THE

HE present administration of the Law School of Boston University, which began in the summer of 1902, has been building its work upon two ideas: (1) Science has been creating a civilization in recent years. As the new President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology put it in his Inaugural a short time ago, "Science has brought men to face a new heaven and a new earth." The Law School was to be a school of the twentieth century, and, while not unmindful of the past, must therefore put the emphasis of its work upon the newer and more pressing problems of the life before it.

The law

(2) This led to bed rock. must be regarded as an order of correlated parts to be taught, therefore, as a unity. "Incoherences were to be knitted into coherence," to borrow the apt quotation from Carlyle's Journal, made the text of Professor Bliss Perry's notable Commencement Address on "The Coherent Life," before Boston University, in June. And this not as mere sentiment, but as the needful training of the mind, and as an antidote to serious tendencies toward disintegration appearing as well in current methods of education as in social life. Unity through correlation, we say, is the fundamental idea of legal education in the Law School of Boston University. To bring the mind up to its best work it must be trained and coerced into ways of coherence in its processes of thinking, the problem accordingly being looked upon essentially as one of psychology.

The purpose of the administration, as

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Dean Bigelow has put it, is, "not to fill the head with a mass of information, but to centralize the nervous forces of the brain." It seeks to guide the student to the maximum realization of his powers, and insists that the Law School training shall be so far a forecast of the lawyer's work as to make proficiency a matter of habit.

We heartily agree that the Law School is least of all the place in which to exploit novel pedagogical experiments; but the principle underlying the policy which we have outlined is basic, and its effectiveness is beyond question. It no more needs demonstration to-day than does, the law of the psychology of habit upon which it is founded. It demands an educated brain, and insists that the beaten paths along which its trained activities operate must deviate in no particular from the lines along which the future lawyer is to progress.

The principle of unity through correlation is kept in sight throughout the details of administration and instruction. The different divisions of the law as laid down in the curriculum are presented to the student at the outset as parts of a related scheme, and their interrelations and correlations are constantly kept in view, while the various courses are shaped toward, and find their culmination and practical application in, the Master's Course.

The administration is thoroughly committed to the study of cases as one of the three required lines of work; problems and court work being equally insisted on.

The study of cases is not the "case

system" as commonly understood. To quote Dean Bigelow in this connection: "The rules were treated practically, if not in terms, as causes, and now confusion growing out of that fact in relation to the facts of a new era stared us in the face. What did these new and overwhelming movements in social life mean, if not, in their relation to the law, that they were cause, and the law was' but an effect? Law was now plainly enough nothing but the effect of matter of fact, and not a thing in itself laid down to govern men in all time." It may be remarked that, following out this idea of reversing the traditional order, the study of evidence and procedure is placed in the first year.

It is almost superfluous to add that the study of cases is designed to be inten-. sive rather than extensive. The desirability of avoiding the confusion inevitable in dealing with a mass of half-digested facts is self-evident. Modern scientific instruction requires the laboratory work to follow the same persistent, thorough, and painstaking steps by which the original investigations were made. Scientists agree that in no other way can the scientific spirit be imparted, and we maintain that, if the law student is to become imbued with the legal atmosphere, he must be guided by the same spirit. In the direct study of cases, his work corresponds to those laboratory exercises which furnish a verification of established principles, or perhaps more specifically to those devoted to the consideration of phenomena through which the principles may be formulated. We feel no hesitation in comparing this method with that of the laboratory. The laboratory method typifies the reaction against a moribund educational scholasticism. Rejecting the acquisition of half-digested matter as mere waste, it

requires the observer to see things with his own eyes, and to view them with scrupulous care from their various points. of approach, until they appear in their true relation. The sane perspective of science is everywhere the resultant of methods in conformity with its princi ples. A case analyzed and weighed from a really scientific standpoint, or any standpoint that is worth while, requires that its vital features be so far assimilated as to become a part of the student's mental equipment.

The so-called "five-point" method is followed in the study and discussion of cases. The points considered are the following:

(1) Nature of the action..
(2) Essential facts.

(3) Point or points in dispute.
(4) Decision.

(5) Ground of the decision.

Following this order, the student is not supposed to leave a case until he can stand on his feet and clearly and unhesitatingly report on it in full. This done without reference to notes, he is obliged to show his grasp of every material detail by the most searching questioning. New statements of fact are presented to him, that he may show the application of the principle of law which is brought out, or the distinctions which a different set of conditions involves. He is led to see that the consideration of points 4 and 5, without reference to 2 and 3, may not only be valueless, but absolutely misleading. He may as well be warned, even thus early, that he may be imperiling his cause by citing a case. to support a proposition, only to learn. through opposing counsel that it was decided on a different set of facts from the case at bar, or that an entirely different question was involved.

The problem marks a distinct step be

yond the study of adjudicated cases. As the student of science is called upon to apply the principles which he has worked out to new and unfamiliar conditions, so the law student must apply the propositions of law which he has derived from the study cases. The problems are either assigned to be worked out as prepared, or are given in class as sight work. In either case a working hypothesis must be evolved from a set of undigested facts. The class problems call for the effective exercise of the mind in action, and are designed to promote that flexibility which is needed to cope with the unexpected. The set problems consist of facts complex enough to require for their analysis the best of the student's powers, and the synthesis of which into a controlling principle of law will oblige him to fully and accurately weigh the authorities that seem to be to the point. Problems will hereafter characterize third-year work.

The undoubted value of the oral test, whether by case or problem, led to a realization of the urgent need of its frequent repetition with each individual. This end, manifestly impracticable with large bodies of students, has been accomplished by dividing the class into sections under the direction of preceptors. To insure complete harmony with the general plan, the head of the department meets the preceptors and carefully outlines the work, both as to subject-matter and manner of presentation.

The student now has before him the practical certainty that he will be called up at each meeting of the section. If he has anything in him, he is anxious to appear at his best. In fact, the general response of the members of the sections has been of the most gratifying character. They show that they appreciate the importance of cultivating the ability to

think on their feet and to express themselves in a creditable manner. The consistent preparation that is necessitated involves real progress, as well as some adequate conception of its existence. If the system accomplished nothing more than removing the temptation to defer serious effort until the approach of the final examination, it would fully justify itself.

The court work which is begun in the second undergraduate year marks the third step in the scheme of instruction. Each student during his second year must conduct four cases in the municipal court, as counsel for the plaintiff in two and as counsel for the defendant in two. He must go ahead with his cases in every detail as in actual practice, and see that they are appealed to the superior court at the end of the year.

The members of the third year continue in the superior court pending appeals from the municipal court, besides. beginning actions originally in that court both in law and in equity. When a case is taken to the Supreme Court, exceptions must be claimed, and a bill of exceptions prepared and filed, in due form.

The student is placed upon his own responsibility, with no further suggestions than will enable him to go to the proper sources of information. It is felt that he will learn most effectually through his own mistakes. It being part of the regular requirements, and as such constituting a part of his record, he is under no temptation to regard the work as a minor issue.

The system of moot courts in the Boston University Law School has passed the experimental stage, and involves nothing that is novel, far-fetched, or of problematical value. problematical value. They are but a necessary detail in fitting the student for a profession which he is to practice. To

argue that they are premature is as illogical as to demand that the student in engineering defer his acquaintance with the transit and level until he takes up the actual work of his profession.

Thus, by requirements gradually increasing in intensity, the student at the end of his undergraduate course has been led to a general view of the field of the law, combined with enough of its application to add practical value to the output.

The Master's Course is designed for those who wish to continue after graduation the study of law wholly in the line of its application. Under the head. of Sovereignty, which is the central idea, it introduces the student to the newer questions of law which are being pushed to the fore by the social and economic transformations of the times. Mr. Brooks Adams, from his professional experience with such questions, is especially qualified to direct the work. In entire sympathy with the Dean's policy, he attacks the problem of securing the maximum of concentration with the minimum of waste by methods differing in degree rather than in kind. The student's work consists wholly of the trial cases in the Master's Court and the preparation of papers which are connected with the general plan. Those whose attainments warrant are admitted to the final test, which includes a written opinion and thesis, together with the arguing under criticism of an examination

case.

The cases are designed to be of such a character as would demand the resources of counsel accustomed to deal with important litigation. The facts may be adapted to hypothetical questions dealing with the newer developments of the law, or are taken from pending cases along the lines of the foregoing. A

novel phase of points well established. by precedent may be involved, or the student may be required to argue under the federal law a case decided according to the doctrine of a particular state, as. for example, the strike fine decision in Willcutt v. Driscoll, 200 Mass. 110, 85 N. E. 897. Under the first illustration cited, apropos of the opinion expressed during the United States Senate debate on the Railway Rate Regulation Bill, that an interlocutory injunction by a justice of the Circuit Court would lie in the face of a federal statute removing that power, a case involving just such premises was assigned on the facts of Thomas v. Cincinnati, etc., R. R., 62 Fed. 820.

The foregoing give but a hint of the character of the cases. The facts assigned, the student must analyze them, apply the form of procedure they may demand, and carry the case from the superior court to the Supreme Court, where he argues the points of law that are brought out. His pleadings are subjected to the strictest scrutiny, and he must sustain his oral argument against the criticism of the court, which is composed of members of the Faculty. The Dean and Mr. Adams attend the sessions of the court, and may at any time join in the questions which are designed to test the validity of the proposition of law in the light of the various conclusions to which it may lead.

If the argument weakens or is broken down the precise cause of the failure is brought out in the review of the case at the next meeting in the lecture

room.

It is the theory that the heroic method is the only effectual remedy for the "mental astigmatism" which was noticeable when the system of moot courts was first seriously inaugurated. Students