CBN (Regent) University Law School Purpose Statement (1985)

A.   PURPOSE

“The study and practice of law, I am sure, does not dissolve the obligations of morality or of religion.”   John Adams

The Purpose of CBN University

“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”   2 Timothy 2:2.

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters that cover the sea.”   Habakkuk 2:14.

The Law School shares the purpose and mission of CBN University and each of its schools. CBN University is an educational institution founded upon the principle that the fountainhead of all wisdom is God Himself, of whom the clearest expression is Jesus Christ, the incarnate word of God, revealed by the Holy Bible, the written word of God. The purpose of the University is to provide a setting in which those who are mature in the knowledge of God and His ways can assist and guide, in a spirit of free inquiry and scholarly excellence, those who would learn of Him, His ways, and His creation. While together, they would study ways to glorify God and better their world through law and other appropriate fields of spiritual and intellectual inquiry. The transcending purpose of the University, and the Law School, is to glorify God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

The goal of the Law School is to guide students to a mastery of legal discipline, to a Biblical theology and perspective in law, and to a demonstrated professional competence in the practice of law. Both students and faculty will be expected to take seriously the Apostle Paul’s call to a renewed mind (Romans 12:1-2). They will confront the traditional understanding of this world with the wisdom that is from above, believing that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that His Word embodies sound principles that must be integrated with the full range of knowledge. The commitment is to the Truth as revealed in Jesus Christ.

This mission will be achieved principally through the lives and work of the Law School’s graduates who therefore, must be maturing scholars, professionally prepared to share the Good News as God directs, and deeply committed to Jesus Christ as their Lord and to the authority of His Word. By the time they graduate, all students are expected to demonstrate a mastery of the subject matter comprising their disciplines, as well as the profession skills that allow them to apply with true wisdom their intellectual knowledge and their Christian commitments to the needs of the world. Each graduate should also become a genuine overcomer in the Christian life, renewed in his mind, submitted to the Lordship of Jesus, anchored in the Word, led by the Holy Spirit, and determined to glorify God in his life. In brief, the Law School graduate should embody excellence in his academic pursuits, high quality in his profession work, and victory in his Christian life. His mission is to glorify God and His Son, Jesus Christ, while fulfilling God’s call upon his life.

The Purpose of Legal Education: An Historical Backdrop

“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heat was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools … for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie …”   Romans 1:21,22,25.

In contrast to the goals and purposes of CBN University, the mission of legal education in the United States is no longer related to glorifying God as it once was. To understand better the mission of the Law School, it will be helpful to summarize the changes legal education has undergone, and where it now stands. A watershed in American legal education came in the year 1870 when C.C. Langdell became dean of the Harvard law School and introduced the “case method” of teaching law. After a brief flurry of opposition, Langdell’s case method revolutionized the study of law throughout the United States, and has dominated the field ever since.

The “case method” was revolutionary because it presumed that the basic principles and doctrines of law were evolving over long periods of time, and that certain appellate cases embodied this legal evolution. It rejected the prevailing Biblical opinion that basic legal principles were unchanging. Rather than learning a framework of legal r es, law students were encouraged to glean the “true” legal principles by a process of inductive reasoning after study of many appellate cases. Cases were no longer viewed as a reflection of the law by its application in a given situation, but were seen as a primary source of law. The judge was no longer the law’s discoverer, but its creator.

Prior to 1870, America’s lawyers were educated by reading Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the law of England and Chancellor James Kent’s Commentaries on American Law. Both scholars believed the principles and doctrines of the common law were unchanging. Blackstone explained that Man, as a creature of God, is entirely subject to the laws of the Creator, and that he should always conform to his Maker’s will. Blackstone referred to God’s will as “the law of nature,” which was binding on all men at all times in every place. Human laws which violated this law of nature were not valid. Consequently, appellate cases “evidenced” law, but were not the infallible sources of law. Judges did not make law, they uncovered and applied it. As authority for his position, Blackstone explicitly referred to and relied upon Scriptural truths. Similarly, Kent considered the law of nature to be identical with the will of God, which was to be ascertained from Scripture whenever possible.

Thus, Langdell introduced not just a new method of learning law, but a new faith about law, namely that man could “engineer” law to suit his needs as they changed from time to time. As a result, the belief in evolution (not creation) and in man (not God) as the source of law has come to dominate legal education in America.

This has caused considerable problems for legal scholars, educators and judges. While attempting to prove to society that law was something fixed and settled, whose authority was therefore beyond question, these same people must allow for the law to undergo constant readjustments and occasional radical changes. Indeed, law school catalogs today have almost completely dropped any promise that the student will learn the law after 3 years of study.

Another evidence of the failure of modern law schools to teach the rules of law is the recent increase in the number of bar review courses offered across the country, and the increased use of such courses by law graduates. Much to the dismay of the typical law graduate state bar exams demand knowledge of the specific rule of law applicable in that state; whereas law school exams typically are method oriented, asking the student to explore all issues utterly without regard to a correct “solution.” It is the rare law graduate today who fails to take a bar review course prior to taking the bar exam. Not surprisingly, current A.B.A. accreditation standards presume that the quality of legal education cannot be determined by the success rate of law graduates in taking the bar exam.

Of course, the weakness of law school education infects the practice of law as well. Business lawyers are often unable to advise their clients as to how to plan for the future because the fixed principles of law become indistinguishable from the variable. Trial lawyers are often unable to distinguish relevant precedent cases from the irrelevant and the aberrational. Judges, legislators and executive officers are unable to distinguish constitutional law from the rulings of the Supreme Court. And, lawyers of every kind have difficulty in enforcing or obeying legal ethical standards. An unprincipled lawyer will do whatever serves his momentary self-interest just to “keep up with the competition.”

Finally, the effects of a system of legal education based upon moral relativism has spilled over into all of society. As A.E. Wilder Smith has observed, law and order have rapidly deteriorated in the United States because its citizens have been taught that life is random and accidental, and that laws are merely a matter of human expediency. Since people and law are supposedly accidental, it is no wonder that a contempt for courts and societal order results. Such is the condition and effect of legal education in the United States today.

The O.R.U. Experience

Though these problems associated with the current practice of legal education have not been generally recognized by the legal profession, there have been a few attempts to conduct legal education consistent with a Biblical world view. The most recent attempt is being made by Oral Roberts University, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which opened the O.W. Coburn School of Law (“the Coburn Law School”) in the fall of 1979. O.R.U. was established by the Oral Roberts Association in 1963 for the purpose of educating students “in an environment centered about the Christian ethic.”

According to the feasibility study prepared prior to its opening, the Coburn Law School has three primary purposes which distinguish it from other law schools. First, it emphasizes the concept of wholeness, that is, the education of law students in spirit, mind and body. Second, the school shares an intent of healing with the Oral Roberts University community, which casts lawyers in the role of healers in society. Third, the school is to be firmly rooted in religious values, in order to return to the “primary American posture for legal education.” The school also purposes to be unique in its teaching methods, employing the concept of “academic cross-pollination,” or facilitating, “from a Christian perspective, the growth of the whole person through limited contact with the essence of other disciplines.”

The need sought to be addressed by the Coburn Law School was a qualitative one: to advocate a distinctive lifestyle and mission for its students. The school views the practice of law as a “professional ministry to the needs of the total person.” The curriculum is designed to include certain added features not found in many law school curricula, particularly highlighted in such courses as Legal History, Legal Philosophy, Health Sciences and the law, and, Law and Theology.

The success of the law school experience may be described as somewhat of a mixed blessing. The A.B.A. strongly opposed accrediting the Coburn Law School on a number of grounds, but the school eventually obtained provisional accreditation after filing a complaint in federal District Court. Nonetheless, it has recently experienced inner turmoil unrelated to its accreditation, and has suffered from personnel and financial problems.

Even viewing the Coburn law School in its most favorable light (that is, if the school is considered to have met all of its objectives), the CBN University law School will be qualitatively different from it. The orientation at the Coburn law School reflects the overall concern at O.R.U. for ministering to the needs of the individual for spiritual and physical healing. CBN University, while concerned with the healing ministry of the Holy Spirit, emphasizes the need to discover and implement the laws of God applied to the whole fabric of public affairs. At CBN University, the Law School is a strategic part of a master plan to transform the nature of society for the glory of God by affecting its most influential sectors: education, the media, and law.

The CBN University Law School Vision

“The law of the lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether… Moreover, by them thy servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.”   Psalm 19:7-9,11.

The foremost objective of the Law School is to prepare its graduates for the professional practice of law. The legal profession has been, and continues to be, a vital part of our nation’s work force, for it makes a significant impact on the lives of the citizenry. Accordingly, lawyers must be trained not only in skillful analysis and practice techniques, but also to make law work. In contradistinction to a pragmatic or instrumental approach to determining whether law works, the Law School purposes to teach its students to know the true rules of law and to apply that true law in the daily practice. Graduates should be equipped to minister the law for the benefit of both the rulers and the ruled of the nation. Thus, the vision for the Law School and the professional practice of law encompasses four main objects.

1.   RE-ESTABLISH THE LAW OF GOD.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”   2 Timothy 3:16-17.

The practice of law is a good work which a lawyer cannot be adequately prepared for apart from instruction in the Word of God. Accordingly, the Holy Bible is expected to be used as a major textbook in most courses of the curriculum. Affirming the work of Sir William Blackstone, we believe the starting point in legal education is the acknowledgment of the God of the Bible as the Creator of all the universe, including the creature known as man, and that the law which governs man is first and foremost the will of God. This will of God is revealed in the Bible, necessitating its thorough study to understand the foundational legal precepts of a well-ordered society. It is the study of the Bible which distinguishes “the law of nature and of nature’s God” from its Enlightenment philosophy counterfeit, “natural law.” Based upon this foundation, the Law School will seek to influence the restoration of America’s legal and political systems upon the law of God as revealed in the Bible, and thus foster a reformation in American jurisprudence.

2.   REDISCOVER THE NATIONAL COVENANT.

“And I will establish my covenant between me and you. … Now as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.”   Genesis 17:7,9.

Concomitant with the restoration of a Biblical foundation of law, the Law School purposes to rediscover the legal roots of America and the unique place American law has had in the history of nations. Among but a handful of nations, such as England and Israel, the United States is a covenant people, a free society governed by the consent of that people in national covenant before God. We believe the American legal system cannot be fully understood except by a thorough examination of its legal roots in the Magna Carta, the Confirmatio Cartarum, the First Charter of Virginia, the Mayflower Compact, the Bill of Rights of 1689, Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, the Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress, various state constitutions, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, among other historical documents. Each of these documents follows a pattern consistent with an acknowledgement of Divine Providence, the consensual union of the people in solemn compact for their civil government, and an understanding of the law of nature and of nature’s God.

3.   RECLAIM TRUTH IN EDUCATION.

“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand either what hey are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.”   1 Timothy 1:5-7.

In order to fu1fill these purposes, the Law School must reform the nature of legal education in America. This will of course include the extensive use of the Holy Bible, Blackstone’s Commentaries and Kent’s Commentaries as legal texts. The use of casebooks will still be employed, but not for the purpose of teaching the casebook method. Rather, casebooks will be used primarily to compare actual decisions with Biblical principles of law and to familiarize students with legal trends in various jurisdictions. The Law School’s goal is to produce eventually new Biblically grounded law textbooks for each course offered. Once published, these texts can be distributed nationwide for the purpose of presenting a truly Christian law text alternative where none presently exists in the hope of influencing other educators to reconsider their teaching materials. The law School will also restructure the organization of the typical law school curriculum and make certain unique course additions. In each course, the Law School will continually seek to infuse the Holy Spirit of truth into the materials.

4.   RESTORE LIBERTY AND JUSTICE.

“Where the Spirit of the lord is, there is liberty.” 2 Corinthians 3:17.

“Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, that you may live and possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”   Deuteronomy 16:20.

Through the careers of its graduates and the dissemination of legal thought by its faculty and students, the Law School purposes to restore justice and liberty to America. In the words of the Pledge of Allegiance, liberty and justice can be restored only if preceded by the restoration of “one nation, under God, indivisible.” As America has strayed further from its Biblical roots, it has perverted justice and been held in legal bondage, unable to extricate itself, from the legal quagmires of abortion, pornography, sex crimes, divorce, and the criminal justice and penal systems, among others. Of primary importance to the Law School is dispelling the myth that Christianity brings legalism, persecution, and repression to a society. Rather, only Christianity is capable of bringing true liberty to the land – the freedom to do the will of God. Only Christianity can restore justice truly – by requiring the equal application of the law to all persons, just as God is no respecter of persons.

Thus, only an institution committed to the will of God, such as the CBN University Law School, can accomplish the critical task of truly preparing lawyers for the professional practice of law. Only an institution such as the Law School can prepare lawyers to be able to minister justice on behalf of their clients and the nation. Only an institution such as the Law School can prepare lawyers to follow the example of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, Counselor and Mediator. For this reason, we believe the Law School will be truly unique among all other existing law schools, not only in the United States, but in the world.

B.   NEED

Within CBN University

The need for a Law School at the University has been recognized since its incorporation. According to the Master Plan, the choice of schools and programs is governed by three criteria: 1)consensus that the school meets a priority need in the Kingdom of God; 2)a positive assessment that the school will impact the world in spreading the gospel and in building God’s Kingdom; and 3)the school should focus on the salvation and sanctification of mankind and improving the quality of human life.

The Master Plan acknowledges that a school of law meets these criteria, but a further explication may be helpful. The importance of law in the Kingdom of God has its origin in Creation, which was brought forth by God’s Word according to His law and which has been governed by His law ever since (Genesis 1 and 2). The Israelites were told that if they kept God’s law. He would dwell among them as their God, and they would be His people without being rejected (Leviticus 26:3,11,12). The Psalmist reminds us that the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul, enlightening the eyes, and enduring forever (Psalm 19:7-11) and that blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord (Psalm 33:12).

Similarly, this thread is easily traced in the teachings of Jesus Christ, Who did not abolish law, but upheld it (Matthew 5:17-19). The Sermon on the Mount demonstrates the importance of law in God’s Kingdom. Since Jesus was under God’s authority (Romans 13:1, Matthew 28:18), He was subject to God’s law as well. This thread is picked up by Paul, who reminds us that the law is good when used lawfully (l Timothy 1:8) and that law is one of the principal means by which people are brought to Christ (Galatians 3:24).

From these Scriptural teachings it can be understood that the implementation or true law in a society is one of the primary ways of teaching people the gospel and demonstrating the operative principles of the Kingdom of God. Through the educational and correctional nature of law, the people are cleansed and edified, working out their individual salvation and sanctification. Therefore, the Law School fulfills a vital part of the mission of the University which, due to the nature or the need, the rigors of the curriculum, and the requirements of professional accreditation and licensing, cannot be met apart from the formation of the Law School.

Among Other Law Schools

The need for diversity and pluralism among our nation’s law schools has long been recognized by the legal profession, and the A.B.A.’s Standards for the Approval of Law Schools (the “Standards”) refer to this need. (See Standards 301(b), 802 and the “forward” to the Standards.) However, modern concepts of plurality allow only for diversity within each law school, not different law schools. That is, any law school may employ faculty members holding varying legal views, but it may not employ only people who hold to a particular (for example, a Biblical) view of law. Thus, every law school fits a common mold, such that individual professors may have varied viewpoints, but each institution has the same variety of viewpoints tempered by the common foundation of a prevailing acceptance of the evolutionary and humanistic concept of law.

The only way the CBN University law School can be truly distinctive in American legal education (and thus worth the effort) is by being committed to a diversity among different law schools. If the Law School hires faculty members who hold the same views held by other legal educators, the project is better left undone. Accordingly, the Law School is committed to hiring people who will teach only from a Biblical, or Christian, perspective, in accordance with the University’s policies. The law School faculty must speak with one voice to challenge the secularization of legal education in the land today.

That this kind of diversity among law schools is in the best interests of the public should be obvious. Unless the legal profession is presented with a truly Christian alternative to other law schools, the profession will never learn that alternative. This, after all, is the true need among law schools; not merely for diversity, but for a truthful alternative. That the A.B.A. and the legal profession have largely ignored this fact is not surprising, given their worldview, but it is all the more reason for pressing on to accomplish a work for the Lord which many people consider to be impossible. The people will never know the Law of Love, the Law of Christ, or the Law of Liberty unless Christians tell them in word and in deed and until Christians practice God’s law in society.

Within the Legal Profession

Largely as a result of the lack of diversity among American law schools, combined with an increasing awareness among Christians of the desirability of a uniquely Biblical perspective in all areas of life, there is a rapidly growing constituency with legal needs whose interests are not being served. As Christians have begun to implement Biblical principles in business, education, the media, and other fields, the employment of lawyers with a secular worldview has increasingly become counterproductive, and the search for Biblically principled lawyers more frustrating. As the secularization of society continues, the divergence of humanistic and Christian worldviews will become even more evident, such that the need for law graduates of the type trained by the proposed CBN University Law School will increase. Therefore, the needs of clients will be reflected in a growing demand for Biblically principled lawyers and an increased interest of practicing lawyers to hire graduates of the Law School.

This need will be expressed in a variety of ways, most of which are concerned with the promotion and defense of traditional values. New legal challenges loom on the horizon which will place a heavy demand on the legal profession to provide lawyers who are well-versed in both humanistic and Christian views. These include the authority of the family to educate its children as the parents deem best, individual and corporate responses to an ever increasing tax burden, and an over reliance on civil government to meet all societal needs, as well as a reassessment of the role of the judiciary in constitutional interpretation. In such matters no “traditional” humanistic law school can effectively prepare its graduates to prosecute or defend in favor of the Christian perspective.

Increasingly the legal profession needs for the practicing lawyer a new role model available only in the life of Jesus Christ as Advocate, Counselor and Mediator. As advocate, Christ knew the law thoroughly (Matthew 5:27-28) and displayed a high degree of skill in defending all men. (See, e.g., John 8). Yet, He did not limit Himself to legal knowledge and “technical defenses.”

As counselor and mediator, He helped people to find “fulfillment” in their lives just as He came to “fulfill” the law. (Matthew 5:17). He was not satisfied to have just won the case for the adulterous woman in John 8, but He counseled her to sin no more. Moreover, He did not limit His counsel to “the law,” giving godly counsel to His followers that they might taste the abundant life. As mediator Christ ministered repentance and forgiveness as the way of true healing between God and man, as well as between men.

The lawyer as advocate, counselor and mediator ought to practice law in the pattern set by Christ. With the power of the Holy Spirit the lawyer can truly become a minister of healing in the breakdown of all types of legal relationships. Through intercessory prayer and the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the lawyer can believe for miraculous, not just legal, solutions to a client’s problems.

Among Law School Applicants

Beginning with 1981, CBN University has recorded over 150 inquiries from prospective law students. Nearly one-half of those inquiries have come in 1984. Numerous additional unrecorded inquiries have been received particularly in the past several months. For example, David Edson, the University’s Director of Student Recruitment, reported that over 90% of the inquiries that he received at a recent student gathering concerned the prospects of legal education at CBN University.

Almost all of the inquiries that have been made indicate that the prospective student desires to go to a “Christian law school.” Most of these students have stated, in addition, a desire not to go to a secular school. When informed that CBN University is planning to open a law school in the near future, most of these have expressed a willingness to postpone their legal education for one or two years in order to receive the desired Biblically-based instruction.

Student interest in Christian legal education has been increasing steadily since the mid-1,70’s. The Executive Director of the Christian Law Association recently reported that large numbers of young Christian men and women have asked him where they might receive a Christian legal education. This report has been repeated by many others who have nationwide contacts with Christians o believe that God is calling them into the legal profession.

CBN University’s appeal to Christians of all denominations, both “charismatic” and non-charismatic, has been reflected in the inquiries received from Liberty Baptist College and other fundamentalist college students as well as from O.R.U. and other Pentecostal/charismatic college students.

Given this widespread and ever increasing interest, the Law School at CBN University should have little difficulty attracting annually an entering class of 75 qualified students, beginning in the fall of 1986. The only negative factor appears to be the uncertainty caused by the lack of A.B.A. accreditation. But that uncertainty is unavoidable given the A.B.A. policy to delay the accreditation decision until, at the earliest, the midpoint of a law school’s second year of operation.

Because of the unique nature of the law school’s mission, CBN University will not find itself in face-to-face competition with already existing law schools in Virginia or the eastern region of the United States. Only the O.W. Coburn Law School at Oral Roberts University offers a comparable program for Christians. While other law schools may appeal to Christians generally, their mission, curriculum, and legal philosophy are not distinctively Biblical in the way that the Law School’s will be.

Nonetheless, it is important to note that CBN University’s law School will be located in the most populous metropolitan area in Virginia sufficiently distinct from the nearest law schools so that there will not be direct competition with any institution in the immediate area.

While national statistics show a 3.3 percent decrease in student interest in the legal education in the past 3 years for law schools those that already exist, they should not be seen as a negative influence in the opening of the Law School at CBN University. First of all, the Law School will draw exclusively from a pool of Christian candidates the number of which has been steadily growing in the past five years. Second, the Christian community generally has become increasingly sensitive to the need of committed lawyers to advocate and to defend traditional values in America’s legal and political system. Thus, parents and churches are emerging as simulators and reinforcers of young people’s interest in Christian legal education. Finally, Christians have become in the last ten years more aware of the need of a Christian education from the primary years through the graduate level. They are more knowledgeable about the threat of secular humanism in the non-Christian law school and, therefore, are more strongly motivated to seek a legal education at a Christ-centered institution.

In summary, the prospective law student population, while decreasing slightly each year for the past three years, by contrast contains an ever increasing number of prospective law students highly motivated to attend a truly Christian law school.

C.   CURRICULUM

The object of the Law School curriculum will be to prepare the graduate for the practice of law, as defined under “Purpose” above. According to the A.B.A. Standards, the Law School must “qualify its graduates for admission to the bar,” but this does not reflect the whole purpose of the Law School’s curriculum. The “practice of law” encompasses the use of materials and information not tested on bar exams, such as the whole framework of Biblical perspective and the American legal tradition. Thus, the Law School intends to exceed the A.B.A. Standards, and will simultaneously prepare its students to understand two worldviews of law, the theistic or God-centered and the naturalistic or man-centered.

Rather than causing confusion, as one might think at first, the continual comparison and contrasting of competing legal worldviews will actually enable graduates to perceive what other lawyers miss, and therefore be better prepared for the practice of law. Ironically, it is the modern emphasis on an evolutionary view of law which has rendered law schools generally unable to quality their graduates for admission to the bar, as is evidenced by the increased use of bar review courses to assure admittance to the bar.

The curriculum will be divided into three main areas, roughly corresponding to the first, second, and third years of full-time instruction, respectively. The first main area is Common Law Jurisprudence, consisting of basic courses such as Contracts, Property, Torts, and Criminal law. Other first year courses may include legal research and writing. Common Law Jurisprudence courses will focus on the English and American heritage of common law development, with emphasis on Biblical teachings in each topic to which the common law heritage can be traced.

The second year courses will emphasize Covenant Law Jurisprudence, that is, matters based upon an underlying covenant, and consist of courses on Constitutional Law, Corporations, Wills and Trusts, and Criminal Procedure. Other second year courses will include electives, such as Taxation and Equity. Covenant Law Jurisprudence courses will trace the Biblical origins of the concepts of covenant and free association, and integrate those concepts with each topic in order to derive a complete understanding of what each area of law is intended to accomplish, and how to make it work.

The third main area of the curriculum is Law Practice Jurisprudence, which emphasizes the “how to” of legal practice in various areas. Such courses will include Evidence, Trial Advocacy, Federal Practice, Professional Responsibility, Moot Court, Administrative Law, and a host of electives in a variety of areas. Each course at this level will build upon the foundations laid by the core courses, and will similarly examine Biblical sources from which much of our Law Practice Jurisprudence has been derived.

Suitable curriculum materials are rare – some will have to be prepared virtually from scratch by law faculty members – but such materials are available. The University is blessed by having on staff people who were involved in the formation, accreditation, and operation of the Law School at Oral Roberts University. These people have either possession of or access to many curriculum materials required to begin the first year of classes.