Editing Juris Doctor (section)

===Types and characteristics===

====Standard ''Juris Doctor'' curriculum====
{{See also|Law school in the United States#Curriculum}}

As stated by Hall and Langdell, who were involved in the creation of the JD, the JD is a professional degree like the [[Doctor of Medicine|MD]], intended to prepare practitioners through a [[#Revolutionary approach: scientific study of law|scientific approach]] of analysing and teaching the law through logic and adversarial analysis (such as the [[Casebook method|casebook]] and [[Socratic method#Law schools|Socratic]] methods).<ref>{{cite journal
 |last=Hall
 |first=J.
 |year=1907
 |title=American Law School Degrees
 |journal=Michigan Law Review
 |volume=6
 |number=2
 |pages=112–117
 |doi=10.2307/1274166
 |jstor=1274166
 |url=https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=12788&context=journal_articles
 |via=Google Books
 |access-date=1 August 2021
 }}</ref> This system of curriculum has existed in the United States for over 100 years. The JD program generally requires a bachelor's degree for entry, though this requirement is sometimes waived.<ref>
{{cite web
 |title=Chapter&nbsp;5
 |series=Legal Education Standards (2015–2016)
 |date=7 February 2016
|url=http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/misc/legal_education/Standards/2015_2016_chapter_5.authcheckdam.pdf
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207013247/http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/misc/legal_education/Standards/2015_2016_chapter_5.authcheckdam.pdf
 |archive-date=7 February 2016
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web
 |title=Applying without a bachelor's degree
 |website=Cooley.edu
 |url=http://www.cooley.edu/prospective/bachelors.html
 |access-date=17 April 2017 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502193806/http://www.cooley.edu/prospective/bachelors.html
 |archive-date=2 May 2017
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web
 |title=Admission FAQ
 |url=http://www.lawdegree.com/content/admission/faq.asp
 |access-date=4 January 2016 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119012420/http://www.lawdegree.com/content/admission/faq.asp
 |archive-date=19 January 2016
}}
</ref>

As a study of the substantive law and its professional applications, the JD curriculum has not changed substantially since its creation. As a professional degree, JD programs typically allow practitioners. It requires at least three academic years of full-time study. While the JD is a doctoral degree in the US, lawyers usually use the suffix "[[esquire|Esq.]]" as opposed to the prefix "Dr.", and that only in a professional context, when needed to alert others that they are a biased party – acting as an agent for their client.<ref name=Perry-2012-06/>

====Replacement for the LLB====
An initial attempt to rename the LLB to the JD in the US in the early 20th century started with a petition at Harvard in 1902. This was rejected, but the idea took hold at the new law school established at the [[University of Chicago]] and other universities. By 1925, 80% of US law schools awarded the JD to students who had entered the program with an undergraduate degree, while granting undergraduate entrants the LLB. The change was initially rejected by the leading law schools of the time Harvard, Yale and Columbia. By the late 1920s, schools were moving away from the JD and once again granting only the LLB, with only law schools in Illinois holding out. This changed in the 1960s, by which time almost all law school entrants were graduates. The JD was reintroduced in 1962 and by 1971 had replaced the LLB, with many schools offering a JD as a replacement to their LLB alumni.<ref name=Perry-2012-06>{{cite journal
 |first=David |last=Perry
 |date=June 2012
 |title=How did lawyers become "doctors"? From the LL.B. to the J.D.
 |journal=New York State Bar Association Journal
 |volume=84 |issue=5
 |publisher=[[New York State Bar Association]]
 |postscript=;
}} available at {{cite web
 |title=MO Bar
 |url=http://www.mobar.org/uploadedFiles/Home/Publications/Precedent/2013/Winter/doctors.pdf
 |postscript=;
 |access-date=17 September 2016
 |archive-date=9 September 2015
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909131931/http://www.mobar.org/uploadedFiles/Home/Publications/Precedent/2013/Winter/doctors.pdf
 |url-status=live
 }} and at {{cite web
 |title=Hein online
 |url=http://www.heinonline.org/
 |url-access=registration
 |access-date=19 September 2016
 |archive-date=17 April 2021
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417215608/http://www.heinonline.org/
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>

Canadian and Australian universities have had graduate-entry law programs that are very similar to the JD programs in the United States, but typically called the LLB. Some students at these universities advocated for the renaming of the graduate-entry LLB to the JD to recognise the graduate characteristics of the program and to obtain a so-called doctoral-level qualification.<ref name="Belford-2009">
{{cite news |last=Belford |first=T. |year=2009 |title=Why change to a J.D. degree? |newspaper=[[The Globe and Mail]] |place=Toronto, ON, Canada |url=http://www.globecampus.ca/in-the-news/globecampusreport/why-change-to-a-jd-degree/ |url-status=dead |access-date=28 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110620002834/http://www.globecampus.ca/in-the-news/globecampusreport/why-change-to-a-jd-degree |archive-date=20 June 2011 |series=Globe Campus Report}}
</ref>