Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/428

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Law Department of the State University of Iowa.
385

attorneys are prevented from going outside of the statement of facts by the simple rule that the court in determining the case will not regard as proved any facts not within the written statement, while on the other hand facts which are there found, will not be considered unless established by proper evidence.

In the senior course the scope of the Moot Court is still further enlarged for a part of the year by carrying on regular jury trials, the evidence being presented as before, while the jury pass upon questions of fact under instructions prepared by the attorneys and given by the court.

It is found best to have separate courts for juniors and seniors, and to have not more than two attorneys on each side. Indeed, in cases involving only a presentation of law questions, it is usual to have but one attorney for each party, so that the whole responsibility for the preparation of pleadings, and the presentation of his side of the case, rests upon a single student. By diligently carrying on the courts, it is found practicable to have each student engage as attorney in from five to eight cases during his course, while he writes opinions as associate judge in from three to five cases. Club Courts were formerly held by the students, conducted by judges elected from their own number; but the opportunity for work in the regular Moot Court under the charge of members of the Faculty is now so great that the students' courts have been abandoned.

LEWIS W. ROSS

The library of the School embraces about four thousand volumes, including the complete reports of the United States Supreme Court and the Courts of Last Resort of twenty-two States; also the series of American Decisions, American Reports, American State Reports, Myer's Federal Decisions, and the complete series of Reporters; also nearly all the English Reports down to and including a part of the series of Law Reports; also a good collection of standard treatises in which are included all the recent American works of any note. These books are in a commodious library-room and are accessible to the students and freely used.

The rooms of the department have been, from the first, on the second floor of the substantial stone building represented at the beginning of this article, and which was erected as a capitol building when the capital of the State was at Iowa City. Flanked by the other University buildings, it stands in the centre of a beautiful campus in the heart of the city. At present the whole second floor, formerly occupied as legislative halls, is occupied by the department; the representative chamber being used as general lecture room (as shown by the cut at the end of this article) in which all junior exercises are held, while the old senate chamber is divided into two rooms, one seated in the same way as the general lecture room and used for senior exercises, while the other contains the library.

In arranging a course of study three