Legal training in England and Wales

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The legal education in England and Wales is the education required to practice legal professions in England and Wales .

Academic section

A law degree is still not a prerequisite for practicing a legal profession in England. Among the most important judges in English legal history are numerous who have never completed a law degree at a university: Lord Diplock was a chemist, Lord Wilberforce had studied classical studies, and Lord Denning was initially a mathematician. No studies at all are necessary for a career as a solicitor , at least some academic studies are necessary for admission to the bar . Therefore, continental observers overwhelmingly see the legal training in England as a purely practical training for which a university course is "not only not necessary, but downright harmful."

Nonetheless, at least the majority of English lawyers today have a law degree. If the law degree serves to prepare for a career in law, it is typically completed with a Bachelor of Laws , and at Oxford and Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts . Postgraduate studies with a master’s ( LL.M. ) or even a doctorate ( Ph.D. ) are unusual - if not a hindrance - and usually only serve as preparation for an academic career.

Pre-vocational section

A judging career as in Germany does not exist in England. You can only become a professional judge if you have worked successfully as a lawyer for years. That is why the vocational preparation section is solely geared towards training as a lawyer in its two forms. Training is not monitored by the state, but by the respective professional organizations: the Inns of Court and the Law Society .

Solicitor

Legal Practice Course (LPC)

The training station in the Legal Practice Course is designed by the Law Society and lasts one year in full-time study. In contrast to the LL.M. This does not convey in-depth academic knowledge, but practical professional skills.

Training contract

The last stage of the training to become a solicitor is the two-year training contract in a law firm, formerly known as articled clerkship .

barrister

Bar Professional Training Course

The barrister training begins with a one-year training course, the Bar Professional Training Course (before 2010 Bar Vocational Course ) at the Inns of Court Law School in London.

Pupil position

The prospective attorney then has to enroll as a bar student at one of the Inns of Court for one year . During this pupilage , the pupil gains first practical experience under the guidance of a pupil supervisor (formerly: pupil master ). In addition, there are 12 (previously 24) mandatory dinners, so-called dining terms. In the past, these were seen as an opportunity for contact between judges, prospective and practicing lawyers, but today their sense of the high student numbers is being questioned:

“Today it is difficult to find any student who can see any value or utility in the ritual of dining in hall. The food, it is said, is poor or scanty or both, and the conversation does no more than pass the time; but the Inn requires it, and so one must go through the pointless ceremony. "

- Robert Megarry : Lawyer and Litigant in England (1962), p. 114

literature

  • Richard L. Abel: The Making of the English Legal Profession . Beard Group, 1998, ISBN 978-1-58798-250-7 .
  • Richard L. Abel and Philip SC Lewis (Eds.): Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World . Beard Group, 1988, ISBN 978-1-58798-264-4 .
  • David Lemmings: Blackstone and Law Reform by Education: Preparation for the Bar and Lawyerly Culture in Eighteenth-Century England . In: Law and History Review . tape 16 , no. 2 , 1998, p. 211-255 .
  • Andrew Boon: History Is Past Politics: A Critique of the Legal Skills Movement in England and Wales . In: Journal of Law and Society . tape 25 , no. 1 , 1998, p. 151-169 .
  • Richard J. Wilson: The Role of Practice in Legal Education . In: Karen B. Brown and David V. Snyder (eds.): Rapports Généraux du XVIIIème Congrès de l'Académie Internationale de Droit Comparé . Springer, 2012, p. 57-83 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-94-007-2354-2_3 .
  • Barbara Huber: The position and training of judges in criminal courts in England and Wales . In: Legal journal . tape 38 , no. 4 , 1983, p. 133-137 .
  • Konrad Zweigert and Hein Kötz: Introduction to Comparative Law . 3. Edition. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1996, § 15 III Judicial system and legal professions in England, p. 212-214 .
  • Anna K. Zimdars: The Competition for Pupillages at the Bar of England and Wales (2000-2004) . In: Journal of Law and Society . tape 38 , no. 4 , 2011, p. 575-603 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Konrad Zweigert and Hein Kötz: Introduction to Comparative Law . 3. Edition. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1996, § 15 III Judicial system and legal professions in England, p. 202, 212-214 .