LEGAL EDUCATION IN PRESENT SOCIETY

The legal profession must continue not merely to react to a change society, but even more. To help bring about needed changes, the training for the profession must prepare lawyers to perform this function.

THE PAST IS PROLOGUE

Spanish Rule -> United States Americans introduced among other things, their style of life, a new system of law and education Need for a law school conducted in English = UP College of Law

THE PAST IS PROLOGUE

Emphasis was preparation for independence and demonstrate the Filipino capacity for governing themselves Spanish civil law system + US system of law Spain = family relations, property, succession US = business, commercial Emphasis on Legal Literature

LEGAL EDUCATION TODAY

Law profession politics & government service Gauge of standards = bar examination results No system of accreditation and to fix standards of instruction

LAW CURRICULUM
SUPREME COURT Rules of Court, Rule 138, Sec. 5:
no applicant shall be admitted to the bar examinations unless he has satisfactorily completed the following courses in a law school or university duly recognized by the government: civil law, commercial law, remedial law, public and private international law, political law, labor and social legislation, medical jurisprudence, taxation and legal ethics.

LAW CURRICULUM
Perspective courses < Required courses Law school may ignore the requirements, but graduated students will not be allowed to take the bar examinations. Requirements prevent meaningful innovations in the courses To allow the bar examinations to dominate legal education, is to take a short sighted view of what the law school stands for.

OBJECTIVES OF LEGAL EDUCATION Prepare students for the practice of law v. Prepare students to pass the bar examinations

OBJECTIVES OF LEGAL EDUCATION

Practice of law: Majority is done outside the court Giving counsel to clients on personal, family or business interests, drawing up articles of incorporation, by-laws, planning mergers or dissolution of corporations, negotiating on the side of labor or management mediating, etc.

OBJECTIVES OF LEGAL EDUCATION

Black letter of codes and court decisions in textbooks and commentaries Can prepare students for the bar examinations. Are these sufficient for the demands to which graduates must respond when most of them reach their greatest responsibility, thirty years after they leave the school Substantive and procedural law may change before the student graduates.

OBJECTIVES OF LEGAL EDUCATION

42/44 courses in the usual 4-year law education plan are required, 2 are electives. No opportunity to prepare for specialization, specialization starts after graduation. Legal apprenticeship is not required.

OBJECTIVES OF LEGAL EDUCATION Most important ingredient in a lawyers education may well be the ability to learn by himself. No training can place all the law at his finger tips.

THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES?

Taint of Colonialism The law is taught to conserve the prevailing interests Reform is slow Law is not indigenous Trend: not for isolation but for adaptation Example: American Free Speech

THE LAW SCHOOL AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Exert leadership in the development of law Attainment of national aspiration selfgovernment Students Impatient for reform Violent means to effect Place trust on working within the system (some)

THE LAW SCHOOL AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Law school is for higher education Cause for free inquiry Making decisions freely Working in and out of the system

The picture of the Quintessential Lawyer Has the law profession lost its importance Increase of people studying law When there is progress, there is law. Importance of law grows with the complexity of society

Re-examination of legal concepts and institutions Two important developments Political Independence Slavery Under Communism

POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE Spaniard Rule development of legal system American Rule introduction of civil rights Attempts to improve our laws to make them more suited to tradition, custom, and temperament

SLAVERY UNDER COMMUNISM

Understanding affidavit making the law accessible to all Superficial beliefs of the Filipinos in law Importance of understanding the layman