(583)  LAW SCHOOLS BLASTED

 

Not everyone loves Scottish law schools (see previously No 582).  That fierce critic, Alistair Bonnington, solicitor to BBC Scotland and a former Honorary Professor of Law at Glasgow University (see previously No 463), launched a broadside at Scottish law schools and their students in the July 2006 issue of the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland.  The ever gentler and kinder modes of teaching and assessment in the law degree did not prepare students for the harsh realities of legal practice, argued Mr Bonnington.  Far too many were admitted; far too many got 2:1s; and collectively they were tediously conformist” (clearly not a good thing for lawyers to be).  Moreover the teaching of the professional subjects “is now briefer and shallower than was the case in the past”: “Scots law is taught little and seldom in some law schools”.  Students often seemed unaware that there were several legal systems within the UK.  Honours study bore little relation to practice