University of Virginia Library

LIBRARY—LEGAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The Law Department is provided with an excellent library, accommodated by
its own library room, separate from the general University library, and located
with special reference to the convenience of the law students. While the student
is not encouraged to venture for himself into either cases or text-books, save for
the purpose of verifying or clearing up some proposition of the lecture, or for the
preparation of opinions or briefs, he is incited to familiarize himself not only
with the leading cases to which his attention is called, but especially with the

bibliography of the law and the use of the books. To the latter subject, in addition
to the instruction incidentally given, several lectures are specially devoted.
The student is taught that books are the working tools of the lawyer, and that
facility in handling them, in the office and in the court room, is an essential
professional requirement. He is instructed how to consult authorities, and to run
down cases; to distinguish doctrine from dicta; to analyze, criticise and compare
cases; to distinguish imperative authority from that which is persuasive only;
what the leading text-books are on the various subjects taught, with some reference
to their comparative merits; to prepare briefs; and, generally, so to accustom
himself to law books and their use as to enable him to investigate, with intelligence
and skill, any question that may come within the scope of his duty at the bar.