Hepburn, Charles M.

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Discussion, The Honor System

Indiana University Bloomington Maurer School of Law

Maurer School of Law: Indiana UniversityDigital Repository @ Maurer LawArticles by Maurer Faculty Faculty Scholarship1910Discussion, The Honor SystemCharles M. HepburnIndiana University School of LawFollow this and additional works at: http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpubPart of the Legal Education CommonsThis Response or Comment is brought to you for free and open access bythe Faculty Scholarship at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Articles by Maurer Faculty by an authorizedadministrator of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information,please contact wattn@indiana.edu.Recommended CitationHepburn, Charles M., "Discussion, The Honor System" (1910). Articles by Maurer Faculty. Paper 1091.http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub/1091The American Law School Reviewcussion, that seems to me to be very impor-tant, and it has not been touched upon. Inthe matter of our statutes, for instance, inOklahoma, the Supreme Court, or the Boardof Law Examiners appointed by the SupremeCourt, accepts the certificate of the lawschool that the student has done three years'work and has passed his examinations, with-out question, as the basis for admitting thestudent to the bar. That statute as it nowexists admits students to the bar upon thepresentation of a diploma from the StateUniversity. Now, how can we make thatcertificate, as a part of the honor system,when we do not know whether it is properlydone or not? It seems to me that, if wewere to do that, we would be certifying with-out the knowledge that the examination hadbeen honorably passed, except in so far asthe knowledge that might be gained fromthis pledge of the student or the certificatethat the examination had been properly pass-ed by the student himself.Charles M. Hepburn, University of In-diana Law School.I have been deeply interested in the honorsystem for a great many years, ever sinceI was at the University of Virginia underDean Minor. Every now and then I haveheard of its adoption elsewhere. FrequentlyI have been met with the plea that the honorsystem does exist in the University of Vir-ginia, but it cannot be said to flourish any-where else. I think that Is a mistake, butit is the plea that I have often heard. Thehonor system will flourish in any locality,if it is let alone. I want to approve theremarks of one of the speakers, when hesaid that the duty of the faculty in referenceto the honor system is to let It alone. Thestudents will take care of that without thefaculty taking any action. Let me illustratethat by something that occurred at the BarAssociation meeting two or three years ago.The Dean of a law school told me that hedid not believe in the honor system, and hesaid: "I have a good reason for It. I havetried it, and I have found in my own ex-perience that it will not work." He said:"I tried it on my boys. I said to the boysthat I was going to adopt the honor system,and that I was going to leave the room. Iwent out of the room. The door was ajara little, and I stopped and looked throughthe opening, and I went right back on thehonor system at once." I agreed with himthat it was a mistake in his case. But ifyou will let it alone it will flourish. I don'tthink that it ought to be put upon the classby taking a vote-by asking for a unani-mous vote. I have my doubts as to whetherIt ought to be brought up in the faculty,either. I believe that it ought to be impress-ed upon the class that they are preparingfor an honorable profession, where the judgeon the bench will take their professionalstatements, and that we are going to accepttheir statements as honorable men. Now,when this is done, in most instances youwill find that it will be a success. I havetried It long enough to know. I havetried it for many years, and it has neverfailed to work. Very often there are timeswhen I thought I could detect inL a paperthe fact that there had been cheating in it;perhaps no assistance given intentionally byany one, but where some student had writ-ten something on a paper, and some otherstudent had taken It up, and you could tellby the answers that they were evidentlywritten by the same party. But supposethat does occur in one or two cases out ofhundreds of papers. It seems to me that itIs very much better to let it go, as afteryears of experience I have found that thereis very much less cheating than there is un-der any other system of which I have anyknowledge.New OfficersOn the recommendation of the Nom-inating Committee, William R. Vance,of the Yale University Law School, waselected President, and George P. Costi-gan, Jr., of the Northwestern UniversityLaw School, was elected Secretary andTreasurer, of the Association for the en-suing year.470

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Discussion, The Honor System

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