Law Commons^™

New Crossroads And The Opportunity For A Crisis: The State Of Canadian Legal Education, Catherine Dauvergne

All Faculty Publications

This article considers the challenges facing Canadian law schools and compares the current state of affairs to that analyzed in the 1983 Arthurs Report. The opening sections describe how Canadian legal education is globally unique because of the tacit agreement between law schools and the legal profession that limits the number of law school seats in Canada and helps ensure the success of law schools and law students. On the fortieth anniversary of the Arthurs Report, the article concludes that legal education in Canada is overdue for a new mapping of its strengths, challenges, and future directions that takes the …

Collared—A Film Case Study About Insider Trading And Ethics, Garrick Apollon

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

This Article discusses the visual legal advocacy documentary film, Collared, by Garrick Apollon (author of this Article). Collared premiered in fall 2018 to a sold-out audience at the Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto for the Hot Docs for Continuing Professional Education edutainment initiative. Collared features the story and reveals the testimony of a convicted ex-insider trader who is still struggling with the tragic consequences of “the most prolonged insider trading scheme ever discovered by American and Canadian securities investigators.” The intimate insights shared by former lawyer and reformed white-collar criminal, Joseph Grmovsek, serves as a painful reminder of the …

Evidence, Rollie Thompson

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

“Evidence” is what, in our adversary system, the parties attempt to place before the neutral factfinder in order to prove their case (or disprove their opponent's case). We follow the principle of party-presentation: parties determine what specific items of evidence are offered for proof, while the impartial judge or decision maker will determine which items are “admissible” evidence, in accordance with principles of law. At the end of the trial or hearing, the fact-finder (jury, judge, tribunal, decision maker) will determine which of those admissible items of evidence are believed or not, in formulating “fact-guesses” or “findings of fact”.

Constitutional Law, Jodi Lazare

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The materials below are the study outlines from the July 2020 and January 2021 Bar Examinations. The materials are not intended to provide legal advice, and should not be relied upon by articled clerks, transfer applicants, lawyers or members of the public as a current statement of the law.

Please note: The Bar Review Materials are updated every three years. They were last updated on May 1, 2020.

Administrative Law, Diana Ginn, Sheila Wildeman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Administrative law is concerned with the relationship between courts and those who make decisions in the course of exercising administrative powers. In particular, administrative law focuses on the way in which and the extent to which courts review or oversee administrative decision making. Administrative powers are largely created by statute. Such legislation is often referred to as the "enabling legislation”. An action taken under the Crown's prerogative powers is also considered to be administrative action; however, the focus of these materials is on action taken under enabling legislation.

Law School News: Rwu Law Remembers President Donald J. Farish 07-05-2018, Ed Fitzpatrick, Michael Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Tension And Reconciliation In Canadian Contract Law Casebooks, David Sandomierski

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Canadian common law contract law casebooks are beset with a tension. On the one hand, they all reveal a sustained commitment to the “wholesale assault on the jurisprudence of forms, concepts, and rules” that typifies American Legal Realism and its intellectual descendants. Concern with underlying values, functional reasoning, social realities, and policy thinking pervades the explicit messages of Canadian contract law casebooks and their editors’ related writings. On the other hand, the two casebooks most frequently assigned embody an allegiance to rules and courts that has a close kinship with the classical attitudes purportedly rejected. They convey a monolithic image …

Addressing Access To Justice Through New Legal Service Providers: Opportunities And Challenges, Alice Woolley, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Trevor C. W. Farrow

Most informed observers of the Canadian and American legal systems accept the existence of a significant crisis in access to justice. One possible solution is to permit paralegals, notaries or other licensed individuals with training more limited than that enjoyed by a licensed attorney to practice in certain areas of law. This paper supports these developments, arguing for a regulated and incremental introduction of new legal service providers into the legal services market. It considers the appropriate training and scope of practice for new legal service providers, and some of the associated opportunities and challenges.

Clinical And Experiential Learning Programs In Canadian Law Schools, Gemma Smyth, Samantha Hale, Neil Gold

Law Publications

Information for this chart is from law school and clinic websites as well as from follow-up interviews with Deans or Deans’ Designates of 13 of the 16 common law schools in Canada. Programs were deemed “Experiential” if the majority of the activities and/or assessment in a class is taught or practiced experientially. Only credit-bearing programs are included here.

Doctoral Studies In Law: From The Inside Out, Dia Dabby, Bethany Hastie, Jocelyn Stacey

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article explores the purpose, structure and experience of doctoral studies in Canadian law schools. Relying on an auto-ethnographic methodology where we draw on our personal experience as doctoral students, we identify three tensions in doctoral studies in law. We explore how these tensions-between practice/theory structure/space, and supervisory/other relationships-emerge from the structure of doctoral studies in law and how they manifest themselves in the lived experience of doctoral students. We detail how these tensions are a product of the ambiguous and underexplored nature ofdoctoral studies in law. By making these tensions explicit, we encourage doctoral students, law professors and administrators …

Poverty Law, Access To Justice, And Ethical Lawyering: Celebrating 40 Years Of Clinical Education At Osgoode Hall Law School, Shelley Gavigan, Sean Rehaag

Sean Rehaag

Collects papers presented at the Symposium in 2011 celebrating forty years of clinical legal education at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Counting Outsiders: A Critical Exploration Of Outsider Course Enrollment In Canadian Legal Education, Natasha Bakht, Kim Brooks, Gillian Calder, Jennifer Koshan, Sonia Lawrence, Carissima Mathen, Debra Parkes

Sonia Lawrence

In response to anecdotal concerns that student enrollment in "outsider" courses, and in particular feminist courses, is on the decline in Canadian law schools, the authors explore patterns of course enrollment at seven Canadian law schools. Articulating a definition of "outsider" that describes those who are members of groups historically lacking power in society, or traditionally outside the realms of fashioning, teaching, and adjudicating the law, the authors document the results of quantitative and qualitative surveys conducted at their respective schools to argue that outsider pedagogy remains a critical component of legal education. The article situates the numerical survey results …

Poverty Law, Access To Justice, And Ethical Lawyering: Celebrating 40 Years Of Clinical Education At Osgoode Hall Law School, Shelley Gavigan, Sean Rehaag

Shelley A. M. Gavigan

Collects papers presented at the Symposium in 2011 celebrating forty years of clinical legal education at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Globalizing Approaches To Legal Education And Training: Canada To Japan, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Trevor C. W. Farrow

No abstract provided.

Towards A Pedagogy Of Diversity In Legal Education, Faisal Bhabha

Faisal Bhabha

There is resounding consensus that diversity in legal education is a priority. Yet, North American law schools continue to be criticized for failing to reflect the diversity of the society that they are training lawyers to serve. This article is a project of conceptual reorientation against a backdrop of critical scholarship and empirical evidence. Parts I and II examine the past twenty years of diversity promotion in legal education, concluding that, while several advances have been made, especially in increasing numerical representation of diverse groups in law schools, the promise of meaningful diversity remains unfulfilled. Part III suggests that reforms …

Addressing Access To Justice Through New Legal Service Providers: Opportunities And Challenges, Alice Woolley, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Articles & Book Chapters

Most informed observers of the Canadian and American legal systems accept the existence of a significant crisis in access to justice. One possible solution is to permit paralegals, notaries or other licensed individuals with training more limited than that enjoyed by a licensed attorney to practice in certain areas of law. This paper supports these developments, arguing for a regulated and incremental introduction of new legal service providers into the legal services market. It considers the appropriate training and scope of practice for new legal service providers, and some of the associated opportunities and challenges.

Towards A Pedagogy Of Diversity In Legal Education, Faisal Bhabha

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

There is resounding consensus that diversity in legal education is a priority. Yet, North American law schools continue to be criticized for failing to reflect the diversity of the society that they are training lawyers to serve. This article is a project of conceptual reorientation against a backdrop of critical scholarship and empirical evidence. Parts I and II examine the past twenty years of diversity promotion in legal education, concluding that, while several advances have been made, especially in increasing numerical representation of diverse groups in law schools, the promise of meaningful diversity remains unfulfilled. Part III suggests that reforms …

Poverty Law, Access To Justice, And Ethical Lawyering: Celebrating 40 Years Of Clinical Education At Osgoode Hall Law School, Shelley Gavigan, Sean Rehaag

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Collects papers presented at the Symposium in 2011 celebrating forty years of clinical legal education at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Pushing The Boundaries Of Clinical Law: Exploring How Student And Community Legal Clinics Engage With International Human Rights Practice, Geraldine Sadoway

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Explores methods of bringing stories of victims of human rights abuses to the international human rights bodies that conduct periodic reviews of country compliance with international human rights instruments. The project involved law students and community legal workers looking at innovative ways to use internet technologies to enhance and strengthen non-government (NGO) reports to UN Committees involved in monitoring Canada’s compliance with our international legal obligations.

Learning The 'How' Of The Law: Teaching Procedure And Legal Education, David Bamford, Trevor C. W. Farrow, Michael Karayanni, Erik S. Knutsen

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article examines the approaches to teaching civil procedure in five common law jurisdictions (Canada, Australia, United States, Israel, and England). The paper demonstrates the important transition of civil procedure from a vocational oriented subject to a rigorous intellectual study of policies, processes, and values underpinning our civil justice system, and analysis of how that system operates. The advantages and disadvantages of where civil procedure fits within the curriculum are discussed and the significant opportunities for ‘active’ learning are highlighted. The inclusion of England where civil procedure is not taught to any significant degree in the law degree provides a …

The Teaching Of Procedure Across Common Law Systems, Erik S. Knutsen, Thomas D. Rowe Jr., David Bamford, Shirley Shipman

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

What difference does the teaching of procedure make to legal education, legal scholarship, the legal profession, and civil justice reform? This first of four articles on the teaching of procedure canvasses the landscape of current approaches to the teaching of procedure in four legal systems— the United States, Canada, Australia, and England and Wales—surveying the place of procedure in the law school curriculum and in professional training, the kinds of subjects that “procedure” encompasses, and the various ways in which procedure is learned. Little sustained re flection has been carried out as to the import and impact of this longstanding …

The Teaching Of Procedure Across Common Law Systems, Erik S. Knusten, Thomas D. Rowe Jr., David Bamford, Shirley Shipman

Faculty Scholarship

What difference does the teaching of procedure make to legal education, legal scholarship, the legal profession, and civil justice reform? This first of four articles on the teaching of procedure canvasses the landscape of current approaches to the teaching of procedure in four legal systems—the United States, Canada, Australia, and England and Wales—surveying the place of procedure in the law school curriculum and in professional training, the kinds of subjects that “procedure” encompasses, and the various ways in which procedure is learned. Little sustained reflection has been carried out as to the import and impact of this longstanding law school …

Hugh Kindred And The Teaching Of International Law In Canada, Don Mcrae

Dalhousie Law Journal

The casebook, International Law, Chiefly as Interpreted and Applied in Canada under the general editorship of Hugh Kindred, which first appeared in 1987, was a milestone in the teaching of international law in Canada. It was an important teaching tool that made international law accessible to students. Seeing international law through the eyes of Canadian practice, Canadian materials and Canadian experience, the book was an introduction to the fundamentals of the field and to the developments and debates of contemporary international law Engaging on the editorial board Canadian academics from different law schools, Hugh Kindred has been able to provide …

No Longer "Naked And Shivering Outside Her Gates": Establishing Law As A Full-Time On-Campus Academic Discipline At Mcgill University Inthe Nineteenth Century, A J. Hobbins

Dalhousie Law Journal

Although Canada was a single province (1763-1791), subsequently divided into Upper and Lower Canada, legal education developed very differently in the two components. The Law Society of Upper Canada controlled legal education in Ontario until the second half of the twentieth century, while in Quebec, where the legal system was based on both civil and common law, university-based legal education began in the first half of the nineteenth century. This study examines how legal education developed at McGill University, moving from part-time teaching by professionals off-campus to an on-campus faculty taught by full-time academics by the end of the century …

Fitness For Purpose: Mandatory Continuing Legal Ethics Education For Lawyers, Jocelyn Downie, Richard Devlin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The authors argue that if we want lawyers to be fit for the purpose of practicing law, and law societies to be fit for the purpose of regulating in the public interest, then it is incumbent upon the Canadian legal profession to adopt programmes of compulsory legal ethics education (CLEE). In support of this argument the authors: provide several reasons why Canadians might be concerned about the ethical fitness of lawyers and law societies; analyse several arguments both in supporting and resisting CLEE; suggest several strategies for overcoming the ethical indolence of the legal profession; and draw inspiration from recent …

Counting Outsiders: A Critical Exploration Of Outsider Course Enrollment In Canadian Legal Education, Natasha Bakht, Kim Brooks, Gillian Calder, Jennifer Koshan, Sonia Lawrence, Carissima Mathen, Debra Parkes

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In response to anecdotal concerns that student enrollment in "outsider" courses, and in particular feminist courses, is on the decline in Canadian law schools, the authors explore patterns of course enrollment at seven Canadian law schools. Articulating a definition of "outsider" that describes those who are members of groups historically lacking power in society, or traditionally outside the realms of fashioning, teaching, and adjudicating the law, the authors document the results of quantitative and qualitative surveys conducted at their respective schools to argue that outsider pedagogy remains a critical component of legal education. The article situates the numerical survey results …

Slides: Forests And Grasslands, Federico Cheever

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

Presenter: Professor Federico Cheever, University of Denver Sturm College of Law

30 slides

The Growing Influence Of Tort And Property Law On Natural Resources Law: Case Studies Of Coal Bed Methane Development And Geologic Carbon Sequestration, Alexandra B. Klass

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

19 pages.

"Alexandra B. Klass, Associate Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School"

Counting Outsiders: A Critical Exploration Of Outsider Course Enrollment In Canadian Legal Education, Kim Brooks, Natasha Bahkt, Gillian Calder, Jennifer Koshan, Sonia Lawrence, Carissima Mathen, Debra L. Parkes

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In response to anecdotal concerns that student enrollment in "outsider" courses, and in particular feminist courses, is on the decline in Canadian law schools, the authors explore patterns of course enrollment at seven Canadian law schools. Articulating a definition of "outsider" that describes those who are members of groups historically lacking power in society, or traditionally outside the realms of fashioning, teaching, and adjudicating the law, the authors document the results of quantitative and qualitative surveys conducted at their respective schools to argue that outsider pedagogy remains a critical component of legal education. The article situates the numerical survey results …

Building On Strong Foundations: Rethinking Legal Education With A View To Improving Curricular Quality, Veronica Henderson

Dalhousie Law Journal

Recent increases in law school tuition provide an occasion for criticalreflection on precisely what law students are being offered in their formal education. The aim of this article is to help catalyze discussion of what quality legal education entails. It begins by outlining the current underpinnings of Canadian legal education, especially the foundation of issue identification. Newer developments in legal education are also canvassed.A foundational critique is then applied to elucidate the main weakness of thepresent curricular structure: students are graduating with a flat understanding of the law Employing Dr Oliver Sacks's critique of medical education as a starting point, …