| Legal education is an essential element of a country's legal construction. Legal education even gives a direct impact on direction, scale, and speed of the law development. In the 30 years of Reform and Opening up, China's legal education can be described by leaps and bounds. Today, China's legal education becomes the community's concerns. The study of legal history is also inseparable from the history of legal education. Thus examination of legal education in the U.K., either for theoretical research or for practice, has an important significance. However, lack of research on British modern legal education makes us unable to identify the origin and the future of British legal education, unable to recognize its current state, and thus we can not reveal the organic link between the rule of law and legal education. To research the evolution history of legal education in modern British and to discuss its evolution mechanisms and implementation effect become the main parts of this paper.In this paper, the analysis of the transformation of legal education in modern Britain is based on large amounts of data and research methods of history, sociology, law, education and others.A country's education system is closely related to social development. Social development and social changes put forward new demands for legal education. Therefore, to study modern English legal education, we should start with analysis of its social background. Chapter One focuses on analysis of the contradiction between social development and legal education system, especially on analysis of legal education in Inns of Courts and universities before the middle of the 18th century. The separation of legal education is bound to change with the British society from the Middle Ages into modern times. The transformation of legal education is imperative. In the transition process, a variety of forces and resources are bound to be readjusted and allocated for optimal combination and maximum effectiveness. In research on the transition process, we should not deny the traditional legal education. We must give a historical assessment of it. The legal education of Inns of Court promotes the form of the United Kingdom's legal community. Moreover, this educational activity of legal professional association will be revived in the new era. After entering the modern society, the universities and the legal professional organizations have continuously made progress in their traditional cultural basis. The relationship between the two sides begins to change in a subtle way, which promotes the development of the legal education in the U.K.From Chapter Two to Four,we can take the relationship between Inns of Court and the universities as the clue, and narrate the evolution process of the legal education in the U.K. in stages. Since William Blackstone started the legal education in Oxford in the middle of the 18th century, the U.K. began to put common legal education in the universities. Although the legal education didn't develop greatly after Blackstone, this attempt indicated that the universities would be the main body of modern legal education and declared that the new era of legal education of the U.K. was coming. Blackstone put forward the concept of adding the systemic legal education in the universities by his educational practical activities and his writings, which deeply influenced the modern legal education of the U.K. Blackstone used his knowledge and wisdom to make a decent suit for the common law of the U.K. He let the common law get close to the ordinary people and created the conditions for the development of the modern legal education. It indicated the change direction of the U.K.'s legal education system. Blackstone's theory and practice set the tone of the U.K.'s legal education. That was, paying more attention to the professionalism and application of legal education, while stressing the theory and scientific knowledge of legal education. In this sense, the legal education activities of Blackstone became the watershed of the U.K.'s legal education history, which meant the legal education of the U.K. needed to be adjusted and improved after entering a new era, and the universities would be the important places for developing legal education and cultivating legal talents jointly with the professional legal organizations. (Chapter Two) By taking the opportunity of the establishment of University of London and the professional legal organizations in the 1830s, the modern legal education of the U.K. initially developed in the aspects of talents training system, educational content and methods. The establishment of the University of London was a milestone in the history of the U.K.'s legal education. It was more significant than Blackstone's teaching reform in Oxford. London successfully led the students who studied law to the universities and brought the advantages of free education to the university students. Although the development of the legal education of the University of London was still in an initial stage and some problems was still existed in the aspects of educational system and educational content, the universities after all entered into the main stream of legal education. So, the establishment of the University of London had epoch-making significance. After that period, the more and more universities were established in the U.K. In the middle of the 19th century, Oxford and Cambridge were no longer the only universities in England. Universities formally took part in the legal education. The professional legal organizations made adjustment according to the development and changes of the society after entering the new era. The solicitors established the Law Society in 1831. This new association provided education for the students who wanted to be a solicitor. Inns of Court also explored the efficient educational schemes. However, the legal education in universities and in professional legal organizations was not good enough in the first half of the 19th century. The universities and the organizations went their own ways without any cooperation. In 1846, the Legal Education Special Committee of the House of Commons approved a report, which analyzed the disadvantages of the traditional legal education and put forward the program of legal reform. The report suggested that the basic legal education and the practical skill trainings should be carried out in stages. The basic legal education should be in universities and the organizations should be in charge of the practical trainings such as the examinations of qualification of lawyers. The report also suggested that the students firstly completed the basic education in the universities, and then received the professional education. This report became the guiding principle of the legal education development in the 19th century, which gave direction to the future development of the legal education especially suggesting the cooperation between the universities and the organizations. Therefore, this report was a milestone in the history of the U.K.'s legal education, which led the main educational resources such as universities and the professional legal organizations to divide the work and cooperate in the field of legal education, and realized the basic change of legal education system by optimizing resource allocation. After the report was approved in 1846, the universities and the professional legal organizations all took effective measures to promote legal education. (Chapter Three)Since the middle of the 19th century, the new and old universities of the U.K.and the professional legal organizations all actively promoted legal education and realized the work division and cooperation. The resource utilization received the good result by optimizing allocation. From the legal education system to the educational content, the legal education of the U.K. entered the stage of reform and expansion. The legal education in the universities entered the most energetic period and formed many characters with modern significance. Meanwhile, the legal education of the professional legal organizations was also developed rapidly. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new type of legal education was basically established. (Chapter Four)Chapter Five is about the model of modern legal education and its social effects. By in-depth analysis on the formation of the modern legal education, we expect to understand and grasp it wholly.Form the beginning of the 20th century, the British legal education is assumed by professional legal organizations and universities. They execute legal education through division of labor and cooperation. Curriculum, teaching methods, educational management are in accordance with the training goal and the characteristics of universities and professional legal organizations. Various agencies gave full play to the role on the basis of optimal allocation of resources, and the legal education system are being further improved. Universities and professional legal organizations kept pace with and promoted each other, and took on a harmony pattern. British legal education was assumed jointly by the University Law School, the Public Legal Education Association, the Law Society, the Inns of Courts and the Council of Legal Education. University Law School focused on the basic knowledge and basic theory, but profession organizations focused on vocational skills training.They supplemented and reinforced mutually, thus enhanced the quality of legal education. They met the social needs for high-quality legal profession. New type of legal education played an important role in the social development of the United Kingdom. This is conspicuously manifested by the increase of the number of person receiving legal education and quality of the legal profession. By fostering talents, modern legal education propelled the level of the British rule of law and promoted the steady development of society.
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