Princeton Law School
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The law school at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) began instruction in 1847 as a modest effort consisting of three professors. Only seven students would obtain a law degree before the school closed in 1852. The short-lived experiment at establishing a law school would be the farthest headway the university would make in a recurring ambition and effort of varying toil. Previously, in the 1820s, an attempt was made to organize teaching in law, but this plan ended with the death of the designated professor. In 1835, the university once again formed appreciable plans for the start of a law school but was unable to secure a faculty. The desire remained after these unsuccessful efforts but aspirations would be relegated to thirsting words rather than material preparations. In 1974, then president of Princeton, William Bowen, selected a committee to investigate and advise on the achievability of a law school. The committee recommended plans for a law school be deferred after citing high construction costs.
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[edit] Fictional existence
A large portion of the general public, and even members of the legal community, often believe Princeton Law School is still operational. This likely stems from the fact that the majority of Ivy League schools do in fact have professional schools of jurisprudence. As a result, at a press conference of law school deans in 1998 decrying the annual US News Law School Rankings, then New York University School of Law Dean John Sexton, quipped, "If they were asked about Princeton Law School, it would appear on the top 20 -- but it doesn't exist" (Sexton was denouncing the US News usage of reputation survey results from judges, lawyers and law school deans in its ranking formula, expressing doubt over the expertise of some surveyed). For instance, a National Review Online published commentary, "Liberate the Universities" by Candace de Russy, blundered on April 7, 2003 when the author identified the law school at Princeton as real: "These yearnings are embodied in a doctrine called ‘transnational progressivism,’ which is gaining prominence in law schools, for example, at Princeton and Rutgers." here). Moreover, during the Senate Judiciary Committee vote for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, Sen. Richard Durbin attested that now Justice Alito hailed from "Princeton Law;" however, in actuality Alito attended Princeton University for his undergraduate studies, thereafter attendeding Yale Law School. Both de Rusey and Durbin became a cases in point for Sexton’s comments, as the former is an academic holding a doctorate, while the later is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, a highly ranked legal alma mater.
Princeton Law has also been used in fictional settings in order to implicate an individuals elite university connection without citing an actual school. In the Cosby Show, the eldest daughter, Sondra, is portrayed as a drop out.
Additionally, a running joke in the legal community is that Princeton's fictional legal division is also the world's preeminent institution in the formerly non-existent field of space law. The joke predates the existence of actual space law programs at institutions such as McGill University; yet nevertheless remains well known.
[edit] Notable faculty
[edit] Notes
- ^ Jan Hoffman, "Judge Not, Law Schools Demand Of a Magazine That Ranks Them", New York Times, February 19, 1998.
[edit] Reference
- Leitch, Alexander (1978). A Princeton Companion. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04654-9.
