Talk:Inns of Court

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{{wikify-date|April 2006}} — ßottesiηi ^{Tell me what's up} 03:19, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

"being recognised by law as local authorities"

The Inns of Court are recognised as local authorities in the same sense as, say, Tower Hamlets? Marnanel 19:53, May 19, 2004 (UTC)

They have the autonomy of a local authority, notably in planning matters, and nothing the surrounding local authorities do applies to them, for example in terms of street maintenance. Obviously, they are unlike other local authorities in other respects: most notably, they are governed by the Masters of the Bench and not by elected councillors. Residents of the Inns do not have a vote in any local authority election by virtue of their residence (but few if any residents of the Inns do not also have a residence and therefore a vote elsewhere). Chelseaboy 19:37, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Is it fair to say that the Inns of Court are privately run organizations (i.e. with no government interference)? And is the task of recognizing who may and may not practice as a barrister in government courts is managed by private individuals? -John, April 11, 2006.

The simple answer to your two questions is yes and yes. But of course nothing is quite that simple. For example, the Inns of Court are subject to scrutiny by English Heritage and others when doing work to their historic buildings. And before barristers are called to the Bar by the Inns of Court they have to pass university and professional examinations which are independently regulated. Chelseaboy 08:47, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Other Inns 2 Call to the Bar 3 Major Re-write needed 4 Differences?

[edit] Other Inns

Apart from the four that exist today, there seem to be at least 8 other Inns on the article on Inns of Chancery. I am no expert, but shouldn't the last section of this article be expanded to include the others that it does not presently mention? Legis 17:02, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Call to the Bar

Any chance of some information (preferably detailed) on the call to the bar ceremonies? Jachin 01:52, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Major Re-write needed

I have made some changes to this page. The entries for each of the four Inns of Court (Gray's Inn, Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn and Middle Temple) are also in need of a mixture of pruning and expansion. Quite aside from the points raised by other contributors above, a number of aspects require attention.

I shall try to look at each in turn when time allows. (I am a member of Lincoln's Inn and practise from Chambers in the Inner Temple, so hope that I have at least the basic qualification for the task). Informed Owl (talk) 19:57, 25 November 2007 (UTC)Informed Owl

[edit] Differences?

Is there some difference between the four Inns? Can you choose which one you join? Are there different cultures or something? I think this needs to be explained. --AW (talk) 21:24, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Anyone? --AW (talk) 21:10, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Budding barristers have a free choice of which Inn to join, but can only apply to one Inn for scholarships (otherwise the workload of each Inn would quadruple). Since all Inns offer scholarships of similar total amount, this generally isn't the deciding factor. Sometimes budding barristers will know someone who's already a member, or there might be an active Inn student association at university. It makes no real difference in the long run which you join: you can be an Inner Temple barrister based in a chambers in Lincoln's Inn, for example. As for different cultures, Lincoln's Inn has the traditional reputation of being the "chancery" Inn, but I don't think there's much between them in terms of social life etc. I might have some references for this somewhere... Bencherlite^Talk 21:17, 3 June 2008 (UTC)