Law school

Law School is the term used in the United States to indicate an institution where future lawyers obtain legal degrees, mainly teaching using the Socratic method. In the U.S. law is a graduate degree, which students embark upon only after completing an undergraduate degree in some other field; the undergraduate degree can be in any field. In most cases the degree granted by American law schools is the Juris Doctor, or J.D., degree, though the LL.B. degree is still common in other common law jurisdictions, mostly Commonwealth countries. Other degrees that are awarded include the Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) and the Doctor of Juridical Science degree (J.S.D.). A law school is usually an autonomous entity within a larger university and is considered to be a graduate or professional school program.

Pedagogical methods

Most law school education is based on standards developed by Christopher Columbus Langdell and James Barr Ames at Harvard Law School during the mid-1800s. Professors generally lead in-class debates over the issues in selected court cases, compiled into "casebooks" for each course. Most law professors choose not to lecture extensively, and instead use the Socratic method to force students to teach each other based on their individual understanding of legal theory and the facts of the case at hand. Examinations usually entail interpreting the facts of a hypothetical case, determining how legal theories apply to the case, and then writing an essay. This process is intended to train students in the reasoning methods necessary to interpret theories, statutes, and precedents correctly, and argue their validity, both orally and in writing. In contrast, most civil law countries base their legal education on professorial lectures and oral examinations, which are more suited for the mastery of complicated civil codes.

Related Topics:
Christopher Columbus Langdell - James Barr Ames - Harvard Law School - 1800s - Casebooks - Socratic method - Statute - Precedent - Civil law - Civil code

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This style of teaching is often discomforting to first-year law students who are more accustomed to taking notes from professors' lectures. Most casebooks do not clearly outline the law: instead, they force the student to interpret the cases and draw the basic legal concepts from the cases themselves. As a result, many publishers market law school outlines that concisely summarize the basic concepts of each area of law, and good outlines are highly sought after by many students, although some professors discourage their use.

Related Topics:
Casebooks - Law school outlines

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