Is British-American School of Law back?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Dude, Mar 19, 2007.

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  1. Dude

    Dude New Member

    I've noticed that they are out with a new website that includes a current catalog (2007-2008). It doesn't appear that there is any record of them with the California State Bar Association though. Does anyone know anything about this?

    http://www.britishamericanuniversity.us/
     
  2. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    I see on their website that they have some JDs mistakenly referring to themselves as "doctors"... :rolleyes:

    Dave
     
  3. sshuang

    sshuang New Member


    "We are professional doctors." :cool:
     
  4. Dude

    Dude New Member

    Ya, I recall that this matter has been discussed here several times in the past. I find it a bit humorous that someone with a JD would refer to himself/herself as Doctor, but who am I to argue this.

    Nevertheless, BAU has produced a few attorneys over the years (cbkent who posts here occationally comes to mind). I was just a bit curious if they are actually registered with the California Bar Association again. I didn't find any mention of them on the CalBar website.
     
  5. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Doesn't the ABA frown on JD holders referring to themselves as "doctor"?

    -=Steve=-
     
  6. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Yes, but the ABA also insists that attorneys should be paid the same as academic doctors, which is unjustified.

    Dave
     
  7. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    I don't fault attorneys for growing tired of earning compensation from people's misfortunes, and entering the teaching profession. However, I do think it is fraudulent to call themselves doctors when they have matriculated the same advanced but standardized curriculum as the next student; that's called a masters degree, not a doctorate. Without a doctoral process, there is no doctorate.

    Dave
     
  8. Randy Miller

    Randy Miller New Member

    The J.D. is a first professional degree. Also included in this classification are the M.D. and D.D.S. degrees.
     
  9. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I wonder why there's no dissertation-only American PhD program for lawyers. With the JD being 90 credits, lawyers ought to have enough postgraduate work to justify it.

    -=Steve=-
     
  10. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    The JD is the LLB, neither of which require a dissertation, so it is not a doctorate.

    Dave
     
  11. Dude

    Dude New Member

    I agree. The JD is simply the LLB with the added prerequisite requiremnet of a bachelor's degree (I recognize that there are a few exceptions to this as well).
     
  12. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    I was told, I think reliably (but never confirmed) that the JD was invented (or rediscovered) during the Vietnam era, because people working on doctorates were exempt from the draft, but people working on LLBs were not.
     
  13. cbkent

    cbkent Member

    JD History

    From Wikipedia--

    Following the arrival of the Ph.D. program in the United States (Yale, 1861), the creation of the modern J.D. program is largely credited to Christopher Columbus Langdell, who served as dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895. Langdell dedicated his life to reforming legal education in the United States; the historian Robert Stevens wrote that "it was Langdell's goal to turn the legal profession into a university educated one — and not at the undergraduate level, but through a three-year post baccalaureate degree."[10] He was generally successful in remaking most American law schools in Harvard's mold, since they often drew their faculty from Harvard. First, Harvard extended its LL.B. program from 18 months to two years in 1871, and then to three years in 1899. Then, in 1896, Harvard was the first law school to officially require an undergraduate degree as a prerequisite to admission (although the rule was not strictly enforced until 1909). By 1921, the same rule had been adopted by the law schools at Columbia, Pennsylvania, Case Western Reserve, Stanford, and Yale. Still, although the entry-level law program was revamped as a graduate program, the degree conferred continued to be called an LL.B.

    However, upon its opening in 1902, the University of Chicago chose to award the J.D. rather than the Bachelor of Laws. Some schools started conferring the J.D. as a Latin honor for students with high grades. Eventually, the disparate treatment prompted schools to abandon the distinction and call all degrees conferred a doctorate. Yale Law School was the last to rename the degree - it conferred the LL.B. until 1971
     
  14. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    What you propose makes perfect sense; JDs seem to graduate with enough basic training to enter the process of contributing new knowledge to their discipline.

    Dave
     
  15. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    If I'm recalling correctly, I think that either Nosborne or Little Fauss once made a post stating that the JSD is a dissertation-only doctorate.
     
  16. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Oh. Well, good, then. :)

    Hey, but wait, doesn't one have to do an LLM before one can apply to a JSD program?

    -=Steve=-
     
  17. Lajazz947

    Lajazz947 New Member

    JD a Dr?

    I do not and have not ever called myself a Dr. . never thought about it.

    But................ the JD was tough enough to earn so I would not feel guilty doing so, not in the least .

    Am MD and DDS is a doctor, why not a JD?
     
  18. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    The context is higher education. The issues are faculty pay, level of preparation, and earned respect. The JD holder is not suitably prepared for a teaching career in higher education, especially outside of the legal discipline. The main reason the JD does not prepare one for a teaching career is that there is no doctoral process, but a standardized curriculum. Without a doctoral process, there can be no preparation to teach and research at the highest levels of the academic world.

    Moreover, the JD, like the MD, is not the highest degree in the discipline, so it is not a doctorate that should command additional pay and respect in higher education. Upon reflection, nearly the same arguments against unaccredited doctorates being considered real doctorates apply to the case of the JD; in fact, one could probably find several unaccredited Ph.D. programs requiring a dissertation to be better raw preparation for the functions of a professor in the discipline than a JD program.

    I should write Governor Schwarzenegger about this area of the budget for higher education that can easily be trimmed. Why pay attorneys beyond their level of preparation, when it is academically unnecessary and one can barely swing a cat without hitting a JD holder willing to teach?

    Dave
     
  19. cbkent

    cbkent Member

  20. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    This was cached in Google, so I guess they are not back:

    Please note that the website for british-american.edu is in temporary suspension due to non-payment of fees. Website and Email access is not available.
    If you need to contact the University, you may do so by calling British-American University at 1-949- 622-5464 or by writing them at:
    British-American University
    19200 Von Karman Ave. 6th Floor
    Irvine California 92612


    Dave
     

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