The History of Legal Academic Support

The common law system of jurisprudence was largely taught and established by years of hands on training.  Judge made law was the law of the land and this law was passed down by legal practitioners, instead of professors.  The lawyer of antiquity would study for years as an apprentice before becoming a bar accredited lawyer.  During these years of apprentice work, a young lawyer would gain the skills necessary to understand the law by the constant exposure to analytical problems, case reading and writing, the hands on approach.

The legal minds upon which this nation was founded never went to law school.  A student in the time of Thomas Jefferson would have considered legal training as part of a greater education including such authors as; William Blackstone and his Commentaries on the Laws of England, Aristotle, St. Germain, St. Augustine, Thomas Hobbs, Samuel Rutherford and John Locke.

During the mid 1800's, a neo-classical legal education emerged.  Instead of lawyers being groomed in private practice under the tutelage of practicing attorneys, more aspiring lawyers went to institutions, colleges and universities.

The modern era of legal thought and academia begins with the Case Book Method. Christopher Columbus Langdell, (May 22, 1826 - July 6, 1906) a Harvard Law professor “invented” the modern casebook method as an answer to the disconnect of apprenticeship and jurisprudential scholarship.  Professor Langdell studied at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1845-1848, at Harvard College in 1848-1850 and in the Harvard Law School in 1851-1854 and from 1870-1895 as the Dean of the Law Faculty.

Langdell made the Harvard Law School a success by remodelling its administration and by introducing the case system of instruction (also known as the case method).  His core belief in the need for a revised legal education stemmed from the fact that since judges used cases to understand the law, perhaps students of law should also use cases directly as part of thier legal training.

Why is NILAS different?

Many educators in the legal field follow the a modified socratic method.  Going on the presumption that all the students in a class are at the same level of learning.  NILAS has learned over the years that many different types of students go to law school and take Bar Exams.  As a result, NILAS orients the curriculum to account for this unfortunate circumstance. You will see the difference.