student at lectures, and tbe rejected graduates, as it happened, had actually attended more lectures than their successful riva's. The decision of the Court, however, is stated to be strictly in accordance with the complex" statue law bearing on the ense. Admission to legal practice is a matter of State regulation, and tbere is accordingly the usual diversity ot rule. There-is a good' deal to be said for the simple plan of allowing; every citizen to be a lawyer ; but if that is departed from, the examination system, which appears to be as unpopuhr. in America as it is in tbis country i.*-* really the only sound alternative. There is undeniable force in the remark made by President Davis in giving the decision of the Bench, that if young men ask the Court for a certificate of fitness for professional work they ought to submit to the only ordeal by which, however, imperfectly, frnch fitness can be tested,— Pall Hall Gazette.