SEVEN-YEAR LAW PLAN WILL BE TESTED BY YARDLING CLASS

The first real test of the Seven-year Law Program will come with the Class of '44, according to Dean Landis of the Law School. Dean Landis said that, while a few students will be admitted to the Law School under the program before 1947, the first group of any size will come from this year's Freshmen.

Dean Landis has explained that there are several factors which make it necessary to reconsider the existing pattern of legal education. Among these are the increased complexity of private and public law and the tendency in most colleges today to require students to concentrate in some special field in their last years in college.

In order to enlarge the field of law that is taught and to develop new techniques and disciplines of study, the Seven-year Program will consist of three years of regular college work, which will be strictly limited as to the subjects to be taken; the fourth and fifth years will consist of the regular first two years of the Law School; and the sixth and seventh years will be equally divided between the Law School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Shift of Emphasis

Most important part of the program is that it shifts the emphasis in teaching towards law as a social sciences and shows the importance of understanding the law's relationship to other sciences.

Under the new plan, the student will take his general examinations at the end of his seventh year, and he will not receive any degree until this time, when he will receive both his A.B., or S.B., and his LL.B.

In replacing the courses in this manner, it is hoped that the inherent capacity of the student will coincide more completely with the subjects with which he is expected to deal from year to year.

Required Courses

During the three years he spends in the college, the student under the plan is required to take History 1, Government 1, Economics A, and at least one course in each of the following subjects: English Literature; Latin, Greek, or a modern language; Philosophy or Mathematics; and a laboratory course in one of the natural sciences. The rest of the courses may be completely of the student's own choosing.

Dean Landis said last Friday that he believed, while the new law program is still in the experimental stage, it will be of great value of legal education in the future, although it may not be perfected for twenty years.

Whether or not the program is in final shape, there is no danger of any loss by a student taking the program now, as the total number of courses is the same for a student under the new plan as under the old plan.