Inns of Court
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Related to Inns of Court: Inner Temple
Inns of Court
Organizations that provide preparatory education for English Law students in order to teach them to practice in court.
Inns of Court were founded in the beginning of the fourteenth century. Membership in an inn is tantamount to membership in an integrated bar association in the United States. Inns of Court have a common council of Legal Education, which gives lectures and holds examinations. Currently, inns have the exclusive authority to confer the degree of barrister-atlaw, a prerequisite to practice as an advocate or counsel in the superior courts in England.
Inns of Court
see BARRISTER.INNS OF COURT, Engl. law. The name given to the colleges of the English professors and students of the common law. 2. The four principal Inns of Court are the Inner Temple and Middle Temple, (formerly belonging to the Knights Templars) Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, (ancient belonging to the earls of Lincoln and ray.) The other inns are the two Sergeants' Inns. The Inns of Chancery were probably so called because they were once inhabited by such clerks, as chiefly studied the forming of writs, which regularly belonged to the cursitors, who are officers of chancery. These are Thavie's Inn, the New Inn, Symond's Inn, Clement's Inn, Clifford's Inn,' Staple's Inn, Lion's Inn, Furnival's Inn and Barnard's Inn. Before being called to the bar, it is necessary to be admitted to one of the Inns of Court.