Access to legal education in the countries with the common system of law

Abstract

Today, education is undoubtedly regarded as one of the most significant fields of social, economic, spiritual, and cultural progress of society. The development of democracy in Ukraine is inextricably related to the further improvement and reformation of the system of education, including the legal one. What is more, our country’s orientation to the formation of a law-based state, its compliance with international standards, as well as its desire to join the European Union only strengthen the necessity to elaborate the national standards of legal education, particularly in the sphere of satisfying the demands of consumers of educational services.
 More and more emphasis has been laid lately on the normative-legal regulation of higher education, including the legal one. It mostly concerns the conditions of obtaining an education, educational standards, tuition fees, and responsibility of students and educational institutions. However, the issue of normative-legal regulation of educational, social, and economic conditions of access to legal education in different countries remains most significant in this respect. 
 The article under studies determines various factors that promote equal access to legal education in the countries with the legislatively enshrined common system of law (Canada and the USA). For example, the basic peculiarity of American legal education lies in the fact that students cannot be awarded a degree in the field of jurisprudence if they choose law as their first higher education. This means that entering any college of law is impossible immediately after graduation from a high school. Only applicants, who have already obtained at least a bachelor’s degree in some other specialties, can enter. In Great Britain, only individual educational institutions may determine the conditions for applicants’ admission. Nevertheless, the admission to law colleges is possible on the basis of general secondary education.
 Borrowing or adopting international experience within the issue of access to legal education may ensure the enhancement of qualified training of prospective lawyers in Ukraine.