B.B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 1 Special English 2014 Jun Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: the letter and its occasion; who Frankfurter was; the advice under three heads: what to avoid (technical preparation, worry about a career), how to train the mind (wide reading, a liberal education giving command of English and clear thinking), how to train the imagination and feelings (poetry, painting, music, vicarious experience); the reason behind it (a competent lawyer is a cultivated man); a table; a short assessment.

Introduction

Felix Frankfurter (1882 to 1965) was a Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1939 to 1962. A twelve-year-old Virginia boy, Paul Claussen, Jr., once wrote to ask him how to prepare for a career in law while still at school. Frankfurter replied in a single short paragraph. His advice can be grouped under three heads: what to avoid, how to train the mind, and how to train the imagination and feelings.

Gain a liberal education. Wide reading gives two skills. The first is the capacity to use the English language "on paper and in speech". The second is the habit of clear thinking, which, he says, "only a truly liberal education can give". A lawyer writes, speaks and reasons for a living. These three skills are the core of his work.

3. How to train the imagination and feelings

Read poetry, see paintings, hear music. Frankfurter calls the cultivation of the imaginative faculties "no less important" for a lawyer. He recommends reading poetry, seeing great paintings, in the original or in reproductions, and listening to great music.

Store the mind and widen the heart. He asks the boy to "stock your mind with the deposit of much good reading". He also wants him to widen and deepen his feelings by experiencing, vicariously, the wonderful mysteries of the universe. Through books and art one can share the experiences of others. This builds the sympathy a lawyer needs to understand clients, witnesses and opponents.

The advice at a glance

How the advice helps a law student

Each part of the advice meets a real need in legal study. A student must read long judgments and statutes, so command of language is vital. Answering problem questions needs clear thinking, to pick out the issue and apply the rule. Imagination helps in drafting, where a lawyer must foresee how a clause might be misread. Sympathy helps in moot courts and later in practice, in understanding a client's fears or a witness's confusion. In each case the skill comes from the broad education Frankfurter describes, not from memorising sections. That is why his advice to a schoolboy is still useful to a student already in law school.

Conclusion. Frankfurter advises the young man going to study law to avoid early technical study and worry about a career. He should instead read widely and gain a liberal education, which alone gives command of English and clear thinking. He should also train his imagination through poetry, painting and music, and widen his feelings through others' experience. The reason is his opening principle: only a cultivated man can be a truly competent lawyer.