432
Green Bag.
examinations of the different courses have been passed, the undergraduate goes up for the final ordeal called Esame di Laurea. Three (and in some universities five) essays on subjects chosen by himself are submitted to a board of eleven examiners, and, like the student of the Middle Ages who used to nail his thesis to the college gate and challenge whomsoever to dispute it, he has in a subse quent viva vocc examination to make good his propositions. If successful, he is pro claimed Dottorc in Lcgge. As in France, the legal profession in Italy is divided into two branches, the Procurators (avoues) and the Avvocati (avocats]. The Proruratorc (who is somewhat akin to the Eng lish solicitor) need not have taken a degree; his term at the university is limited to two years; he cannot plead outside the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of the district in which his domicile is registered, and never in criminal cases before the Court of Appeal. He must be an Italian subject, and is sworn on his assumption of office. His fees are de termined by law. The Avi'ocato must have taken his degree; he can, with the assistance of a local Procuratorc, plead before any Court of the king dom (at the Supreme Courts of Cassation only after five years' practice). No oath is required of him, and he may be an alien. In some parts of Italy the two professions used to be distinct. ... At the present day the distinction may be said to have almost ceased to exist, especially after the passing of the law providing that every Prociiraiore afterfive years' practice becomes dc jure a barris ter, and every barrister, after two years' practice, may enter his name on the. rolls of Procurator!. . . . Few faults can be found. with this system of legal training in Italy, which strives not only to equip the student with an ample knowledge of the laws and institutions of his country, but also to broaden his mind by a sound and comprehensive general educa tion. . . A sweeping reform is ... to be desired with regard to the expounding of the Civil
Code. This monumental work, an enlarged and corrected edition of the Code ~apolconf consists of three books and 2147 paragraphs. The period of two years allotted to its study is entirely insufficient. The teaching of the Code practically resolves itself either into a hurried and perfunctory review of the law, or e'.se into a monographical study of a single part, with the inevitable result of con fusion in the first instance and deplorable blanks in the second. It is an everyday occurrence that students leave the University in entire ignorance of such important matters as the law of Con tracts, the law of Inheritance, or the law of Real and Personal Property. A complete knowledge of Civil law is es sential, and this object is only to be attained by distributing the study of the Code throughout the four years of the academic curriculum, with yearly or biennial examina tions. IN an article in The Canadian Lan.' Rcvicï<.' for May is given much, interesting informa tion about "An English Judge's Dress." For example : The earliest representation we have of the official costume of the Bench is the seal of Robert Grimbald, a justice of the time of Henry II. He is depicted in a long tunic and mantle, with a round cap on his head and a sword in each hand. There is little doubt that these robes were already scarlet, al though the exact period when the Bench had adopted scarlet in its official dress is not known to us. It has, it is true, been sug gested that they wore green in the reign of Edward III., but this was only in virtue of their being likewise knights, green being the badge of knighthood. Even at that early period the. robes seem to have consisted of a long tunic or colobrium reaching to the ankles, surmounted by a cope. . . . Grad ually the closed cope came to be the distinc tive dress of the judges. The earliest notice of the robes of the judges occurs in a Close roll dated 1292. . . . In an illumination of the time of Henrv
