Measuring legal expertise: The merits of a national law examination

In an address to the Law Society\u27s Opening of Law Term Dinner in February this year the Honourable J.J. Spigelman AC argued in favour of the Australian legal system moving towards a national judiciary and legal profession. This move towards nationalisation raises the issue of whether the education of law students should similarly be moving in a national direction. An issue of particular interest that would likely be raised in any move towards taking a national approach to legal education would be the merits of adopting a national law examination that all law graduates would need to complete in order to qualify as legal practitioners. The adoption of such a legal examination could significantly improve the quality of our law schools and law graduates with the obvious benefits that this would provide to the legal profession and the wider community