year the Law School has not had a library appropriated to the use of its students; but now, by the liberality of the family of the late George Biddle, Esq., a library containing complete sets of the English Reports, the Federal Reports, and the reports of the courts of last resort of the several States, has been presented to the University as a memorial of that distinguished lawyer. The curriculum of the school now includes thorough instruction in the following topics of the law : Constitutional Law, Equity Jurisprudence, Contracts, Bailments, Corporations, Carriers, Real and Personal Property and Conveyancing, Wills and Administration, Torts, Practice, Pleading and Evidence at Law and in Equity, and Criminal Law. Within a short time arrangements will be completed for a course of lectures to be delivered by competent instructors in International Law, Admiralty, Patents and Copyrights, and Medical Jurisprudence.
The requisites of admission to the school are:—
1. A satisfactory degree as Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science; or,
2. A certificate of preliminary examination from the Board of Examiners of the Bar of Philadelphia; or,
3. A certificate from two or more examiners appointed by the Faculty of Law, setting forth that the student has passed a satisfactory examination in English and American History, the Latin Language, and the first two books of Blackstone's Commentaries. The course of instruction is strictly graded, and instruction is given by lectures and by frequent examinations. The students are required to read and discuss the leading cases illustrating the subject of instruction. Moot Courts are held at which questions prepared by the professors are argued.
Under the statutes of the University a degree of Bachelor of Laws is granted to candidates who having attended upon the full course of instruction in the Law Department, and having prepared and submitted to the Faculty an essay on some legal subject sufficient in merit to satisfy the Faculty of their fitness to receive the degree, shall have passed a satisfactory examination upon the subjects of instruction. The degree of Bachelor of Laws cum honore is granted to such candidates as may be certified by the Faculty to have passed the final examination with distinction. Graduates of the school are admitted to practise in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and in the courts of Philadelphia County upon compliance with the rules of the courts as to registration. There is also a post-graduate (course of study, covering two years and involving a philosophical inquiry into the history and sources of the law. Graduates of this course receive the degree of Master of Laws. A system of Fellowships has been created, under which the Faculty may select from the graduating class a distinguished student, and appoint him a resident "Fellow" to serve for three years at an annual salary of $300, and to give instruction in the Law School under the direction of the Dean of the Faculty. The aim and end of the system of instruction of the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania is to train students of law so thoroughly that when they shall have been graduated they will be competent to enter into practice at any bar in the United States. Since the establishment of the Law School, in 1850, more than seven hundred students have been graduated, most of whom have engaged in active practice, and by their professional success have reflected credit upon their Alma Mater.
