60 / 324
The rules of procedure in claims against the
Compensation fund have been settled and will
probably be made by the Council to-day.
The Apprenticeship and Education Regulations
will come into operation on ist September 1956.
Owing to the fact that provision must be made for
apprentices who are already part of the way through
the course the regulations will not come fully into
operation until autumn 1960 but various pro
visions will come into operation before that date.
The underlying principle of the new scheme of
education is the recognition that the studies of a
law student in what I have already referred to as
pure legal theory are best pursued at the Univer
sities which provide lecture courses and highly
qualified and competent lecturers in these subjects,
and that education in what I may describe as applied
legal theory can best be given by professional
institutions such as this Society. The regulations
therefore make it compulsory for solicitors' appren
tices to attend University lectures in the law of
property, real and personal, contract and
tort
before sitting for the Society's first law examination
and to attend further lectures at the University
in the subject of equity before attending the Society's
second law examination. From and after September
1956 the Society will discontinue the existing lec
ture courses in these subjects and will provide
lectures in the Solicitors' Buildings in conveyancing
law and practice and land law, the practice and pro
cedure of the Courts, company law and executor-
ship law and practice,
taxation including death
duties, and the rights duties and responsibilities
of solicitors.
Arrangements have already been
made and have been brought into operation during
the present year with the Dublin Vocational auth
orities for lectures by a qualified member of the staff
of the Rathmines School of Commerce in the subject
of book-keeping for solicitors' apprentices. Attend
ance at these lectures which are held in the Sol
icitors' Buildings is voluntary during the present
year but will be compulsory after ist September,
1956.
I am glad to be able to say that our appren
tices have shown their appreciation of the value
of these lectures by enrolling in large numbers
in the present session, and I should here like to
pay a tribute to the readiness with which the auth
orities of the Rathmines School of Commerce met
us in this matter and provided a very competent
lecturer at short notice.
I have little doubt that
the instruction which our apprentices are receiving
in this subject will not only enable them to pass
their examinations with greater facility but will
be of lasting value to them when they have been
admitted a,nd commence practice.
The second important change, and I believe
improvement, which has been effected by the new
Apprenticeship and Education Regulations is the
substitution for the present Intermediate and Final
examinations of four examinations covering the
same course as at present, but I believe dealing with
it more fairly and in greater detail. When the new
regulations have come into full operation we shall
have first, second and third Law examinations and
an examination in book-keeping (apart of course
from the first and second Irish examinations with
which everyone is already familar).
Under our
present system an apprentice is examined at the Inter
mediate examination generally taken after two years
apprenticeship on the general principles of the law of
property, contract, and tort, the practice and pro
cedure of the Courts, and book-keeping.
He is
not expected at that stage to have a very detailed
knowledge of the course and some of the more
difficult parts of the law of real property are ex
cluded. When he reaches the final examination
two or three years later he takes the same subjects
again in greater detail and in addition is examined
in equity. The new regulations limit the number
of subjects at the intermediate examination
to
the law of property contract and tort and exclude
Court practice altogether, but the first law exam
ination in property contract and tort will in effect
be the final examination as far as these subjects
are concerned, and having passed the examination
he will not be re-examined on them, subject to
this, that questions will be set at the third law exam
ination on the portion of the law of contract which
may be called commercial law on account of its
special importance in general practice. By dividing
up the examination course in this manner it will
be possible for the apprentice to avoid cramming
for the final examinations and it is also felt that
by obtaining a thorough grasp of the subjects
for the first law examination he will have a better
foundation for the subjects for the second and third
examinations which to a large extent will consist
of the practical applications of the law of property
and contract.
The subjects at the second law
examination will be equity, company law, con
veyancing, land law and the practice of the superior
courts. The subjects at the third law examination
will be the law of wills, probate and administration
of estates, taxation, criminal law and practice, the
law of evidence, commercial law and the practice
of Circuit and District Courts.
The present Intermediate examination will con
tinue until Spring 1957 and the first Law exam
ination under the new regulations will commence
in Autumn 1957.
It is important for apprentices
who are commencing their course this year to