The Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee

The Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS) is a comprehensive assessment for lawyers from other jurisdictions and barristers from England and Wales to qualify as solicitors in England and Wales. Three new assessments have been developed which make up the QLTS, in part drawing on testing experience in medicine and in other jurisdictions: the multiple choice test (MCT); the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) which involves assessment of oral skills (interviewing and advocacy) and which uses Standardised Clients; and the technical legal skills test (TLST) which involves assessment of written skills (legal research, writing and drafting). Some of the assessment methodologies used in the QLTS are discussed, including the use of standardised clients. An explanation is given of how reliability and accuracy of the assessments are calculated and how pass marks are set. The paper presents and reviews the very encouraging statistics from the first major delivery of the three assessments, including success by jurisdiction, ethnic group, gender and disability, and routine quality statistics on reliability and accuracy, as well as a statistical review of the use of standardised clients. QLTS reflects the regulatory aims of the SRA and is a radical departure for assessment of law in England and Wales. It is to be hoped its assessment methodologies will have a substantial influence on the future.     

最高法院的职分:积极还是自制?

<正>1787年9月17日,为了在新宪法上签名,本·富兰克林坐在轿椅上被抬到了独立厅。签名时,年迈而坚毅的他流泪了。为北美殖民地走向统一,富兰克林付出了一生的努力,但没有成功。路途与交通方面的困难,因环境、习俗和宗教方面的差异所滋生的强烈的地方傲慢与妒忌,经济利益上的冲突以及在暂时性地推翻英国统治之后无诚意为新的中央政府让出哪怕是一丁点儿的地方独立,所有这些使得在统一的道路上每前进一步都遭到冲撞。在那潮湿、闷热的四个月里,制宪会议常常濒临解散的边缘。乔治·华盛顿后来写信给他的朋友拉法叶特(Lafayette),称最后达成协议是个奇迹。     

A NEW FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION AND AUDIT ACT FOR QUEENSLAND

Queensland's new Financial Administration and Audit Act received Royal Assent on 14th April, 1977 and replaces a law passed by Parliament some 103 years ago. Before the Act could be brought into force by Proclamation, a number of preliminary measures had to be taken. Hence, the target date for commencement of the Bill was 1st July, 1978.     

Obituaries: Lady Delia Pilcher

The New York-born journalist and travel writer Francis Nichols (1879-1904) is best known for his travels through early 20^th-century China. However, his attempt in 1903-4 to travel through Tibet to Lhasa ahead of the Younghusband Mission, and thus to become the first westerner to reach the city, has been forgotten, partly on account of his death in the field and the loss of his diary. From new research in recently-catalogued documents and letters in the archives of the American Geographical Society (AGS), the author has compiled an account of Nichols’ mission to Lhasa, including the support he received from US backers, including the AGS, his travels in China, Tibet and India, and his relations with Younghusband and the British. Although Nichols was unable to reach Lhasa, the author observes that he should be credited as the first American to travel from India into the Chumbi valley in southern Tibet and across the Tibetan plateau from Phari to the town of Gyantse, 120 miles south-west of Lhasa.