Сборник текстов для перевода. Борисова Л.А. - 19 стр.

                                       TEXT 14

                                     Inns of Court

       Inns of Court in London, group of four institutions of considerable antiq-
uity that have historically been responsible for legal education. Their respective
governing bodies, the benches, exercise the exclusive right of admitting persons
to practice by a formal call to the bar. They consist of the Inner Temple and
Middle Temple (both housed within the area known as The Temple), Lincoln's
Inn and Gray's Inn – all of which are located in the general vicinity of the Royal
Courts of Justice, at the boundary between the City of London and Westminster.
       The Inns of Court are voluntary societies, unchartered and unincorporated.
Hence, their early history is obscure. Since their inception in the Middle Ages,
however, they have been devoted to the technical study of English law, rather
than Roman law, which was taught in the universities. Previously, law was
learned in the course of service, the first rudiments possibly in private clerkship
to some official. By the mid-13th century, when the common law had become
extensive and intricate, there arose a class of men, literate but lay, who created
and dominated the legal profession and set up the Inns of Court as an answer to
the problem of legal education. Manuals and books were produced in French
rather than Latin. The students listened to arguments in court and discussed law
among themselves.
       In addition to those who practiced in the courts, there was also a large
demand for stewards and legal advisers to landowners to conduct general busi-
ness and keep manorial courts. These men needed the rudiments but not the re-
finements of common law. Such, too, was the case with the large class of attor-
neys and a growing class of bookkeepers and correspondence clerks. They
gained most of their knowledge through an Inn of Chancery, an institution for
training in the framing of writs and other legal documents used in the courts of
chancery.
       In the 14th century many of the household clerks (clergy with at least mi-
nor orders) of the chancellor's office formed Inns and appear to have taken stu-
dents for training. By the end of the century these Inns were in danger of being
submerged by a flood of attorneys-to-be and students who used an Inn of Chan-
cery as a preparation for entering an Inn of Court. Eventually, each Inn of Court
secured control of one or more Inns of Chancery and supervised its affairs, ap-
pointed readers to teach in it, and later often bought its premises, becoming its
landlord.
       By the 15th century the Inns of Court were governed by their benchers,
who had previously given at least two courses of lectures (readings) and who
presided over mock arguments (moots) in which students argued difficult points
of law before them.


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