Dean of Yale Law School Explains New System Of Law Study as Related to Social Problems

With the largest number of applicants for admission since its foundation, the Yale School of Law was proved the success of its experiment in making law a "living subject." Under a system of admission that allows only 120 men to enter the School each year, Yale is teaching its Law students the social side of law.

"The professional curriculum has been broadened," said Charles E. Clark, Dean of the Yale Law School, in a recent interview with the CRIMSON, "to show the impact of the other disciplines, notably the social sciences, upon law.

"At first legal scholarship turned toward the history of the law and the fashioning of a technique of case analysis. With the economic and social turmoil of the last three decades it was clear that scholars could not and would not limit their viewpoints to such matters alone. It was therefore a natural step that they should attempt to see the law in the light of the actual society in which it was supposed to function.

With this, Dean Clark opened a catalogue of courses in the Law School and pointed out new subjects and new treatments of old studies. "Public Control of Business," which studies the economic and legal problems arising from the N.R.A.; "Problems in Legal Accounting," "Psychiatry in Law Administration," "The Psychology of Modern Judicial and Legislative Institutions," these are some of the courses studied by the Yale law student to give him some idea of the social function of law.

"In regard to the system of instruction," said Dean Clark, "only 120 students are allowed to enter each year. These are divided into groups of ten and receive personal attention from their professors in seminars. The work is highly individual in the last two years, since the student may undertake to investigate almost any field of law."

When asked if he thought that the Harvard Law Clubs accomplished the same function as the Yale system of groups of ten students, Dean Clark said, "It is probable that they do. The difference is that the clubs are voluntary organizations while we have raised the group system to the importance of a compulsory affair."