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Distance Education Law Schools / Re: Alternative to University of London - Northumbria University
« on: July 02, 2011, 05:02:59 PM »The school looks good, but what about having to memorize two justice systems to take a state's bar exam?
Remember, most of our common law came from England. The experience I had at the University of London was very thorough, from the history of the legal system in England, the different levels of courts and how they work, and lots of free legal references online, to how to argue your case with practical wisdom. The problems I had with their program were the requirements to memorize case citings verbatum (aside from knowing the case content) and only one exam at the end of the year (i.e. no homework, midterms, or other assessments) to decide your fate for the year - ridiculous! The grading of the exams were very subjective where the essay required the student to express a lot of his or her own opinion, but the grader grades your opinion???
I also could only use a registered US college (registered with U of L) to go take my exams, over two hours driving one way, not very convenient as there are attorneys, judges, and other colleges nearby that could have been used for proctors. Maybe I'm whining too much because I put a lot of time into the studies only to walk away at the end of the year with failing marks, which U of L has some expectation of those results and that's why they allow you to keep extending, but only to go through the same system again the following year! I suggested taking a look at Northumbria, because they may be different in their approach to legal education. By the way, the costs for either college is very, very, reasonable, about $2800 US dollars per year.
You get a good taste of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is the "constitution like" document for all of their member countries, which has helped their citizens protect their freedoms similar to our constitution but not as Christian based as our US Constitution. Remember I posted a link on my other topic I started "Helpful Online Law Learning Resources - Free!," which takes you to the European Court of Human Rights website, with video recorded cases you can watch oral arguments. It's good exposure for any serious student of law to see what another large free world justice system is doing.
From what I have read (you can google it or look at what you posted), most of the U of L graduates take an LLM program here in the USA before sitting for the Bar, but they don't have to in some states, as long as your LLB from a common law country qualified you to become a lawyer in that respective country. I would say that a Bar Exam Prep Course would suffice for those LLB graduates from UK/England and similar common law countries.
It would be nice to see responses from students that actually were successful at U of L, Northumbria, or any other foreign online law program!