REPORT 
 
 OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON THE PROPER 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE LAW DEPARTMENT OF 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 [submitted to the board oe trustees, and adopted 
 
 OCTOBER 27, 1886.] 
 
 To the Honorable, the Board of Trustees of > 
 
 Cornell University : 
 Gentlemen — 
 
 At the meeting of the Board of Trustees held June 16, i886„ 
 the report of the special committee on the question of establishing a 
 Law Department at this University was submitted and adopted, and 
 the Executive Committee was instructed to submit at a future meet- 
 ing of the Board a plan for carrying out the several recommendations 
 contained in the report. 
 
 In accordance with these instructions the Executive Committee beg 
 leave to submit the following suggestions for the consideration of the 
 Board. 
 
 There are two facts that make it somewhat difficult to determine 
 absolutely upon a plan of organization. The first is, that the rules 
 for admission to the bar in this state have been fixed by action of the 
 Legislature and the rules of the higher courts. The second is, that 
 as the Faculty of the new Law School has not yet been appointed, it 
 is impossible to have the benefit of the opinions of those who will 
 mainly have entrusted to them the work of carrying out the plans 
 adopted. There are, however, certain general features which we 
 think may profitably be determined at the outset. It will be con- 
 venient to consider these under a number of distinct heads. 
 
 I. — As to the Length of the Course oe Instruction. 
 
 On this subject there is some difference of usage even among the 
 law schools of the highest grade. The schools at Columbia College 
 and the University of Michigan have a two years' course of nine 
 months each year, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Laws. At 
 
Columbia College provision is made for additional studies to be 
 carried on through a third year. At Harvard the regular course ex- 
 tends through three years, at the end of which the student, on passing 
 the requisite examination, receives the degree of Bachelor of Laws. 
 Provisions are made at Harvard, however, for the passing of inter- 
 mediate examinations in case of ability on the part of the student to 
 do so, and consequently the way is open by which a student may, in 
 exceptional cases, receive the degree in two years. At Yale the 
 normal course, leading to the degree of LL. B. extends through, two 
 years, but additional courses are given for two years of post-graduate 
 work, leading to the degree of LL. D. If we were free to consider 
 the question from what may be called an ideal point of view, proba- 
 bly a course of three or four years would seem desirable. But the 
 fact that the rules of the court in the State of New York require one 
 year of study in an office before an applicant can be admitted to the 
 bar makes it impossible for a Law School to require that the whole 
 time of the student should be devoted to studies in such a school. 
 Consequently we are practically limited to a normal period of two 
 years. 
 
 The period of instruction should, in our judgment, extend through 
 the college year of nine months, and should in all respects be co- 
 ordinate with the courses at present existing in the University. 
 
 II. — Conditions of Admission to the Cornell Law School. 
 
 The state of education in our country seems to make it necessary 
 that every law school should provide for two classes of students : 
 those who have received the regular training of a collegiate course, 
 and those who have not had the advantage of such a training. It is 
 true that at some of the law schools a strenuous effort has been made 
 to raise the standard of scholarship so as to attract students who have 
 already taken a baccalaureate degree ; but no law school as yet has 
 seen its way clear to limit its members to such as have completed an 
 undergraduate course. Nor in our opinion would such a limitation 
 be wise. Nobody can look over the ranks of the profession without 
 seeing that a very large proportion of those who have risen to high 
 distinction at the bar, have attained their eminence without the ad- 
 vantage of the preliminary training acquired in an undergraduate 
 course. To shut off the large class of able and ambitious men who 
 find it impracticable to acquire such a course would place an unjusti- 
 fiable limitation upon the number that could profit by the instruction 
 afforded. In common with other schools, therefore, we find our- 
 selves obliged to provide for two classes of students that have had 
 very different amounts of preliminary training. This fact makes 
 
it necessary that we decide the question as to the minimum grade of 
 education we should require for admission to the school. 
 
 In the State of New York provision has been made for examina- 
 tions b}'- the Board of Regents. These examinations are carried to 
 all the high schools, and to the larger number of the academies of 
 the State. They set a uniform standard; and in our judgment, the 
 standard required for the Regents' academic diploma should be the 
 minimum requirement for admission to the Law Department. The 
 applicant should be required either to bring a Regents' diploma or 
 pass an examination equivalent to the examination by the Regents. 
 Practically, therefore, the conditions of admission to the L,aw De- 
 partment would be the same as the conditions of admission to the 
 scientific and technical courses of the University at the present time. 
 
 The difference between the ability to learn on the part of students 
 who have already taken a bachelors degree on the one hand, and the 
 ability to learn on the part of those who are admitted on the Regents' 
 academic diploma, or its equivalent on the other, will still divide the 
 students into two somewhat distinct grades. Although it should be 
 found that at the time of admission, both grades are equally ignorant 
 of the law, it will certainly be shown at an early date that the gradu- 
 ate student can acquire his profession very much more rapidly than 
 can the student who has had simply such a preparatory training as is 
 to^ be obtained in the academies and high schools. This fact is 
 recognized by the rules of our courts governing the time of prelimi- 
 nary study before admission to the bar. The embarassment growing 
 out of this difference is probably felt in every law school in the land ; 
 and the most marked effect of it is ordinarily to reduce the time 
 during which the graduate student remains at the law school to a 
 single year. In some of the best schools in the country the opinion 
 prevails that the graduate student can learn nearly or quite as much 
 in one year as the average student who has not had a collegiate course 
 can learn in double that amount of time. The consequence is that 
 the graduate student not unirequently thinks it a misuse of time to 
 remain a second year for the sake of his degree. 
 
 The most obvious way in which this tendency can be satisfactorily 
 met is through the advantages offered by the other departments of 
 the University, especially through those offered by the department of 
 History and Political Science. Studies in the constitutional history 
 of Bngland and of the United States, in the development of constitu- 
 tional law, in administrative law, in the historical development of the 
 common law and of the civil law, in the history of political theories 
 and ideas, in the development of jurisprudence as a science, in short, 
 
in all the multiform phases of what we know as political science, may 
 be made to supplement the studies in law in such a way as immensely 
 to broaden the education, and to afford the student every possible in- 
 centive to make his knowledge as thorough and as extended as possi- 
 ble. In studies of this class our University affords peculiar advant- 
 ages, and the details of the work should be so arranged as to present 
 every inducement before the graduate student to remain here during 
 two full years. On this point we desire to speak with especial em- 
 phasis. If our methods of administration are to be improved, if our 
 civil service is to be made purer and more efficient, if our methods of 
 municipal government are to be rescued from the degradation into 
 which they have so generally fallen, if legislation is to be lifted up 
 to a higher plane, it is to be in large measure the result of most care- 
 ful and most thorough studies carried on in our higher institutions of 
 learning; and it is safe to say that no class of men are to be so well situ- 
 ated to exert a powerful and uplifting influence on the condition 
 of the country as those who are thoroughly educated in the law and 
 in the various branches of political science. It is for this reason 
 that a special inducement in the way of elective studies should be 
 offered to graduate students. To this end, courses in the Department 
 of History and Political Science should be marked out for graduate 
 students that will enable them to study for the Master's degree at 
 the same time that they are studying for the degree of LL. B. 
 
 Such an arrangement would be in strict accordance with the meth- 
 ods that are now prevailing in our best law schools. At Columbia 
 College provision is made for giving at the end of three years of 
 study the degree of Ph. D. in addition to the degree of LX. B., and at 
 Harvard University the Academic Council are authorized to recom- 
 mend the degree of M. A. for students who have passed a satisfactory 
 course of study in addition to the required work of the law school. 
 A judicious arrangement by means of which students pursuing their 
 law studies could also take elective instruction in the department of 
 History and Political Science would, to a large extent at least, remove 
 the temptation to abandon the law school after a single year of study. 
 We recommend, therefore, that in the final adjustment of courses 
 the opportunities afforded by the other departments of the University 
 be constantly borne in mind. 
 
 III. — Courses of Instruction. 
 
 This subject is one which in its details must be left for adjustment 
 by the Faculty of the Department. In looking over the branches 
 that are taught at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Albany, and the Univer- 
 sity of Michigan, it is found that there is a striking similarity in the 
 
courses offered. This similarity is the result of the necessities of the 
 case. The elements of Municipal Law in all parts of the country are 
 essentially the same ; and it is upon Municipal Law that by far the 
 greatest stress in a legal education must be placed. The number of 
 subjects, therefore, that must be taught in our Law School, is fur- 
 nished at our hand. This brings us to the next question, viz. : 
 
 IV. — The Amount of Instruction that must be Provided. 
 
 Formerly it was the custom to bunch all of the students in a law 
 school together, and lecture to them all in one indiscriminate mass, 
 seniors and juniors thus receiving the same instruction. By the best 
 schools this method has now almost or quite universally been aban- 
 doned. The two classes are now separated the one from the other, 
 and the instruction given to the juniors is quite different from that 
 given to the seniors. This is so natural a method that it is difficult to 
 justify any other arrangement. We ought not to think of adopting 
 any other plan at this University. The junior class should be sepa- 
 rated from the senior class, and the juniors should not be admitted to 
 the exercises of the senior class even as listeners ; but seniors should 
 be permitted, and even encouraged to attend the lectures given to the 
 juniors. Two lectures a day to each class should be given. It will 
 probably be found convenient to have the more formal lectures to 
 each class given at consecutive hours, those to the juniors occupying 
 two hours in the forenoon, those to the seniors two hours in the after- 
 noon. In addition to these lectures there must be regular text book 
 work, at least for the juniors, and, perhaps, also for the seniors. A 
 thorough drill in Blackstone, Kent, and probably in some other 
 elementary text books should be insisted upon. This work could 
 probably be well done by an assistant professor. Practicing attorneys 
 who might desire the advantage of the lectures should be admitted 
 to instruction in either class without examination. Moot courts 
 should be organized, under the immediate charge of the professors, to 
 accustom the students to the work of the investigation, the prepara- 
 tion and the trial of causes. In considering the amount of work 
 that will thus be required we are brought to the next topic, viz. : 
 
 V. — The Amount and Kind of the Teaching Force. 
 An inspection of the announcements of the schools at Harvard, 
 Yale, Columbia, and the University of Michigan, gives the following 
 results : At Harvard instruction is given by four professors and one 
 assistant professor, all of whom, apparently, give nearly or quite their 
 whole time to the school. It is presumed that they are free for pur- 
 poses of counsel, but it does not appear that either of them is so 
 largely engaged in active practice as to interfere with the amount or 
 
the regularity of his instruction. At Harvard the custom appears not 
 to prevail of inviting in lecturers or teachers not immediately and 
 constantly connected with the school. At Yale there are also four pro- 
 fessors, and a very considerable number of lecturers on special subjects. 
 Four members of the academic Faculty also give instruction to stu- 
 dents who take a graduate course. Apparently four professors give a 
 very considerable share, though not the whole, of their time to the 
 work of instruction. At Columbia College the major part of the work 
 of instruction falls upon three professors. There are, however, two 
 special lecturers, besides a considerable number of professors in 
 the school of Political Science, who give instruction to the mem- 
 bers of the law school, under the conditions above indicated. At 
 the University of Michigan there are four professors and an assist- 
 ant professor, two of the professors and the assistant professor resid- 
 ing at the school, the others coming to the school with more or less 
 regularity throughout the year, from Detroit. The Detroit members of 
 the Faculty, and the assistant professor are actively in practice, while 
 the two resident professors devote the most of their time and energy to 
 the daily work of the law school. 
 
 If we are to put ourselves upon the plane of these schools, it is 
 easy to see what is the amount of instruction that will be needed. 
 When the school shall be thoroughly established the equivalent of 
 four or five professors will be required. It is, however, by no means 
 essential that the full number should be constantly at the University, 
 or even that they should reside in Ithaca. On the contrary, there 
 would be unmistakable advantages in having at least a part of the 
 teaching force actively engaged in the practice of the courts. It 
 seems not improbable, therefore, that a part of the teaching force 
 may wisely be drawn from cities in the vicinity, wherever suitable 
 persons for giving instruction can be found. But while this is the 
 case, it is absolutely necessary that a part of the corps of instruction 
 should be devoted earnestly to the daily work of the school. This 
 force need not be very large. It ought, however, from the first to 
 consist of not less than two professors and an assistant professor. If 
 during the first year in the history of the school, no attempt should 
 be made to instruct more than a junior class, three persons well 
 equipped for the work could probably give all the needed in- 
 struction. But this could only be done in case the persons selected 
 for the Faculty should have their knowledge so well in hand, and so 
 organized as to be able to give daily instruction. Upon the resident 
 professors for the most part the character of the school must 
 largely depend. The greatest care, therefore, must be taken to avoid 
 errors in the selection of the resident faculty. 
 
But the entire burden of instruction should not fall upon the resi- 
 dent professors. Other persons, either resident or non-resident, 
 should be appointed for courses of lectures on special subjects, and 
 these courses would have to be given at such times as- would ac- 
 commodate the special lecturers. 
 
 VI. — Rates of Tuition. 
 
 Under the head of tuition a clearly defined policy should be adopt- 
 ed. Under the present law of the State we should be obliged to ac- 
 cept the State scholarships for the law department ; and under the 
 present law of the University we should also be obliged to give gratui- 
 tous instruction to graduate students. It seems to us questionable 
 whether the people of the State will desire that the free scholar- 
 ships shall go to those who are preparing themselves for practice in 
 the law, to the necessary exclusion of the same number who are 
 preparing themselves for usefulness by pursuing an undergraduate 
 course. It seems to us also more than doubtful whether the Univer- 
 sity should gratuitously educate in the law graduates of this and other 
 universities. In our judgment, therefore, a tuition fee, the same as 
 in the other departments of the University, should be required of all 
 students of the new department. 
 
 In view of these considerations, we recommend the adoption of the 
 following resolutions : 
 
 i. Resolved, As the policy of this Board of Trustees, that the Fac- 
 ulty of the Department of Law at Cornell University consist of the 
 President of the University, a resident dean, one resident professor, 
 one assistant professor and such non-resident professors and lecturers 
 as may from time to time be appointed. 
 
 2. Resolved, That for the election of the Faculty in the Depart- 
 ment of Law, a special meeting of the Board of Trustees be held on 
 the third Wednesday in January next. 
 
 3. Resolved, That the Executive Committee be" authorized to pre- 
 pare a public announcement of the Law School, to be issued as soon as 
 practicable after the appointment of the members of the Law Faculty, 
 such announcement to be framed in accordance with the spirit of the 
 foregoing report. 
 
 4. Resolved, That the Executive Committee be, and are hereby 
 authorized to inquire into and report at the special meeting of the 
 Board, on the changes that may seem to be desirable in the Depart- 
 ment of History and Political Science, in order to adapt its instruction 
 to the needs of the University after the Law Department is established. 
 
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