The Teaching of Law in France

For a little over thirty years the teaching of law in France has conjured up the image of a vast expanse of land, the boundaries of which are continually being extended: the observer will see a succession of cultivated fields, plots of land which are constantly being tilled so that one wonders if they will ever bear a crop; but he will also see ground lying fallow which is coveted by the wealthy and the pioneers: they plough their furrows, which they then either abandon or untiringly plough even deeper or longer. These remarks, preceding the presentation of so serious a subject, are an invitation to the reader to consider with a duly critical mind and the necessary degree of relativism, the developments which the complexity of the matter will sometimes make irksome or even baffling. A recent work on Le syst~me d\u27enseignement du droit en France offers an interesting summary of the genesis of, and changes in, the teaching of legal disciplines from the creation, by the Act of 13 March 1804, of schools of law , to the Act of 26 January 1984 on higher education: the author cautiously concludes that the discussion remains open