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of "practical use", but this quotation from the Robbins
Report does indicate some awareness by the Committee
of the underlying problem which faces all academic
law schools. It does not perhaps loom so large where
there is a separation of the academic and vocational
stages in the making of the lawyer. It arises more
acutely where the law degree is one which constitutes
a full (or almost full) qualification for practice. This is
generally the position in Australia (and also in New
Zealand), where the most striking feature of legal edu-
cation is the important part played by the universities
in comparison with the position in England. Thus in
each Australian state the normal pattern is that the
LL.B. degree will, subject to the requirement of a period
of articles (one or two years in most cases) (or a period
of pupillage after admission for barristers in the two
states, New South Wales and Queensland, in which the
profession is as strictly divided as in England and Ire-
land), qualify the recipient of the degree for admission
to the legal profession in that state. In some jurisdic-
tions, there is also a small number of additional sub-
jects of a vocational nature which, if not included in the
degree course, has to be undertaken after graduation in
order to qualify a candidate for admission. Even in the
case of these subjects, the universities usually are in
charge of the teaching and examining. In no case does
this amount to a complete practical training course,
though there have been developments in recent years
tending in that direction, either in substitution for or as
an alternative to articles or as supplementary to articles.
However, unlike New Zealand where all entrants to
the profession must hold the LL.B. degree of one of
the New Zealand universities, it is still possible in
Australia to enter the legal profession without obtaining
a law degree, provided entrants have served four or five
years in articles (but in the non-fused jurisdictions in
the case of solicitors only) and have passed the specified
professional examinations. In fact, apart from New
South Wales, where there is the greatest shortage of
university places in law, most entrants to the profession
have a university law degree (normally now obtained on
a full-time study basis) and also, in many cases, an
Arts, Commerce or Economics degree as well. It may be
added that both in Australia and New Zealand there is
a uniform system of education for both barristers and
solicitors in the university law schools. Thus required
studies and examinations are precisely the same for
both branches. This is the case even in the non-fused
Australian jurisdictions where the only differences arise
in die practical training, such as it is, outside the law
schools. But in the other (fused) Australian states there
is only one set of admission rules and so even those
who intend to practise solely as barristers have to com-
plete a period of articles.
New Zealand too is a country with a formally-fused
profession, though, as in Australia, in practice the
division of work between barristers and solicitors tends
to be maintained. But New Zealand has moved ahead of
Australia in substituting limited practice (for three
years) for service in articles for those who wish to prac-
tise as solicitors. There is no system of pupillage in New
Zealand, so that the newly-qualified "Barrister and
Solicitor of the Supreme Court" may, if he so decides,
take out a practising certificate exclusively as a barrister
and set up immediately in independent practice.
The responsibility of integrated Law Schools
It will be obvious therefore that the important part
played by the law degree in Australasia throws a heavy
burden on the universities law schools. They have, of
course, to aim at giving an education that will equip the
student with the knowledge and the techniques to give
him competence in the major sectors of current legal
practice. But they must do more than this if the award
of a university degree is to be intellectually and academi-
cally justifiable. The courses, which extend over four
or five years (plus an extra year if combined with an-
other degree), consist not only of the essential pro-
fessional subjects but also cultural studies in general
perspective subjects( and in some schools in non-legal
subjects as well), so that the law graduate should emerge
with a liberal education in law, with some understanding
of law, and not with just a knowledge of technical rules
law.
Thus it is recognised that the newly-qualified lawyer
must have some appreciation of the purpose of law and
its place in society. But the preservation of a proper
balance between cultural and professional subjects in the
limited period available, longer though this is than in Brit-
ain and Ireland, is always a considerable problem which
causes a great deal of intellectual anguish. The Boards
of the Faculties of Law, which control the degree cour-
ses, consist not only of all or most of the law school
staff who are actually teaching the courses, but also of
representatives of the Bench, Bar and solicitors who
are inclined to place heavy emphasis on professional
interests. These three "outside" elements do not, of
course, always coincide in their viewpoints, let alone
with those of the teaching staff, but they do attend the
meetings and are not remiss in expressing their opinions.
It was only after 1945 that the Australasian university
law schools gradually shook off the shackles of almost
complete professional domination, manifested not only
by strict control of the curricula but also by most in-
struction being given by practitioners on a part-time
basis. They are now, by and large, well-developed in-
stitutions, with their teaching, except to a minor extent,
provided by full-time academic staff. A relic of pro-
fessional control in New Zealand is that practitioners
still "assist" the university law schools in setting papers
and assessing the scripts in the case of subjects which
count towards the professional qualification.
Naturally during this period of great growth and de-
velopment there were many controversies, and in some
cases bad relations developed between law schools and
the profession. (Canada too had its great rifts.) How-
ever, in most jurisdictions there is happily now a some-
what greater awareness on the part of the profession of
the broader educational needs of the lawyers of die
future and that much more than technical professional
competence is required. This growing appreciation of
the necessity for promoting an understanding of law in
a social, economic, philosophical and political context
best achieved in the intellectual environment of a univer-
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