The Teaching and Transmission of Law in England, 1150 - 1900
Edited by Jonathan A. Bush and Alain Wijffels
Before the middle of the nineteenth century there was little formal provision of legal education in Britain. The law taught in the ancient universities was not intended to have practical value and entrance to the bar was not dependent upon written examination. The effort required to rise in an intensely competitive profession was deemed sufficient to guarantee that legal learning was seen to be a necessary step towards success. There was nevertheless, a tradition of legal learning, dating back to the middle ages, available to students of the law. The inns of court provided the equivalent of a legal university and have indeed been described as 'The Third University of England'. Their readings entailed a close examination of legal points, while senior members were often willing to impart their own learning to promising juniors, Books in manuscript and later in print were available to students. From the time of Blackstone, whose Commentaries provided the classic analysis of the common law, lectures on legal topics also became more common. The essays in Learning the Law, including essays by John Baker, Paul Brand, James Brundage, Richard Helmholz and other British and American scholars, deal with all aspects of British legal learning. Taken together they represent an impressive contribution to understanding how the law was both taught and learned.
