LAW SCHOOL IS CRIPPLED BY LACK OF RESOURCES

In today's issue of the Alumni Bulletin appears an article by Professor Joseph Henry Beale '82, Royall Professor of Law since 1913, and a teacher in the Law School since 1890, in which he discusses the aims and standards of the Law School.

Professor Beale is one of the most distinguished professors in the Law School. After graduating from the University in 1882, he took the degree of LL.D. from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago and in 1921 he was given the same degree by Cambridge University, England. Before being appointed to the Royall Professorship, Professor Beale held the Carter chair of general jurisprudence. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has published many books and monographs on legal questions.

Law School Graduates Are in Demand

Since its founding in 1817, the School's purpose has been to prepare young men for the practice of law. "The students are enthusiastic and devoted," says Professor Beale. "Their minds are filled with thought about problems of law, and by the time they graduate they have really learned to think like lawyers." Many of the School's graduates have become men high in the legal practice of the country, and the present demand, never quite filled, for its graduates, shows how it is succeeding in its purpose. Its founders and its faculty have always believed, in spite of vigorous opposition in the past, that the best preparation for legal practice is a scientific study of the principles of law.

"The Harvard Law School is an institution in which about twenty professors and assistant professors are teaching American law to a body of 1200 students. Its requirements for admission and for graduation are very high; its methods of instruction and curriculum introduced by Dean Langdell in 1870, have formed a model for instruction in most of the important schools in America and England; its student body, all college graduates, is drawn from colleges large and small covering the whole United States and Canada, with representatives from English and continental universities. The students are enthusiastic and devoted. Their minds are filled with thought about problems of law, and by the time they graduate they have really learned to think like lawyers.

"During its history the school has graduated 8 Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, 7 Attorneys General of the United States, 30 judges of Federal Circuit and District Courts. 97 judges of the highest courts of 34 states, 5 judges of the highest courts in Canada. The school has also graduated 330 teachers of law, including 14 deans of law schools of high grade; three of its former students are now teaching law in the University of Cambridge, England. Seven graduates have been presidents of the American Bar Association, and many have been high in the legal and political life of the country.

"The Library of the school is one of the most important law libraries in the world and is without much doubt larger and better than any collection of law books in the English speaking world. It is the desire of the school to enable a person to investigate in the library the law, on any point, of any country in the world. While its collection of books is not quite complete, it is so fall that a reasonably expert opinion upon the law of the country could be gained from its collection.

"The resources of the Library are offered freely to any lawyer in the country, and the Librarian is constantly receiving requests from lawyers and courts all over the United States for information upon the law of obscure countries. The authorities are copied and sent out in response to such requests or, if necessary and practicable, books are sent to other libraries, there to be examined. The service which the school is doing to the country through its Library is very great. It is, however, not performing by any means as great a service as the school desires to give. It would be glad to serve the country further by research on the difficult legal problems of the day and by publishing the results of such research. Unfortunately the resources of the school for this purpose are limited. One of the grounds on which the school is asking a larger endowment from the American Bar is the extension of its work of research and publication. It is not fair to expect the tuition fees of undergraduate students to pay for this great service, but the school has only these tuition fees to use for this work.

"The great problem of the school is forced upon it by its success in training lawyers. This has led to a great increase in the number of students. From 300 in 1891 and 600 in 1903 the numbers in the school rose to 1000 in 1922-23, 1100 in 1923-24, and 1200 in the current year. To take care of this increased number of students it has been necessary to enlarge the faculty; and next year the school will be greatly strengthened by professors called from the faculties of Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. But this increase in the number of students and in the size of the faculty has made the accommodations in the existing buildings of the school quite inadequate. The reading rooms are already overcrowded by students; and the rooms available for professors will not supply every member of the faculty with an adequate office. The accommodations for research are very inadequate. The school is entering upon a campaign to raise money for the completion of Langdell Hall, the principal building of the school, by more than doubling its present size. Money is also asked for additional professorships greatly needed and for additional scholarships. The school believes that it may confidently expect its graduates, and those interested in the improvement of the bar by education and of the law by study and research to supply its needs.