The Law Clubs.

One of the interesting features of the Law School, and one which has proved of considerable value to the students is the law clubs. These clubs have existed for several years, and have grown gradually until they are now recognized by the Faculty as forming an important part of the students' training in law. There were nine Law Clubs last year, but the aim and method of procedure is the same in all of them, and is briefly as follows:

A club contains sixteen members; one-half of these are first, the other second year men. The club is divided into two courts: a Supreme Court, formed of the second year men; and a Superior Court, formed of the first year men. The object of the club is to hear and decide cases and points of law. The members of the Supreme Court have a twofold duty; they must sit at a meeting of their own court, which is presided over by a third year man or a member of the Faculty; and they must act as presiding judges at the meetings of the Superior Court, which meets once a week, while the Supreme Court meets once in two weeks.

Some member of the Supreme Court is appointed every week to preside over the meeting of the Superior Court. He must choose the point of law to be discussed, and give it to two members of the lower court. These men are to go to work and hunt up all the authorities on the subject, and when the meeting is called, are expected to argue the point as opposing counsels. The other six men of the Superior Court sit as associatte judges.

Thus the two divisions of the Law Club are largely independent of each other, except that a member of the upper court acts as judge at the sessions of the lower. The first year men do not attend the meetings of the Supreme Court; while if a second year man sometimes accompanies a chief justice to a meeting of the Superior Court, it is in a wholly unofficial capacity. The method of procedure in the Supreme Court is precisely the same as with the Superior Court.

This, then, is the method of running the clubs. Their purpose is to give the men practice in working up a point of law and in arguing a case just as they would before a supreme court. The interest taken in these clubs is very great, and as the School has grown larger the clubs have increased in number. Last year there were nine. This year the class of first year men is so large that over half of them are not able to get into any club, so there has been a general movement among the new men to form several first year clubs - these clubs to contain only a Superior Court of eight members. The interest taken by the majority of students in the law club work is shown clearly by the fact that over fifty members of the Supreme Courts and several members of the Faculty as well are willing to sit as presiding officers at the sessions of the new clubs.