The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-13 00:00:00

New Regulations for the Inns of Court.

Monday being the first day of Hilary Term,
the four Inns of Court (Lincoln's Inn, Middle
Temple, Inner Temple, and Gray's Inn) issued a
consolidated code of regulations as to the admission
of students, the mode of keeping terms, called for
of students to the bar, the granting of certificates to
practise under the bar, and legal education.

Some important alterations having been made,
this document is of more than usual interest. Here-
tofore, a gentleman paying the customary fees, and
producing a certificate signed by two barristers, the
form of which is well known, was at once admitted
a member of the inn to which he applied. Hence-
forth the applicant must produce a certificate of hav-
ing passed a preliminary examination in the English
and Latin languages and in English history. This
examination will be conducted on one day in each
week, between the 20th October and the 19th August
in each year, by a joint board appointed by the four
Inns of Court. Each inn will appoint six examiners
who will attend according to a rota to be agreed
upon among themselves, two to be a quorum. As
heretofore, " no attorney-at-law, solicitor, writer to
the signet, or writer of the Scotch Courts, proctor,
notary public, clerk in Chancery, Parliamentary
agent, or agent in any Court original or appellate,
clerk to any justice of the peace, or person acting in
any of these capacities, and no clerk of or to any
barrister, conveyancer, special pleader, equity drafts-
man, attorney, solicitor, writer to the signet, or
writer of the Scotch Courts, proctor, notary public,
Parliamentary agent, or agent in any court original
or appellate, clerk in Chancery, clerk of the peace,
clerk to any justice of the peace, or of or to any
officer in any court of law or equity, or person act-
ing in the capacity of any such clerk, shall be ad-
mitted as a student at any Inn of Court for the pur-
pose of being called to the bar, or of practising
under the bar, until such person shall have entirely
and bona fide ceased to act or practise in any of the
capacities above-named or described ; and if on the
rolls of any court, shall have taken his name off the
rolls thereof."

The form of application remains as before. There
is to be a fee of one guinea charged for the form of
admission, and such fee will go towards a fund to
be annually distributed amongst the examiners in
proportion to the number of examinations which
they shall have respectively attended during the
year. Persons who have passed a public examina-
tion at any of the universities " within the British
dominions" will be exempt from the preliminary
examination before mentioned. In " keeping terms"
the old distinction will be observed; members of the
Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Lon-
don, Durham, the Queen's University in Ireland,
St. Andrews, Aberdeen, Glasgow, or Edinburgh,
will be allowed to keep each term by dining on
thr.:e days of each term in the halls of their respec-
tive societies. Other persons will be required, as
heretofore, to dine six times in each term. To keep
the term each student must be in the hall before
grace is said, must remain in it during the whole
of dinner, and till the concluding grace has been
said. Every student must keep 12 terms, and attain
the age of 21 years, before he can be called to the
bar, unless the inn to which ho may belong shall
see fit to dispense with two terms in consequence of
his having passed satisfactorily the public exami-
nation hereinafter referred to.

Heretofore it was required that the student
shauld attend two complete courses of lectures, of
one yelr each, either in the same year, or in two
'separate years. Hereafter he must attend not only
the lectures as before, but also the private classes of
two of the readers—which will be very awkward
for gentlemen in the public offices, and others who
now go to the bar—" cr have betn a pupil during
one whole year, or periods equal to one whole year,
in the chambers of some barrister, certified special
pleader, conveyancer, or draftsman in t quity, or two
or more of such persons, or have satisfactorily passed
a general examination,"
These regulations apply only to str.dcn is ad-
mitted on or after yesterday. All other students
will have the option of proceeding to the bar under
the old or the new regulations.
The name and description of each student is to be
" screened" in the inn to which he belongs, and i❑
the other three inns, for the space of 14 days in
term, before he can be called to the bar. No call is
to take place except in term, and on the 16th day
of each term, unless such 16th day shall be on Sun-
day, in which case the call would take place on the
Monday following. No certificate to practice under
the bar will be granted to any student who has not
kept 12 terms, &c., as aforesaid, with respect to
other students. Such certificate will only be granted
for a year, renewable annually, at the discretion of
the Benchers. All these regulations apply equally
to students seeking certificates to practice under
the tar as special pleaders, conveyancers, or equity
draftsmen.

A standing council is established, to be called
"the Council of Legal Elucation," and to consist
of eight benchers, two to be nominated by each
of the Inns of Caurt, and of whom four
shall be a quorum. The members of the council
are to remain in office for two years, each inn
having the power to fill up vacancies occurring
during that pariod in the number of its nominees.
To this council is entrusted the power and duty of
supertending the whole subject of the education of
the students, and of arranging and settling the de-
tails of the several measures which may be deemed
necessary to be adopted, &a. This council will have
power to grant dispensations to students who shall,
have been prevented, by any reasonable cause, from
complying with all the regulations as to attendance
on lectures and classes, which shall from time to
time be established. It will also arrange and deter-
mine the number of lectures to be delivered by the
various " r eaders" and the private classes conducted
by them. The legal year, for educational purposes,
will be divided into three terms--(1) November Ist
to December 22d, (2) January 11th to March 30th,
(3) April 15th to July 31st, subject to a deduction
of the days intervening between the end of Easter
and the beginning of Trinity term.
The lectures and other duties of the readers will
remain, on the whole, as before; but a separate
ccurse of lectures on international law will, for the
present, be delivered by the reader on jurisprudence
and civil and international law. 'The reader on com-
mon law has also been directed to give instruction,
in his lectures, on the subject of the office andduties
of magistrates. The readers on common law and
equity are directed to have particular regard to the
law of evidence in their lectures, and other instruc-
tions to their students. The readers on common
law, equity, and real property arc directed to have
two courses of lectures, the one elementary, and the
other for the more advanced students. E ach reader
is to have a fixed salary of £4OO a year. The stu-
dents' fees for private classes are to be distributed
amongst the readers, at the end of each year, in
proporti
one
ettoi
vteh ep r
inumber a
sosfe s t usdteundtesn
tattending
y
five guineas for all the lectures, and five guineas per
annum for the private classes. _ _

In the month of July, in each year, there shall be
voluntary examinations of the students upon the
subjects of the several courses of lectures, but no
student is to be entitled to go in for examination on
any of the subjects unless he shall have obtained a
certificate from the reader that he has duly attended
lectures and classes upon the subject on which he
off,:rs himself examination. Each examination is to
be conducted by barristers or barrister (not being
the reader of the class to be examined), to be nomi-
nated for that purpose by the Council of Legal
Education, and the Council of Legal Education is to
have power to allot such remuneration as they shall
think fit to such examiners. No student 'cho
shall be entitled to a certificate of having at-
tended the advanced course of lectures of the
reader on common law, on equity, or on the law