Talk:Sydney Law School

SSRN

On multiple occasions references to Social Science Research Network rankings of citations per law school have been included on the page in support of the proposition that the SSRN ranks SLS as the 'top' law school in Australia. This is a faulty use of SSRN institution list. Further, looking at the SSRN rankings shows that SLS is the second highest ranked Australian institution in terms of total paper downloads, which is what the citation usually provided for this claim links to. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tlönorbis (talk • contribs) 06:34, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

LPAB

On several occasions the "first law school to be established in Australia" part has been edited to reference the Solicitors and Barristers Admission Boards, with the most recent edit ([2]) going so far as to conclude that the Boards are the first "law schools" in Australia, on the basis that they provided legal education.

A "law school", by definition, is an institution specialising in legal education. The LPAB and its predecessors served the primary function of adminsitering admission of barristers and solicitors. Part of this function was legal education, but that was not its primary function. (In fact, the original Barristers Admission Board in NSW examined candidates on Classics and Mathematics, as well as Law -- not exactly your typical Law School exam). This is a crucial difference. Law school doesn't admit lawyers. LPAB does.

See these links from the NSW state archive for more information about these former and present agencies in NSW: Barristers Admission Board, Examiners of the Supreme Court and Solicitors Admission Board, Joint Examinations Board, Legal Profession Admission Board. --Sumple (Talk) 07:10, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Judges without LLBs

I have reverted the deletions of Sir Samuel Griffith, Richard O'Connor, and Sir Edmund Barton from the alumni list. Sir Samuel Griffith didn't study law in Queensland - he only received an Hon LLD (later). His university education was MA and BA (Hons) from Usyd. Just because he doesn't hold an LLB doesn't mean he didn't study law at Sydney: e.g. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says, concerning his education at Sydney: "He also studied law, taking general jurisprudence as an extra university course". He is listed as an alumni by the Sydney Law School site: http://www.law.usyd.edu.au/alumni/distinguished.shtml#judges

The same applies to Richard O'Connor, who was also MA, BA from Usyd, and Sir Edmund Barton, who was MA, BA (Hons) from USyd. There is no evidence that they studied law anywhere other than at Sydney. The only evidence which really points one way or other is the Law School's alumni list.

In fact, it is telling that the anon removed the three founding justices. All of them graduated from Sydney University at a time when the Law School was very young, and the normal course was probably to just a couple of courses in law as part of your BA/MA, and then go clerking. In fact, it wasn't until the time of Evatt and McTiernan - the 1930s, that we routinely see HC judges bearing LL.B. after their names. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 14:18, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

The person above me is right. Australia comes from the UK tradition of law being taught as an apprenticeship. You study like "classics" at Oxford, then you go apprentice to a solicitor or barrister friend of the family (who is by the way quite a toffy chap). It was only 2 years ago that they stopped allowing you to become a lawyer in Australia by 5-years of articles (i.e. you could become a lawyer with no law degree until 2 years ago - my first boss became a lawyer in this fashion). Leecharleswalker (talk) 02:20, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Whilst the above statement is correct (about legal qualifications) Griffith is listed as Law School Alumni. He completed the BA before the Law School was formed. Then he did his legal apprenticeship in Queensland and was admitted there in 1867. Then he did his MA in Sydney in 1870. I believe he did one subject on jurisprudence as an "extra" at the university, though I am not sure whether this was before or after the formation of the Law School. He is an alumni of the university, but not of the Law School. 130.102.136.155 (talk) 03:38, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Removed content to be considered

Internally, the Sydney Law School encompasses many of the state's legal fraternities, centres, and legal research institutes, and jointly hosts the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law (ACCEL), the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law in the University of Sydney (CAPLUS), the Centre for Health Governance, Law and Ethics, the Institute of Criminology (University of Sydney), the Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence, the Ross Parsons Centre of Commercial, Corporate and Taxation Law, and the Sydney Centre for International Law (SCIL), as well as the Australian Network for Japanese Law (ANJeL). The Constitutional Reform Unit (CRU) was also newly established in 2011.

Externally, the Sydney Law School has partner programs with many of the world's leading law schools and is the only law school in Australia, to have a law exchange programme with Harvard Law School as well as several other notable Ivy League and Russell Group law schools, including Cornell Law School, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Nottingham. Furthermore, the Sydney Law School has an arrangement with the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford which allows exceptional LL.B. or J.D. students to apply for early admission into Oxford's Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) or Master’s in Law and Finance (M.L.F.).

I have removed this content from the Programs section of the article. Interestingly, the majority of this content isn't actually about the programs, at least academic or educational programs, offered by the law school.

Regarding the exchanges or opportunities to study at other universities, there is something I can't put my finger on, but I feel there must be qualification of these statements that I've moved to here. For instance, the opportunity to study at HLS is only available to postgraduate students (and not J.D.s students). Moreover, I feel that these opportunities are offered via the SLS but (or and), more importantly, by the other institution. --Qwerty Binary (talk) 15:06, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

References