Are your thinking about attending law school in the United States, where you must earn
a Juris Doctor to become a lawyer?
Want to learn more about this prestigious degree?
Today I will explain what it is and what you need to do to earn it.
Also, if you stay to the end, I’ll explain the importance of Magna Carta and how it got that name.
Hello lawlings, this is Professor Beau Baez.
The Juris Doctor or Juris Doctorate, often called by its initials JD, is a professional
doctorate, and it is the final educational requirement to becoming a lawyer in the United States.
In this video I will discuss seven aspects of the JD: a short history, number of years
to complete, the curriculum, the teaching methods used in law school, its difficulty,
how it compares to the LLB, and finally how it compares to the PhD.
Now let’s begin.
Short History.
The first American law schools offered the LLB at the undergraduate level, initially
as a two or three year program, but eventually standardizing as a three year program.
In the early 20th century, some law schools began offering the JD degree to students who
entered law school with an undergraduate degree in another discipline,
but otherwise they took the same courses as their LLB undergraduate counterparts.
By the middle of the 20th century, law schools no longer had undergraduate level programs,
moving legal education to the graduate level.
And in the 1960’s, law schools stopped calling the degree an LLB and they all became JD degrees.
Number of Years.
The JD is a three year full-time program, though some law schools have accelerated options
that allow students to complete it in two or two and a half years by attending summer school.
I personally would not recommend this option, as it eliminates summer work in the legal
field, which is important in helping get some legal experience before graduation.
There are also part-time options, which require students to complete the JD over four years,
but can usually be extended by another year or two.
For more information of the pros and cons of a part-time JD legal education,
I’ll leave a link to the video I made on this topic.
Curriculum.
The first year curriculum is fairly standard at all American law schools, though the number
of credits for each course vary.
In the first year, typical courses involve Torts, Contracts, Property, Civil Procedure,
Criminal Law, and Legal Writing.
After the first year, most law schools have a primarily elective system, though a course
in legal ethics is required at all law schools.
Some law schools require students to take some bar exam tested subjects, such as Wills,
Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, or Business Associations.
After that, the variety of electives depends on the size of the law school.
I attended a large law school, where I took three, what I would call, exotic courses: the Legal Imagination,
Law & Economics, and the Idea of Progress in the 19th Century.
But frankly, attending law schools with a large variety of electives isn’t important because
there are so many basic courses you should take during your final two years of law school.
In addition to the doctrinal courses, law schools offer various practice related options
in clinics, experiential courses, and externships.
For example, last semester I taught an experiential course in Estate Planning.
Rather than merely telling students about estate planning, the students drafted several wills
and trust agreements.
We started with simple wills, and then moved to a complex structure for a married wealthy
couple looking to leave money to their grandchildren and also avoid high estate taxes.
My strong recommendation is that you take advantage of these experiential opportunities,
as they will help prepare you for the practice of law.
Teaching Methods.
The primary teaching method at American law schools is the Socratic Method, sometimes
called the case method.
Your professor will assign an appellate opinion for you to read before class, and then will
call on students to discuss the case or hypothetical questions based on the assigned material.
As I mentioned earlier, there are some experiential based courses, each with various methods for
assessing student competency.
Difficulty.
Most law students would call law school difficult.
There are different reasons for this.
One, the amount of time you need to dedicate to your studies is at least 60 hours a week.
Two, law school exams are radically different than what you’ve seen before.
Three, professors calling on you in class.
Four, a forced grading curve that ensures that only 10 to 15 percent of the students earn
the highest grades.
Five, an admissions policy that ensures that similarly ranked students are admitted, which
means increased competition for you.
And six, social isolation because of the increased study requirements.
JD vs LLB.
The LLB from the early 20th century is, for all practical purposes, the modern JD.
Though law schools transformed the LLB into a graduate program and changed the name to
JD, the program of legal education itself did not really change.
JD vs PhD.
The JD is a professional doctorate, which is typically earned by taking a series of
courses over six semesters.
A PhD is a research doctorate, which may have a course or two that helps students learn how to conduct research.
But after that is exclusively a research and writing program resulting in a lengthy document called a dissertation.
I will sometimes get asked whether JD graduates can call themselves Doctor.
There's no law prohibiting this, but it is viewed as bad form to do so.
This is because the term doctor is reserved for those that complete a research doctorate.
Now, for today’s bonus law fact.
Magna Carta is a document that King John of England was forced to sign by his barons on
June 15, 1215 after the Battle of Runnymede.
Though there are 63 clauses in Magna Carta, only four still apply today.
This is because many of the provisions dealt with feudal rights that no longer exist, such
as clause 50, which named several Frenchmen who were supposed to be expelled from the realm.
Then there is clause 54, which prohibits women from legally accusing a man of murder.
Of the four that still apply today, the two most important ones are clauses 39 and 40.
Clause 39: No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in
any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers
and the law of the land.
Clause 40: To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice.
You will find various versions of these two clauses throughout the English speaking world.
For example, the constitution from State of North Carolina in the United States has this provision:
No person shall be taken, imprisoned, or disseized of his freehold, liberties, or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled,
or in any manner deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by the law of the land.
You can see that it is derived from Magna Carta clause 39.
But the real reason Magna Carta is revered is two-fold: one, it is viewed as the first
written constitution in Europe after the fall of Rome.
And two, it stands for the remarkable proposition that no one, not even the King or Queen, is above the law.
Now you may be wondering, what do these two Latin words mean?
Magna Carta is often translated Great Charter or Great Charter of Freedoms.
While this is how we understand Magna Carta today because of what it signifies,
that is not how it would have been translated in 1215.
When King John signed Magna Carta, there were actually two separate documents.
The second one called the Articles of Barons.
The Articles of Barons was a schedule of terms that King John agreed to on June 10th,
five days before he signed Magna Carta.
To avoid confusion between the two documents, the second document was called Magna Carta
because it was written on a larger piece of parchment.
So a better, though less impressive translation for Magna Carta, might be Big Parchment or Big Paper Document.
In other words, the word magna was referring to the physical size of the document,
not to its perceived importance—its historical and legal significance developed hundreds of years later.
To help this channel grow, don’t forget to hit the like and share buttons.
And come back every other Wednesday for new videos to help you become a better student and a better lawyer.