Legal Education

Vocabulary

transactions – угоди / сделки

to carry out research – проводити дослідження / проводить исследования

case method – метод, оснований на вивченні конкретних справ / метод основанный на изучении конкретних дел

transactional – ведення ділових операцій / ведение деловых операций

litigious – той, що підлягає судовому розгляду / подлежащий судебному разбирательству

Inns of Court – школа підготовки баристерів в Англії / школа підготовки барристов в Англии

1. What are the aims of legal education?

Legal education has a number of aims. One aim is to make the student familiar with legal concepts and instructions. All lawyers must become acquainted with the processes of making law settling disputes and regulating the legal profession. They must study the structure of government and the organization of courts including the system of appeals. Traditional legal education also includes the teaching of legal history. Another aim of legal education is the teaching of law in its social, economic, political and scientific context. The graduating law student is expected to be familiar with the general principles of the main branches of law.

2. What subjects are regarded as basic?

These subjects are: constitutional law, the law of contract, the law of tort (or delicts), governing compensation for personal injury or damage to property, income or reputation the law of real property, governing transactions with lаnd, criminal law, administrative law.

3. What subjects are considered to be less basic?

These subjects are: commercial law, the law of marriage and domestic relations, tax law, public international law.

4. What are the chief study materials?

The chief materials are the same everywhere: codes (where they exist), or decided cases, legislation, government and other public reports, textbooks, and scientific articles. The aim is not that the student should remember “the law” but he should understand basic concepts and become familiar with a law library to carry out the necessary research on any legal problem that may come his way.

5. What are the main methods of teaching at law schools?

In the United States the case method came to prevail in teaching. This method was introduced in the 19-th century at Harvard University. According to this method the student reads reported cases and other materials collected in a case book and the class answers questions about them instead of listening to a lecture by the teacher. The case-book method has been adopted at some institutions in England and other common law countries. But, even in the United States, many law schools now use seminars and lectures as well.

The traditional teaching method in English universities has been lectures and tutorials (or seminars). In addition moot courts have been an integral part of English legal education since the middle Ages.

In continental European countries the backbone of legal education is the formal lecture.

6. What are the methods of screening potential lawyers at law schools?

They use the type of the formal test in which students write answers to questions in an examination hall. Oral examinations are no longer widely used.

7. What are the legal ethics?

Legal ethics are the ethical principles that members of legal profession are expected to observe in the practice of law.

8. What are the main divisions in the legal profession?

The first division is private practice. Client directed lawyers are called counselors.

In his client directed activities the lawyers is concerned with how the law affects specific circumstances, which can be divided into two main types: transactional and litigious. In the transactional type, the lawyer is concerned with the validity or legal efficacy of a transaction. The litigious function is subdivided into three main stages. First is the preparation of the case – interviewing the client and witnesses, investigating the circumstances of the case, gathering information etc. Second is the stage of trial. Third is the execution of the judgment.

The second division is public – directed practice.

The highest function served by the legal specialist today is that of judging, but it can be regardered as a separate profession. One of the most difficult of the governmental legal function is that of prosecutor in criminal cases. England has an independent “director of public prosecutions” concerned only with the most serious types of crime, but most prosecutions are conducted by private barristers. In the U.S. this function has come to be mainly local and prosecutors are elected for short terms.

Another branch of government, legislative, usually requires legal assistance.

The third division is teaching and scholarship. Much law teaching in the new university law schools was carried on part-time by attorneys, barristers and judges.

9. What specialist may be called as a lawyer?

A lawyer is a person learned in the law; a person licensed to practice law. Any person who prosecutes or defends causes in courts or whose business it is to give legal advice or assistance.

10. What is a paralegal?

A paralegal is a person with legal skills, but who is not an attorney, and who works under the supervision of a lawyer in performing various tasks, relating to the practice of law. A paralegal does routine legal tasks. Lawyers, who employ such assistants can devote more time to complex legal cases.

11. What is an attorney at law?

Attorney at law is a person admitted to practice law in his respective state and authorized to perform both civil and criminal legal function for clients, including drafting of legal documents, giving of legal advice and representing of clients before courts.

12. What is a prosecuting attorney (prosecutor)?

Prosecuting attorney is the name of the public officer who is appointed or elected in each judicial district to conduct criminal prosecutions on behalf of the state or people. Federal prosecutors (U.S. Attorneys) represent the Unites States in prosecuting federals crimes.

13. What is a public defender?

A public defender is an attorney appointed by a court or employed by a government agency whose work consists in defending indigent defendants in criminal cases.

14. How are lawyers called in the United Kingdom?

The lawyers in the United Kingdom are called barristers and solicitors.

15. What is a barrister?

Barrister is an advocate; a counselor learned in the law who has been admitted to plead at the bar, and who is engaged in conducting the trial. A person called to the bar by the benchers of Inns of Court, giving exclusive right of audience in the Supreme Court.

16. What are the Inns of Court?

Inns of Court the name given during the early Middle Ages to four groups of buildings in London where lawyers lived, studied, taught and held court.

They are the Inner temple, the Middle temple, Lincoln’s inn, and Gray’s Inn. Inns of Court came to mean not only the buildings, but also the legal societies that owned and used them.

The four legal societies have great importance today. By long custom, only they can admit barristers to practice their profession before the courts of England.

17. What is the solicitor?

Solicitor is a chief law officer of city, town or other government body or department. A solicitor may practice in the Bankruptcy court, country courts, most of inferior courts in certain proceeding in the Crown Court.

18. What is the Bar?

The Bar is general name for the whole legal profession. The term first referred to the courtroom railing dividing the space reserved for lawyers and judges from the public section. Admission to the bar now means permission to practice law.

19. What is the system of law education in the U.S.?

To practice law in most states of the U/S/ a person must first have a degree from a law school. The majority of law schools are a part of large universities.

20. Who may be admitted to U.S. law schools?

Most U.S. law schools admit only four year college graduates. During their college training, pre law students do not have to take any particular courses. But the majority of students planning to go to law school specialize in the humanities or the social sciences.

21. What are the requirements of law school programs?

Most law school programs require three years of study. Daring this time, students take courses in all the major branches of public and private law.

21. What degree do the students receive upon completing the required program?

Upon completing the required program, a student receives a J.D. (Doctor of jurisprudence) degree.

23. When was the nation’s first university law school established?

The nation’s first university law school was established at Harvard University in 1817.

23. What is the case method?

The case method was developed at Harvard University in 1870-s. This method trained students in precise legal reasoning through the reading, analysis, and discussion of actual court cases.

23. What is the ABA?

The American Bar Association is a private, nationwide organization of lawyers that was founded in 1878.

23. What is the AALS?

The Association of American Law Schools was founded in 1900 by 35 law schools. Both organizations have raised the minimum educational standards that a law school must meet to gain their approval.

23. How many law schools are there in the U.S. now?

Today, there are 220 law schools in the U.S. 175 of them are approved by either ABA or the AALS or by both organizations.

23. What is the system of licensing of lawyers?

Each state has its own bar – that is, the body of lawyers who have a license to law school graduates who-pass the state’s bar examination. In the early 1990’s the United States had more than 750 000 lawyers. The highest court or the legislature in each state sets rules of conduct for lawyers. The court has the power to disbar (suspend form practice) any member of the state bar who violates these rules.

23. What is the proceeding of disbarment?

Act of court in suspending attorney’s license to practice law. A disbarment proceeding is neither civil not criminal action. It is special proceeding disciplinary in nature.

23. How do lawyers practice law in the U.S.?

The majority of U.S. lawyers conduct most of their business out of court. But some lawyers who specialize in criminal cases do much trial work. Many American lawyers have a general practice. They provide every kind of legal service from drawing up wills and other legal papers to handling court cases. Many other lawyers-especially in big cities-concentrate on a particular branch of law, such of these lawyers work for large law firms.