Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 December 2011
Professor Graham Virgo, in delivering the 3rd Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture, asks if it is possible to become a legal practitioner in England and Wales without having studied Law as an academic discipline. Is there any point in studying for a Law degree? Students study any academic subject to acquire knowledge and to develop key skills. This is just as true of students studying Law. But is the knowledge acquired by a Law student and the skills which they develop really of benefit to them in legal practice? Crucially, what can the managers of legal information do to support the particular needs of Law students and academic researchers?
1 A Joint Statement issued by the Law Society and the General Council of the Bar on the Completion of the Initial or Academic Stage of Training by Obtaining an Undergraduate Degree (1999). This covers both degrees and one year Graduate Diploma in Law courses.
2 [1932] AC 562.
3 [1991] 2 AC 548.
4 Criminal Attempts Act 1981, s. 1(1).
5 ‘The Remedial Principle of Keech v Sandford Revisited’ (2010) CLJ 287, 315.
6 Hibbitts, ‘The Technology of Law’ (2010) 102 Law Libr J 101.
7 Ibid.