YALE LAW SCHOOL DEAN DISCUSSES PROGRESS

There has been no progress in legal education since the time of Dean Samuel Langdell of the Harvard Law School, according to Robert M. Hutchins, Yale '21, dean of the Yale Law School.

Dean Hutchins, who was in Boston yesterday to speak at the annual dinner of the Harvard Law Review, was acting dean of the Yale Law School until his appointment as dean recently. Although but 28 years old, he has already served as secretary of Yale University. The changes that have been inaugurated in the Yale Law School under his direction are attracting widespread attention.

"Since Dean Langdell invented the case system in the '70's and perfected it with such amazing success in the '80's of the last century, law schools throughout the country have adopted it without making any fundamental changes in 35 years." Dean Hutchins told a CRIMSON reporter at the University Club yesterday.

"Dean Langdell was working with a small group of selected enthusiastic students who were willing to make themselves the guinea pigs for experiment in legal education. But classes have grown since then, incidentally being less carefully selected and the case system is poorly suited for giving large groups of students a practical legal education. Although with a few selected men the system of instruction makes little difference, the case method has limitations with a crowded schedule and crowded classrooms.

"During the last year, the Yale Law School has been trying to evolve a more satisfactory system. We are not seeking a panacea, and realize that a change must be rather gradual, since most students dislike being used as guinea pigs, with the possibility of wrecking their imminent careers by an unsuccessful experiment.

"We have changed our method in two ways. We are using a new system of instruction that amounts to the abandonment of the case system. This may be called the situation method, for we endeavor to place the student in a position covering many cases, where he will frequently find himself in practice, and also to bring to bear on the situation various rules he will need. Cases are used only to give specific illustrations of a given position. This may give a better preparation for actual practice than memorizing great numbers of individual cases and names.

"We are also encouraging men to do more individual work, although this entails increased faculty Ritual class work is not required for honor men, with the expectation that more effort will be spent in individual study.

"We are trying to broaden the field of our curriculum. An economist, a political scientist, and a psychologist, have recently been added to our faculty, each of whom deals with the legal aspect of his field".