'Colonial cap, gown and wig' – The origins of Australian legal education

Australian legal education largely emanates from the legal education system of Great Britain and Ireland. This paper examines the early development of legal education as exercised by the London Inns of Court and the King's Inns Dublin and the qualification of the legal profession in England and Wales. It will also consider the adoption of the British model of law teaching as practised in the early Australian law schools and the predilection for those law schools to appoint, where possible, law academics who had gained their early teaching and practical legal experience in England, Wales and Ireland. The paper will also examine the gradual development of an Australian orientated ethos of legal education and the early conflicts between the influence of the State Supreme Comts Admission Boards on training for the legal profession and the desire of the law schools to adopt a more creative approach to legal education.