¹ This is a revised version of the National Report on Legal Education presented at the 18^th International Congress on Comparative Law (Washington, DC, USA July 25 – August 1, 2010) on The Role of Practice in Legal Education in the Republic of Ireland. The authors thank their colleagues T.P. Kennedy, Imelda Maher, James McDermott, Maureen Reynolds for their useful assistance and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. The authors’ views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the institutions they are affiliated to. Any errors remain their own.Google Scholar

² For an historical perspective of Irish legal education, see Herron, Patricia, Two Thousands Years of Legal Education in Ireland, (2006) 3 Web Journal of Current Legal Issues at http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/2006/issue3/herron3.html (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

³ See below II. 3. Professional Legal Training.Google Scholar

⁴ See www.bologna2009benelux.org for the current official Bologna website (last accessed 3 May 2010). A permanent address will be secured after the 2010 discussions.Google Scholar

⁵ Kazakhstan joined the Bologna process in March 2010.Google Scholar

⁶ See The Budapest-Vienna Declaration on the European Higher Education Area, 12 March 2010 adopted on the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of the Bologna Process at http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/2010conference/documents/Budapest-ViennaDeclaration.pdf (last accessed 3 May 2010). See also The Bologna Process 2020 – The European Higher Education Area in the new decade, Communiqué of the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education, Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve, 28–29 April 2009 at http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/conference/documents/LeuvenLouvain-la-NeuveCommuniquéApril2009.pdf (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

⁷ See The Budapest-Vienna Declaration on the European Higher Education Area, 12 March 2010 (note 6 above).Google Scholar

⁸ A Bücker & W.A. Woodruff, The Bologna Process and German Legal Education: Developing Professional Competence through Clinical Experiences, 9 German Law Journal 575 (2008) at http://www.germanlawjournal.com/pdfs/Vol09No05/PDFVol09No05575-618ArticlesBucker%20and%20Woodruff.pdf (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

⁹ See The Bologna Process 2020 – The European Higher Education Area in the new decade, Communiqué of the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education, Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve, 28–29 April 2009 (note 6 above).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Id. Google Scholar

¹¹ Id. Google Scholar

¹² For a full picture of the Education System in Ireland, see The Information Database on Education Systems in Europe Eurybase at http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurvdice/documents/eurvbase/eurybasefullreports/IEEN.pdf (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

** 13 The National University of Ireland (NUI) is a federal university comprising the largest element of the Irish university system. Its mission is to provide a supportive framework for its confederate institutions, to promote the objects of the University, thus contributing to educational, cultural, social and economic advancement. It has four constituent universities, namely University College Dublin, University College Cork, NUI Galway and NUI Maynooth. These have the same statutory status as the State's three other universities but a small number of administrative and academic functions are carried out on their behalf by the NUI. However, the Minister for Education and Science announced the dissolution of the NUI on January 20, 2010. A new qualifications and quality assurance agency for the further and higher education sectors is now being proposed. The remaining of the tasks carried out by the NUI, and not taken up by the new agency, will be transferred to the constituent universities.Google Scholar

¹⁴ DCU School of Law and Government at http://www.dcu.ie/lawandgovernment/index.shtml, NUI Galway School of Law in the College of Business, Public Policy and Law at http://www.nuigalway.ie/law/, NUI Maynooth Department of Business and Law in the Faculty of Social Sciences at http://business.nuim.ie/Law.shtml, TCD School of Law in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at http://www.tcd.ie/Law/, UCC Faculty of Law in the College of Business and Law at http://www.ucc.ie/en/lawsite/, UCD School of Law in the College of Business and Law at http://www.ucd.ie/law/index.html, and UL School of Law in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences at http://www2.ul.ie/web/WWW/Faculties/Arts,Humanities&SocialSciences/SchoolofLaw (all websites last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Other institutes offering legal education are Athlone IT, Carlow IT, Letterkenny IT and Waterford IT.Google Scholar

¹⁶ These are the Dublin Business School (which incorporates Portobello College), Dorset College, Griffith College, and Open University of Ireland.Google Scholar

¹⁷ See http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurvdice/documents/eurvbase/eurybasefullreports/IEEN.pdf (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

¹⁸ Marie-Luce Paris, Challenging Exchange Programs: Studying the Common Law and Civil Law Systems in a Joint Law Degree, 5 (1) European Journal of Legal Education 47 (2009) at http://elfa-afde.eu/Documents/EJLEAPRIL09CH.pdf (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

¹⁹ Since 1996, a number of the private colleges have joined the CAO system. However, if prospective students fail to apply via this route, these institutions will generally accept direct entry.Google Scholar

²⁰ Sean Flynn, “HEA calls for ‘overhaul’ of Leaving Cert exam,” The Irish Times, 6 April 2010.Google Scholar

²¹ See Introduction.Google Scholar

²² See below II. 3. Professional Legal Training.Google Scholar

²³ Some universities, like NUI Maynooth, offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in law.Google Scholar

²⁴ Requirements for the professional legal bodies in Northern Ireland and England & Wales are not detailed here. They do not differ much; the IPLS will require Law of Evidence as part of an acceptable law degree (but not Company Law); the Law Society and the General Council of the Bar of England and Wales will require Public Law including Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, and Human Rights Law, as well as English Land Law.Google Scholar

²⁵ Both professional law schools are open to applicants with non-law degrees provided they pass a preliminary examination offered every year by the professional bodies. Holders of an approved degree (other than an approved degree in law) and mature applicants (defined as students who do not hold an approved degree and are over 25 years of age) will need to study for a two year Diploma in Legal Studies at the King's Inns and pass the relevant annual examination before proceeding to take the entrance examination to the bar. This is the first stage of training; it is an academic course and the standard of the examinations is the same as that obtaining in the universities. The very first step for non-graduates wishing to enter the solicitors’ profession is a preliminary examination in English, Irish Politics & Government, and General Knowledge. University graduates from Ireland and the United Kingdom or holders of degrees (regardless of the discipline) awarded by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC) are exempt from this examination.Google Scholar

²⁶ Fair Trade Commission Report of Study into Restrictive Practices in the Legal Profession (Dublin: Government of Ireland Stationary Office, 1990).Google Scholar

²⁷ Competition Authority Report on Competition in Legal Services in Ireland 2006 (final). Online at: http://www.tca.ie/EN/News–Publications/News-Releases/The-Competition-Authority-finds-the-legal-profession-in-need-of-substantial-reform-.aspx (last accessed 3 May 2010). The Authority concluded that the Irish legal profession in general was in need of substantial reform. As far as legal education was concerned, one recommendation was the abolition of the Law Society's and King's Inns control of professional legal education which facilitates their educational monopolies. This was in line with a 2001 OECD report on The Role of Competition Policy in Regulatory Reform in Ireland. Online at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/27/37/34768100.pdf (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

²⁸ See The Law Society of Ireland at http://www.lawsociety.ie/ (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

²⁹ Apart from the preliminary examination, every aspiring solicitor is obliged by statute to pass a written examination in the Irish language – the First Irish Examination.Google Scholar

³⁰ The Law Society entrance examination, and the exemptions from sitting it in particular, gave rise to important litigation in the mid-1990s (cf. Bloomer & Others v The Law Society of Ireland & Others [1995] 3 IR 14, Abrahamson & Others v The Law Society of Ireland & Others and the Attorney-General [1996] unreported, High Court, 15 July 1996).Google Scholar

³¹ A second written and oral examination in the Irish language must be passed before a trainee qualifies. Again, no exemptions are granted. Note that exemptions from the Irish language requirement are made for foreign qualified lawyers seeking admission to the Roll of Solicitors either by reciprocity or by virtue of having passed the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test.Google Scholar

³² See The Honorable Society of King's Inns at http://www.kingsinns.ie (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

³³ They must also have studied Administrative Law, Company Law, Equity and Trusts, Jurisprudence, Land Law and Succession and Law of the European Union in their degree course.Google Scholar

³⁴ They must also have passed an examination in Irish and made a satisfactory declaration to the benchers.Google Scholar

³⁵ See The Law Society of Ireland at http://www.lawsociety.ie/ (last accessed 3 May 2010); The Honorable Society of King's Inns at http://www.kingsinns.ie (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

³⁶ HEA 2007–2008 Statistics are available online at http://www.hea.ie (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

³⁷ Open and Distance Learning (ODL) methods have become very popular in Ireland in disciplines including law. While student participation figures in ODL courses are difficult to establish on a consistent basis, it is estimated that approximately 10,000 adults are participating in distance education programmes, thus adding a certain number of law graduates to the above mentioned figures.Google Scholar

³⁸ Grainne Faller, “A shift in student priorities,” The Irish Times, 12 January 2009.Google Scholar

³⁹ Some institutions have reported a sharp increase in the number of qualified lawyers returning to pursue postgraduate study. Again, this is doubtless attributable, at least to some extent, to the economic climate.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Internal data from the Law Society of Ireland made available by TP Kennedy, Director of Education.Google Scholar

⁴¹ In the last annual report of the Law Society (2008/2009), the number of practising solicitors was given as 8,169, i.e. 9,150 holding practising certificates less 981 not practising members (See Law Society of Ireland Annual Report & Accounts 2008/2009 Facts about the Profession). Online at:http://www.lawsociety.ie/Global/About%20Us/Annual%20Reports/AR08-09.pdf (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

⁴² The other conditions set by most universities to engage in paid external work for an academic staff (not only in Law) are that the activities must be related to the academic and professional interests of staff, must not interfere with the performance of normal academic duties and must be recommended, in certain cases approved, by the Head of School. See. e.g. UCD Consultancy and External Work Policy at http://www.ucd.ie/hr/t4cms/consultancyandexternalworkpolicyv3%200.pdf Google Scholar

⁴³ Costs estimates are given in euros (€) and are based on 2009–2010 information.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ For elements of the fees debate, see, for example, James McDermott, “Minister needs to move quickly on college fees”, Sunday, August 16, 2009, The Post.ie at http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2009/08/16/story43749.asp, and Diarmuid Doyle, “Who will make the case for free third-level education?”, Sunday, August 10, 2008, Tribune News at http://www.tribune.ie/news/editorial-opinion/article/2008/aug/10/who-will-make-the-case-for-free-third-level-educat/ (last accessed 3 May 2010).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ e.g. €157,50 in UCD, €224 in NUI Galway. Figures provided are sourced from the Fees & Grants section of each university webpage.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Ranges of fees given are the result of a comparison of Fees & Grants information made available for each of the 7 universities on their website.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ A promise not to reintroduce fees was extracted by the Green party from the Fianna Fáil, Ireland's governing party, when the current Government was planning a new fees regime. In a statement issued in late 2009, the Government explained that ‘[c]onscious of the economic pressure on parents today, [it] will not proceed with any new scheme of student contribution to Third Level education’ (See Renewed Programme for Government, 10 October 2009 at http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Publications/Publications2009/RenewedProgrammeforGovernmentOctober2009.html (last accessed 3 May 2010). The Government had envisaged a hybrid system of graduate taxes and/or student loans. Students could be offered the option to pay the cost of their undergraduate legal education upfront (with fees starting from €5,000), with the possibility of a discount on the overall cost of the degree. For those students (the majority?) who couldn't pay upfront, the alternative was that, on the English model, they would repay the cost once their professional income had reached a certain threshold thus carrying debt after graduation, mitigated by some kind of low-interest loan arrangement. See Flynn, Sean, “College fees – What's going on?” The Irish Times, 31 March 2009.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ See above II. 3. Professional Legal Training (text and footnotes) for detailed information about elements of practice in legal education at Blackball Place and King's Inns.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ See notes 14–16 above and accompanying text with relevant websites where more detailed information can be obtained.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Id. Google Scholar

⁵¹ See Schweppe, Jennifer, “You Can Leave Your Hat On: Applying Edward de Bono's Approach to Business Management to Problem Solving in the Law Classroom,” (paper presented at the 4^th Irish Legal Education Symposium, University of Limerick, May 2010) (paper on file with authors).Google Scholar

⁵² TCD and NUI Galway are among the law schools that do. At least one private college, Dublin Business School, offers a diploma in alternative dispute resolution.Google Scholar

⁵³ See Daly, Yvonne & Higgins, Noelle, “Mooting in the Modern Legal Curriculum,” (paper presented at the 4^th Irish Legal Education Symposium, University of Limerick, May 2010) (paper on file with authors).Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Id. Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Id. Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Mel Cousins, How public interest law and litigation can make a difference to marginalised and vulnerable groups in Ireland (Dublin, 2005) at http://www.flac.ie/download/pdf/cousinsflac061005.pdf (last accessed 20 May 2010).Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Lawrence Donnelly, “Clinical Legal Education: Translating an American Innovation into Irish Practice,” (paper presented at the Irish Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference, Cork, April 2006) (paper on file with authors).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Lawrence Donnelly, Irish Clinical Legal Education Ab Initio: Challenges and Opportunities, (2008/2009) 13 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 56 at note 1; see also Neville, Sarah, “Young Legal Eagles Will Get To Spread Wings in Mock Court as part of New University Project,” Evening Herald, 2 August 2008 (detailing plans for CLE at University College Dublin).Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Lawrence Donnelly, Irish Clinical Legal Education Ab Initio: Challenges and Opportunities, (2008/2009) 13 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 56 at 60–61.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Id., 61.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Id., 60–62.Google Scholar

⁶² Peter Joy, Political Interference in Clinical Programmes: Lessons from the U.S. Experience, (2005) 8 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 83 at 87 (noting that foremost among the objectives of students, educators and students who pioneered legal education was to “expand access to justice by representing poor and unpopular clients and causes…”).Google Scholar

⁶³ The websites for the School of Law at NUI Galway (http://www.nuigalway.ie/law/) and for the Faculty of Law at UCC (http://www.ucc.ie/en/lawsite/) contain further information on their CLE programmes.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Mel Cousins, How public interest law and litigation can make a difference to marginalised and vulnerable groups in Ireland (Dublin, 2005) at http://www.flac.ie/download/pdf/cousinsflac061005.pdf (last accessed 20 May 2010).Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Patricia Herron, Two Thousands Years of Legal Education in Ireland, (2006) 3 Web Journal of Current legal Issues at http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/2006/issue3/herron3.html (last accessed 20 May 2010).Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Andras Jakab, Dilemmas of Legal Education: A Comparative Overview, 57 Journal of Legal Education 253 at 257 (2007).Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Id., 257.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ See generally Richmond, Michael, Teaching Law to Passive Learners: The Contemporary Dilemma of Legal Education, 26 Cumberland Law Review 943 (1995/1996).Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Margaret Thornton, The Law School, the Marketplace and the New Knowledge Economy, (2009) 10 German Law Journal 641 at 653–654.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Id., 654.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Id., 652.Google Scholar

⁷² See note 47 above.Google Scholar

⁷³ Paul O'Connor, Legal Education in Ireland, 80 Michigan Bar Journal 78 at 79 (2001).Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Lawrence Donnelly, Irish Clinical Legal Education Ab Initio: Challenges and Opportunities, (2008/2009) 13 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 56 at 62 (where a clinical student comments that theory should be left to academics and that client-centred aspect of law practice is too often neglected in university courses). The traditional view also runs afoul of the spirit of Bologna.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Patricia Herron, Two Thousands Years of Legal Education in Ireland, (2006) 3 Web Journal of Current legal Issues at http://webicli.ncl.ac.uk/2006/issue3/herron3.html (last accessed 20 May 2010).Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Initiated in the 1960s and 1970s by legal realists and socio-legal scholars, the law and society movement pointed to the importance of understanding the gap between ‘law in books’ and ‘law in action', and the operation of law in society (See Mike McConville & Wing Hong Chui, Research Methods for Law, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, 1 at 5).Google Scholar

⁷⁷ There is evidence that law schools in the UK, the United States and elsewhere in the common law world have put in place programmes (at postgraduate level) that encourage an interdisciplinary approach of law showing that socio-legal studies have become a significant feature of legal education in these jurisdictions (See Mike McConville & Wing Hong Chui, Research Methods for Law, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, 1 at 5).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ And ‘will also enable the law school to take a much greater part in the intellectual debates to be found elsewhere in the university’ (See Bradney, Anthony, Law as a Parasitic Discipline (1998) 25 Journal of Law and Society 71).Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Frans Vanistendael, Designing a Humanistic Legal Education, (2006) 3(1) European Journal of Legal Education 56 at 63.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ John Bell, Legal Education and Bologna: A British Perspective, (2005) 2(2) European Journal of Legal Education 95 at 96.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Frans Vanistendael, Designing a Humanistic Legal Education, (2006) 3(1) European Journal of Legal Education 56 at 64–67.Google Scholar

⁸² Id. at 64–65. There is also the fact that law students are now more research-based than before and are asked, at postgraduate as well as increasingly undergraduate level, to undertake more research to complete coursework assignments, especially if they have to look at other disciplines and methods. At first glance, it might run against the idea of a more practice-related curriculum. However, increasingly research-based studies have their role to play in teaching invaluable practical transferable and analytical skills.Google Scholar

⁸³ William Binchy, The Irish Legal System, 29 International Journal of Legal Information 201 at 216–217 (2001). See also note 14 and accompanying text for relevant information on the various interdisciplinary law degrees offered by Irish law schools.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ See generally Maharg, Paul, Transforming Legal Education: Learning and Teaching Law in the Early Twenty-First Century (Ashgate, 2007).Google Scholar

⁸⁵ See Donnelly, Lawrence, “More practice needed in legal education,” The Irish Times, 19 October 2009. Clearly, one of this article's co-authors is inclined to the third view.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ See generally Wilson, Richard, Western Europe: Last Holdout in the Global Acceptance of Clinical Legal Education, (2009) 10 German Law Journal 823.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Lawrence Donnelly, Irish Clinical Legal Education Ab Initio: Challenges and Opportunities, (2008/2009) 13 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 56 at 61–62.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ This sentiment emerged from our informal “polling” of legal academics about the introduction of more practical elements in the Irish legal curriculum.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ See Donnelly, Lawrence, “More practice needed in legal education,” The Irish Times, 19 October 2009.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Lawrence Donnelly, Irish Clinical Legal Education Ab Initio: Challenges and Opportunities, (2008/2009) 13 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 56 at 57–58.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Richard Wilson, Western Europe: Last Holdout in the Global Acceptance of Clinical Legal Education, (2009) 10 German Law Journal 823 at 823.Google Scholar

⁹² See Wilson, Richard, Training for Justice: The Global Reach of Clinical Legal Education, 22 Penn. State International Law Review 421 at 423 (2004) (noting that the debate as to the appropriate definition of CLE is ongoing).Google Scholar

⁹³ Elliott Milstein, Clinical Legal Education in the United States: In-House Clinics, Externships and Simulations, 51 Journal of Legal Education 375 at 376–377 (2001). While students don't have the same right to practice law, in- house clinics have sprouted up in Eastern Europe. See generally Krasnicka, Izabela, Legal Education and Clinical Legal Education in Poland, (2008/2009) 13 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 47.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ See note 55 above and accompanying text.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ See, e.g., the “student law office” operating at the University of Northumbria http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/law/slonew/?view=Standard.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ See Terry, Kelly, Externships: A Signature Pedagogy for the Apprenticeship of Professional Identity and Purpose, 59 Journal of Legal Education 240 at 267 (2009).Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Existing clinical programmes include more students every year and new initiatives are afoot in the law schools at University College Dublin and the University of Limerick, among others.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ See Milstein, Elliott, Clinical Legal Education in the United States: In-House Clinics, Externships and Simulations, 51 Journal of Legal Education 375 at 376–377 (2001) (including simulated exercises in a classroom under the rubric of CLE); but see Richard Wilson, Training for Justice: The Global Reach of Clinical Legal Education, 22 Penn. State International Law Review 421 at 423 (2004). Prof. Wilson excludes simulations from the list of necessary components in his definition of CLE.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Frans Vanistendael, Designing a Humanistic Legal Education, (2006) 3(1) European Journal of Legal Education 56 at 63.Google Scholar