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International Law in American Law Schools Today

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

Abstract

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Type
Editorial Comment
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1953

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References

1 See “The Study of International Law in Law Schools,” 2 Am. Law School Rev. 41 (1907), by Charles N. Gregory a member of the first Board of Editors of this Journal; Kunz, Josef, “A Plea for More Study of International Law in American Law Schools,” this Journal , Vol. 40 (1946), p. 624 Google Scholar. See also Proceedings of the [First] Conference of Teachers of International Law, Proceedings, American Society of International Law, 1914, pp. 250–324, at which there was adopted a resolution reading: “Resolved, That, in recognition of the growing importance of a knowledge of international law to all persons who plan to devote themselves to the administration of justice, and who, through their professional occupation, may contribute largely to the formation of public opinion and who often will be vested with the highest offices in the State and nation, this Conference earnestly requests all law schools which now offer no instruction in international law to add to their curriculum a thorough course in that subject.” Other resolutions urged the American Bar Association to take action toward the inclusion of international law among law school subjects and those required for admission to the bar.

2 Based on a survey conducted by Professor Carl M. Franklin of Oklahoma University Law School, as Chairman of the Committee on International Law, Association of American Law Schools, in 1951–52; and supplemented by personal inquiries and examination of law school bulletins and announcements.

3 See Carl M. Franklin, “Needed: More and Better Courses in International Law,” 4 Journal of Legal Education (1952) 326; Franklin, “The Teaching of International Law in Law Schools,” this Journal , Vol. 46 (1952), p. 140 Google Scholar.

4 Philip W. Thayer, “Teaching of International and Comparative Law,” 1 Journal of Legal Education (1949) 449.

At the Second Conference of Teachers of International Law, held in 1925, it was reported that a study of 110 law school catalogues showed 65 carrying no course in international law, and 45 offering some kind of a course; a contemporaneous survey of the 61 schools then members of the Association of American Law Schools gave 31 as offering the subject and 30 not teaching it. Second Conference of Teachers of International Law, 1925, pp. 115 and 130.

5 Hudson, M. O., “Twelve Casebooks on International Law,this Journal , Vol. 32 (1938), p. 447 Google Scholar, at p. 456.

6 Kunz, loc. cit., note 1 supra.

7 Although international law has not been a required course at Michigan, gome pressure to include it in election of courses is caused by a group requirement that for graduation a student must have taken at least one course from a group composed of Comparative Law, International Law, Jurisprudence, Legal History, and Theories of Public Law, or else a seminar in some Bubject. The perhaps apparently illogical combination represents an attempt to require each student to have one course or seminar outside the “bread-and-butter” law courses. This summer the writer found 44 students in a purely elective international law course in the University of Texas Law School.

8 Vanderbilt, Arthur T., “The Responsibilities of Our Law Schools to the Public and the Profession,3 Journal of Legal Education (1950) 207 Google Scholar, at 209.

9 Fourth Conference of American Teachers of International Law, 1930, p. 99.

10 Wigmore, Syllabus of American International Law for American Practitioners (1941, Am. Bar Assn., Chicago) pt. 1, pp. 5–6.

11 Franklin, Carl M., “Needed: More and Better Courses in International Law,4 Journal of Legal Education (1952) 326 Google Scholar.

12 Root, Elihu, “The Need of Popular Understanding of International Law,this Journal , Vol. 1 (1907), pp. 13 Google Scholar.

13 Here the writer would take issue sharply with Franklin, who in his “Teaching of International Law in Law Schools,” this Journal , Vol. 46 (1952), p. 140 Google Scholar, at pp. 141–142, speaks of “the sterile, unimaginative, traditional types of international law courses given in many law schools.” The present writer is not familiar with any international law course in an American law school today which he would characterize in this fashion.

14 See Philip C. Jessup, “The Teaching of International Law in Law Schools,” Proceedings, American Society of International Law, 1947, p. 66. See also account in Assoc, of Am. Law Schools, Committee on International and Foreign Law, Institute on Teaching of International and Comparative Law, Proceedings, 1948, pp. 38–41.

15 See McDougal, Myres S., “The Law School of the Future: From Legal Realism to Policy Science in the World Community,56 Yale Law Journal (1947) 1345 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “The Role of Law in World Politics,” 20 Miss. Law Journal (1949) 253 Google Scholar; “Law and Power,” this Journal , Vol. 46 (1952), p. 102 Google Scholar; “The Comparative Study of Law for Policy Purposes,” 1 American Journal of Comparative Law (1952) 24 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and 61 Yale Law Journal (1952) 915; and syllabus of the Yale course (1950).

16 Carlston, Kenneth S., “The Teaching of International Law in Law Schools,” 48 Columbia Law Review (1948) 516 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 532. Professor Carlston appends this comment: “The writer cheerfully admits the ambitiousness of this task and the validity of the question whether, like the Lasswell-McDougal proposal, it is not of too broad a compass.” Ibid., pp. 532–533.

Another somewhat unorthodox and interesting approach is suggested by the description of the University of Kansas Law School course in international law: “Deals largely with the problems of international organization, sovereignty, the formation of the American union, the league stage, federation stage, the extra-Constitutional origin of American executive power over foreign affairs, League of Nations, the United Nations—its principal organs, subsidiary organs and specialized agencies, their powers and functions, the historical and legal basis of the Nuremberg trials, current international problems arising from day to day. Selected materials, books, pamphlets, reprints, mimeographed selections.”

17 So readily available in Moore's and Hackworth's Digests of International Law (1906, and 1940–44, respectively).

18 Brooklyn, Foundation Press, 1950, pp. xxix, 740; reviewed by Woolsey, L. H. in this Journal , Vol. 45 (1951), p. 607 Google Scholar.

19 Chicago, Callaghan, 1951, pp. 895; reviewed by Woolsey, L. H. in this Journal , Vol. 47 (1953), p. 160 Google Scholar.

20 St. Paul, West Pub. Co., 1951, pp. xliii, 770; reviewed by Edgar Turlington in this Journal, Vol. 46 (1952), p. 579.

21 New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1952, pp. xxvii, 1108; reviewed by Myers, D. P. in this Journal , Vol. 46 (1952), p. 752 Google Scholar.

22 Mimeographed edition, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1949; temporary lithoprinted edition, New York, Prentice-Hall, 1951; printed edition, New York, Prentice-Hall, 1953.

23 See Bishop, W. W. Jr., “Institute on the Teaching of International and Comparative Law,” this Journal , Vol. 42 (1948), p. 884 Google Scholar; Thayer, Philip W., “Teaching of International and Comparative Law,1 Journal of Legal Education (1949) 449 Google Scholar. A registration of 54 took part, composed primarily of law teachers from 22 American and 7 foreign universities. Professor Philip W. Thayer was Chairman of the Committee on International and Foreign Law, Association of American Law Schools, which conducted the institute with the generous financial support of the Carnegie Corporation. The Proceedings of the Institute were issued in mimeographed form, and a few copies are still available upon request to the present writer, University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

24 It may be noted that the First Conference of Teachers of International Law in 1914 resolved, “that the Conference hereby calls the attention of the State Bar Examiners and of the bodies whose duty it is to prescribe the subjects of examination, to the importance of requiring some knowledge of the elements of international law in examinations for admission to the bar, and urges them to make international law one of the prescribed subjects.” It is understood that international law is included as a bar examination required subject in Kansas, and that at least until recently it was (and may still be) required in Louisiana and Puerto Rico.

Many members of the American Society of International Law might be expected to approve the idea of requiring international law as a bar examination subject. The present writer, however, does not urge that international law be added to the already long list of subjects required on the bar examination in many States; but urges instead that fewer subjects be required and less pressure placed by the examiners upon law students to take courses in those subjects on which they will be examined. This would enable the law schools to get students into the courses which legal educators believe will afford the best all-around legal education. In the process, student interest in courses in international law should increase the enrollment therein.

25 It may be noted that as far back as the First Conference of International Law Teachers in 1914 it was resolved, “That a carefully prepared bibliography of international law and related subjects be published, with the names of publishers and prices so far as these may be obtainable, with especial reference to the needs of poorly endowed libraries.” Proceedings, pp. 317–18.