Middle Temple

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Image:Middle Temple by Thomas Shepherd c.1830.jpg

The Middle Temple is one of the four neighbouring Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English bar as barristers. (The others are the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn.) It is near the Royal Courts of Justice, within the City of London but is outside the jurisdiction of the Corporation of London, being a historic extra-parochial area.

Following the separation of canon law and common law in the 13th century, the Inns of Court originated as hostels and schools for the emerging class of lawyers. The Middle Temple is the western part of "The Temple", the headquarters of the Knights Templar until they were dissolved in 1312; the awe-inspiring Temple Church still stands as a Royal Peculiar and the parish church of the Inner and Middle Temples. There has never been an "Outer Temple", apart from a modern office block of that name - an order of 1337 refers to repairing the lane "through the middle of the Court of the Temple", which became known as Middle Temple Lane and presumably gave its name to the Inn.

Middle Temple Hall is at the heart of the Inn, and student barristers are required to Keep Term by dining there, followed by lectures or readings, for a minimum number of nights for several terms. However there is a long tradition of revelry: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was first presented here, and in the Christmas Revels judges, barristers and students have poked fun at each other for centuries.

The Inns ceased to be responsible for legal education in 1852, although they continue to provide supplementary training. Most of the Inn is occupied by barristers' offices, known as "chambers", and there are a few residential sets of chambers. Its other main current activities are maintenance of the library, and social functions.

In all Inns, there are three categories of member: the self-elected Masters of the Bench, or Benchers, are addressed as Master, and are generally judges or silks (Queen's Counsel); the Barristers are those who have satisfied the educational requirements and have been called to the bar by the Inn (and are thereby accepted by the judges as qualified to practice in the Courts); and the Students who supposedly benefit from the propinquity of the barristers, although in practice few barristers choose to dine in Hall. A greater number of barristers choose to have lunch in Hall, although those that do tend to almost exclusively be civil practitioners as there are no criminal courts conveniently located for the Temple, and few criminal barristers have the luxury of days spent working in chambers. There are an increasingly large number of students that lunch in Middle Temple hall, especially on a Friday. Barristers do not cease their membership of the Inn when elevated to the Bench; and solicitors have never been eligible for membership at all.

In 2004, the Inn's team won the World Universities Debating Championship.

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