We Govern Ourselves

Back in my carefree days working a campus job with a really good buddy of mine, we had a conversation. This post is an extension of that conversation, and I hope my friend remembers the conversation.
I was very interested in law enforcement before my decision to attend law school. I am very pro law enforcement, but I also recognize when individual officers act wrongly. My friend was concerned about who police's the police. Sometimes it is hard to swallow the fact that the police can go and arrest people for their wrongs, but sometimes cops get away with a lot of bad things.
In law school we are half way through our first year mid-terms. We were preparing for standard exam procedures such as going to the bathroom, getting a drink, and for those who smoke, taking a final smoke break. It shocked us when the person brought in our exam, went through the instructions, and told us she would be back 5 minutes before the end period of the exam. That shocked us. Who would monitor any cheating? Then someone raised their hand and asked, "what if we need to use the bathroom". The following answer shocked us too. We are given a specified amount of time for each exam and we can leave the classroom to go to the bathroom and/or smoke or stretch, etc. We can use our time any way we so choose as long as we don't violate the honor code we signed at the beginning of the year.
WE ARE LITERALLY LEFT TO GOVERN OURSELVES. We are in a professional school now and they expect us to act accordingly. I have never been given such trust and responsibility under similar circumstances (taking exams). Even the LSAT was closely monitored. I just thought my friend would find it interesting on how we are governed and monitored at law school.