Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/286

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The Yale Law School.
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jurisdiction, including Patent and Admiralty Law. The second of these graduate courses is only available to those who have successfully completed their studies for the degree of Master of Laws, and have pursued a course of Roman Law. A good knowledge of Latin and of either French or German is also an essential requirement. The Faculty aim to make the completion of this course a test of real attainments in legal scholarship, insisting upon an unusual standard of ability and industry, and never giving the degree unless the candidate has proved him self especially worthy of the distinction. The degree conferred is that of Doctor of Civil Laws (D.C.L.). It is believed that there is no other Law School in the country which offers a fourth year of study, or which gives this degree regularly in course. There are certainly no better opportunities offered elsewhere for obtaining a finished legal education.

The special and graduate courses, however, are but auxiliary to the undergraduate course, which gives the necessary preparation to practice, and by which we must measure the usefulness of the school. In considering and comparing methods of instruction, we shall therefore have the undergraduate course especially in mind, and for convenience will notice in their order the general arrangement of the curriculum, the character of the work in the class-room and of that which is required outside of the class-room.

WILLIAM C. ROBINSON.

The burden of the work is borne by four of the Faculty, Professors Robinson, Baldwin, Platt, and Townsend, each of them devoting a certain number of hours a week to each class regularly during the college year. A glance at the curriculum will show that the principal subjects of study in the first year are Elementary Law, Pleading, Torts, Contracts, and Mercantile Law, which are intended to give a general classification of the law, and a knowledge of its fundamental principles. Under Contracts, those subjects are selected at first which are of general application, such as Agency, The Statute of Limitations, and the Statute of Frauds. Evidence and the Law of Wills, to which considerable time is devoted, are especially valuable as familiarizing the student with the general rules of construction. The study of the law of Evidence, particularly, not only is an excellent training in the logic of the law, but also gives to the beginner an idea of its motives or spirit, and aids in the development of a critical and legal habit of mind. The accompanying courses on International and Constitutional Law are not so evidently appropriate as first-year studies, but serve to open up to the student a wider view of his chosen science. In the second year the separation of topics is carried much further, and the more important divisions exhaustively studied, many of them being included in the curriculum under the general term "Contracts." During the whole course practical work is required wherever possible, as in the drawing of wills and contracts,