'Disadvantage9 In N.Z. Law Training

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30499, 22 July 1964, Page 1

'Disadvantage 9 In N.Z. Law Training

Law classes at New Zealand universities could be conducted at a higher level if students had more time to prepare for them, in the opinion of Professor B. D. Sher, professor of law at Stanford University, California.

Professor Sher said i Christchurch yesterday that the New Zealand tradition of students working in .v offices and attending university part-time after their first two years of full-time study took up too much of the : r time.

“They are meant to see the practical side of law in the law firms’ offices,” said Professor Sher, “but in most cases they don't. I don't think it would be a bad thing if they were doing the kind of work that lawyers do, but for the most part they are used, I won't say for errand boys, but for administrative work, like searching documents.”

Professor Sher said that law was studied as a professional degree in the United States. Students already had arts or science degrees when they began law school, and their average age then was 21. Students studied fulltime at university throughout the three-year law course.

“The disadvantage with the New Zealand tradition,” he said, “is that it takes up a great deal of the student’s time. A lot more could be done with the students, and the classes could be conducted at a higher level if students had more time to prepare.

“But I realise that this is traditional, and the system is obviously turning out good lawyers. I have met your lawyers at seminars and 1 have been very impressed with the quality of the professional man here.” Oral Argument Professor Sher has found a greater tradition of oral argument in New Zealand than in the United States, where lawyers tended to rely

more on written argument. “Here,” he said, “the art of oral argument has been developed to a greater degree.” Professor Sher is also demonstrating American teaching methods in New Zealand. In the United States law students are taught by the case method. Instead of teaching the principles of law by lecture and text-book, the professor compiles his own case-book of actual cases and the class studies these by the question-and-answer method. “We tear the cases apart instead of lecturing on principles,” said Professor Sher. “It’s a good way to study law. It is used in a modified way here, but not to our extent. However, a change is certainly taking place through people who have visited the United States.” Fulbright Scholar Professor Sher is in New Zealand on a Fulbright research scholarship and has been at Victoria University of Wellington since February. In Christchurch he is giving a series of three seminars for lawyers and law teachers. His special interest is commercial law, including contract. In New Zealand he is doing general research on problems related to the sale of goods and the financing of the sale of goods. He is particularly interested in the financing of a dealer’s stock in trade—how he gets the money and what sort of security the lender requires. “Your hire-purchase system is very interesting,” said Professor Sher. “We don’t have that type of security device—hiring with the right to purchase. In the United States they would say it was a disguised credit sale.”