Booker, Lewis T.

Shilling, Susanne L.

English

University of Richmond

University of Richmond Law ReviewVolume 17 | Issue 1 Article 101982Legal Education in Virginia 1779-1979; Land UseLaw: Issues for the EightiesLewis T. BookerSusanne L. ShillingFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/lawreviewPart of the Legal Biography Commons, Legal Writing and Research Commons, and the PropertyLaw and Real Estate CommonsThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University ofRichmond Law Review by an authorized editor of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contactscholarshiprepository@richmond.edu.Recommended CitationLewis T. Booker & Susanne L. Shilling, Legal Education in Virginia 1779-1979; Land Use Law: Issues for the Eighties, 17 U. Rich. L. Rev.225 (1982).Available at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/lawreview/vol17/iss1/10BOOK REVIEWSLEGAL EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA, 1779-1979. By W. Hamilton Bryson. Char-lottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1982. pp. vii, 774. $47.50.Reviewed by Lewis T. Booker*W. Hamilton Bryson, Professor of Law at T. C. Williams School of Lawof the University of Richmond, has combined brief biographical sketchesof 133 teachers of law in Virginia during the period 1779-1979 with acarefully researched introduction in which he traces the development ofthe teaching of law in Virginia over that period. 1779 is the logical start-ing point, since that year George Wythe was appointed Professor of Lawat the College of William & Mary, the first law professor in America. It isinteresting to note that the great tradition started by George Wythe didnot continue unbroken. William & Mary's law professorship ended justbefore the Civil War; William & Mary's law school did not resume until1922.Prior to 1779, a few Virginia lawyers studied at the Inns of Court inLondon and then returned to Virginia. Mostly, though, Virginians aspir-ing to the bar read law with a practicing attorney. Clerkships were nobetter than the instructing lawyers and their largely inadequate libraries.Many relied on no more than Blackstone's Commentaries (1765-1769).. In most of the colonies the members of the bar were loyal to the crown.In Virginia, however, leaders at the bar were also leaders in the Revolu-tion. The study of law was therefore not greeted with the hostility andsuspicion in Virginia which accompanied its study in others of the newlyfounded United States.During the early 1800's a number of proprietary law schools developedin Virginia. Professor Bryson discusses each with precision and economyof language.In 1826 the University of Virginia established a Department of Law.The almost legendary John B. Minor was appointed shortly after the De-partment of Law was established and continued as Professor of Law for50 years.In 1870 the University of Richmond and Washington & Lee University* Partner, Hunton and Williams, Richmond, Virginia; B.A., University of Richmond,1950; J.D., Harvard Law School, 1953.UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND LAW REVIEWbegan instruction in law. The Washington & Lee program evolved from aproprietary law school run by Judge John W. Brockenbrough. The Uni-versity of Richmond program, after faltering several times, got off on astrong footing in 1890 with a gift from the family of the Richmond busi-nessman T. C. Williams.It will come as an interesting surprise to many to discover that VirginiaUnion University in Richmond operated a law school from 1922 through1931. One of the early professors was Spottswood W. Robinson, Jr., fatherof Judge Spottswood W. Robinson, III, of the United States Court of Ap-peals for the District of Columbia.The biographical sketches, prepared by Professor Bryson and manyothers, offer brief glimpses of professors at all of the law schools in thestate including such outstanding teachers as Dudley W. Woodbridge atWilliam & Mary, Charles P. Light at Washington & Lee, Walter S. Mc-Neill at the University of Richmond and Armistead Dobie at the Univer-sity of Virginia.Two appendices complete the work. One lists deceased faculty mem-bers at the various law schools, both academic and proprietary, in thestate. The second lists the known alumni of the proprietary law schools ofthe state.This substantial volume of the history of legal education in Virginia is auseful reference work to any attorney in Virginia and is indispensable toany comprehensive study of the development of legal scholarship inVirginia.[Vol. 17:225LAND USE LAW: ISSUES FOR THE EIGHTIES. Edited by Edith Netter. Plan-ning Association, Washington, D.C. 1981. pp. 226. $23.95.Reviewed by Susanne L. Shilling*This is a book which, by its title, suggests more than it actually deliv-ers. In format, the book is simple: a series of articles written by both itseditor and others, complemented by what are called "commentaries", orelaborations upon each of the book's respective subjects.The subjects themselves are noteworthy, covering a panoply of relevantland use issues. These include local government liability in the area ofcivil rights and antitrust, the comprehensive plan as a legal instrument,and constitutional issues, including equal protection, the first amend-ment, procedural due process and the "taking" issue.The essential problem with the book is its format, which is disjointedin part, and which, by its style, often accords superficial treatment tocomplex subjects. The Introduction notes that most of the articles wereprepared for an American Planning Association Planners Training Ser-vice Workshop. It was only after absorbing this fact that this author, aland use practitioner, was able to understand the inconsistency in thequality of the articles written by the various authors and the lack of caselaw authority in certain sections, as in, for example, the discussion of the"taking" issue, in which the author recites the test that has presumablybeen outlined by the courts in evaluating a particular zoning action, with-out at any point citing the case or line of cases from which have evolvedthese particular rules of law.It is difficult to be critical of this noble effort, but the publication sim-ply misses the mark as a comprehensive or inciteful compilation of arti-cles on modern land use issues. This is apparent in the choice of commen-taries, which proliferate in certain sections, such as in the discussion ofthe comprehensive plan and its applicability as a binding legal document,and are totally absent in other sections, such as in the discussion of thefourteenth amendment's equal protection and substantive due processclauses. The commentaries are from articles reprinted from Land UseLaw & Zoning Digest, and one wonders why particular articles were, infact, selected for reprint. This struck this practitioner forcefully in re-viewing the section on the comprehensive plan. The essential thrust ofthe article on comprehensive planning is that a growing number of states* Private practitioner, Richmond, Virginia; B.S., University of Michigan, 1966; M.S.W.,University of Pennsylvania, 1968; J.D., University of Virginia, 1974; Member, RichmondCity Planning Commission.UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND LAW REVIEWare, by legislation, mandating the preparation of comprehensive plans bytheir localties. No attention is given, however, in the commentaries, whichmight in this case have been utilized to present alternative views, to thefact that comprehensive plans, which are essentially broad-based state-ments of policy in connection with land use decisions, may conflict greatlywith the zoning requirements of developed and urbanized communities.This author sought, but did not find, reference to the modern develop-ment of flexible zoning tools which, in some cases, are much more accom-modating of urban growth, but which often permit wide variations fromproposed zoning envisioned by such comprehensive plans. There wassome loss in terms of the usability of this book by planners and others, byvirtue of the fact that this conflict between comprehensive plans and ur-ban planning had been overlooked.This is not to say that some of the articles are not well written, andindeed, significant. It is, in fact, the case that certain of the subjects areaccorded substantially more comprehensive treatment than others. Thisis true, for example, of the articles on government liability under section1983 and the antitrust laws. The latter of these subjects was of particularinterest to this practitioner whose involvement with the planning com-mission of a local municipality has afforded her a rather concrete encoun-ter with the interface between land use controls and antimonopolisticprinciples. What is regrettable, however, is that, in this specific regard,this book, copyrighted in 1981, proves already to be outdated. Out of asense of urgency, therefore, this author is compelled to specifically note,for those who would seek out this book as a ready overview of the anti-trust area as applied to land use law, that this particular section dead-ends in 1978, with the case of City of Lafayette v. Louisiana Power &Light Co.,1 and fails totally to account for the most recent pronounce-ment on the subject of a municipality's liability under the antitrust lawsformulated in Community Communications Company, Inc. v. City ofBoulder, Colorado.2 It may be a testimony to the vitality of the law inthis area that it is evolving so fast as to render recent publications out-dated, but it does suggest that this book, written as it was in advance ofthe decade, may not be trusted as definitive as we approach the mid-1980's.If this book is accepted as an overview of selected areas of land use law,it may serve well those who require a general guide on these subjects andit is, on that basis, an interesting publication. It is, however, time for it tobe updated, and in the course of so doing, the editor should clarify itsformat, better identify its constituency, and more closely edit its content.1. 435 U.S. 389 (1978).2. - U.S. -, 102 S. Ct. 835 (1982).[Vol. 17:227

Legal Education in Virginia 1779-1979; Land Use Law: Issues for the Eighties

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Legal Education in Virginia 1779-1979; Land Use Law: Issues for the Eighties

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