legal history•introduction • matthew dyson ing permanent and visiting positions). It also noted the growth in the proportion of law degrees where candidates did not qualify as lawyers. The idea of students studying law for the skills and ideas it provides rather than as a vocational course is well known in England, but appears not to detract from an increasing focus on the practical aspects of the degree.5 It was noted that relatively few students study subjects which provide the intellectual foundations for law, theGrundlagenfächer (‘foundational subjects’) that specifically include legal history (along with legal philosophy, legal theory, and legal sociology).6 It also argued ‘that, in future, the foundational subjects and legal doctrine should be taught in an integrated, rather than a complementary manner’, a sentiment that would make Hamson proud.7 Similarly, if the legal market in Europe were liberalized, or Codes were to spread across areas of law within Europe, legal education would have to change as well. It would be much harder for those trained in other jurisdictions to be excluded, whether from legal practice or from legal academia, as is still the case in many countries in Europe and North America. This would be a glorious thing, and would encourage key skills and an understanding structures and systems rather than ever-increasing specialization. A casual glance at the many law faculties across Europe, however, confirms that only a few countries have a significant number of non-nationals teaching their law. Legal historians today still face the problem Hamson noted, of how to ensure legal history survives. Hamson sought to ensure that legal historical reasoning and content was shared widely, but also viewed a specialized course as important. We might agree legal history is nourishing fare and we should ensure all students get at least a little of it, and, just maybe, they will develop a taste for it; yet that requires us to persuade our colleagues to include the right details, and, if necessary, equip them 5 As a rough estimate, one might expect that some 30 per cent of students at the University of Cambridge studying law either do not intend on entry, or later choose not, to continue on to legal practice. 6 Hamson 1955, 17 himself noted the contextualizing methods as being intentional law, Roman law, jurisprudence, and, of course, legal history. 7 Ibid, 60. 44
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