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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 4, No. 9. July 30, 1941
[Introduction]
V.U.C. is the Law School of the University of New Zealand. "Salient" is proud to feature a scheme for the reform of legal education.
There is a growing feeling in legal circles, particularly among the teaching staff of the Universities and their pupils, that the present system of legal education is completely inadequate for modern needs. In the past the function of the lawyer in New Zealand has been primarily to clothe with legal form the various transactions that a rapidly developing commercial community requires. That function is still an important one to the individual solicitor, but for the profession as a whole the emphasis must gradually shift to the social aspect. As Dr. Roscoe Pound, the most eminent of Anglo-American jurists, has said,
"Let us talk of jurisprudence as a science of social engineering. Engineering. is a process, an activity, not merely a body of knowledge or a fixed order of construction."
The conservatism of the legal profession has been one of its most useful characteristics in the past, but if it prevents a realisation of the true aims of law it may well be a handicap in the future. Law will become a mere trade—somewhat skilled, no doubt, but a trade nevertheless.