First Year Courses
Ethical Lawyering in a Global Community
This course integrates legal ethics and professionalism with an introduction to the international, comparative, and transnational dimensions of contemporary Canadian law and lawyering. It is delivered in two segments, commencing with one week at the start of the Fall semester, and concluding with a two-week intensive at the start of the Winter semester.
This full-year course deals with processes and skills related to the resolution of civil disputes. It includes an introduction to the theory and practice of negotiation and mediation, along with the goals and procedural mechanisms involved with the court process. Legal Process is a skills-oriented course in which legal research and writing is taught through case studies and exercises that draw on the law and practice of dispute resolution. Students learn how to conduct legal research and how to utilize and communicate their findings in a variety of written and oral forms.
State and Citizen: Canadian Public and Constitutional Law
This full-year course addresses the relationship between the state, the individual, and communities. How does law shape these relationships, and how do these relationships create or shape law? The course introduces students to basic architecture of the Canadian legal system including the processes by which statutes and regulations come into being; the principle of the rule of law; the role of the judiciary and judicial review of legislation and government actions; statutory interpretation; the creation and amendment of the Constitution; the division of powers in a federal system of government; the relationship and roles of different branches of government; the relationship between Aboriginal peoples/nations and the Canadian state; and the entrenchment of rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The law of torts is primarily concerned with compensation for injury or loss caused by another person’s fault. Students take Torts in the Fall term.
This is an introductory survey of the law relating to the judicial enforcement of promises. Of primary concern are the problems associated with the formation and enforcement of commercial and consumer transactions such as agreements to buy and sell goods or supply services. Students take Contracts in the Fall term.
This course examines the general principles of liability under the criminal law and various procedural matters relating to the trial of an accused person. The course provides a general introduction to the criminal process and notions of criminal procedure, evidence and sentencing. Students take Criminal Law in the Fall term.
Students are introduced to the basic principles of property law in a context that permits a critical examination of law. Students are encouraged to develop an understanding of the unique historical role that property law has played in the development of our legal and economic systems. Property Law is taught in the Winter term.
Students can complete the requirement for one elective by taking a Perspective Option course in the Winter term. Alternatively, students who wish to begin their elective in the Fall term can request entrance to the Legal Theory Seminar. All first year electives emphasize critical reflection on the law. All are taught in small seminar format and assist students in learning how to write a scholarly paper in law.
Perspective Option: Most first year students will complete their elective in the Winter term by taking one of approximately a dozen courses offered each year under the Perspective Option rubric. Students select their course in November of the Fall term. Offerings vary from year to year but have often included such courses as: Legal Politics; Jurisprudence; Law & Poverty; Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Law, Gender & Equality; Law & Economics; Globalization & the Law; Legal Values: Racism; Taxation as an Instrument of Social and Economic Control; and Law and Social Change: Policing.
Legal Theory Seminar: This new full-year elective serves as an introduction to fundamental questions regarding the nature of law and the particular features of legal argument. Taught as a first introduction to these issues, the course does not require prior exposure to legal theory, philosophy of law, legal history or legal sociology. The first term will introduce central themes in the development of the legal theory canon, mostly oriented around adjudication and legal argument, leading up to law & economics. The second term will focus on more recent developments in legal theory, covering discourse ethics, feminist legal theory, law & society, deconstruction and law & development. The LTS functions as a tutorial-style reading group of 15-20 students that emphasizes faculty-student interaction, collaboration with peers, and directed self-learning. Students interested in taking this course must submit a written application in late summer/early Fall. Space is limited, and students who do not obtain a place in the LTS will take a Perspective Option in the Winter term.
Required Courses
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