University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Encyclopedia
Established in 1887, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law is one of the oldest professional faculties at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

. The Faculty of Law is particularly renowned in the areas of corporate law
Corporate law
Corporate law is the study of how shareholders, directors, employees, creditors, and other stakeholders such as consumers, the community and the environment interact with one another. Corporate law is a part of a broader companies law...

, international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

, law and economics
Law and economics
The economic analysis of law is an analysis of law applying methods of economics. Economic concepts are used to explain the effects of laws, to assess which legal rules are economically efficient, and to predict which legal rules will be promulgated.-Relationship to other disciplines and...

, and legal theory.

The law school has been consistently acclaimed as the best school in Canada by comprehensive rankings. The median undergraduate GPA of students accepted into the J.D. program is 3.9, and the median Law School Admission Test
Law School Admission Test
The Law School Admission Test is a half-day standardized test administered four times each year at designated testing centers throughout the world. Administered by the Law School Admission Council for prospective law school candidates, the LSAT is designed to assess Reading Comprehension,...

 (LSAT
Law School Admission Test
The Law School Admission Test is a half-day standardized test administered four times each year at designated testing centers throughout the world. Administered by the Law School Admission Council for prospective law school candidates, the LSAT is designed to assess Reading Comprehension,...

) score is 168 (96th percentile), making the law school the most selective in Canada, and one of the most selective in North America. The Faculty of Law offers its students Canada's most extensive internship program in pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...

 work and international human rights law
International human rights law
International human rights law refers to the body of international law designed to promote and protect human rights at the international, regional and domestic levels...

, and supports a range of legal clinic
Legal clinic
The phrase legal clinic may refer to any private, nonprofit law practice serving the public interest. In the academic context, these law school clinics provide hands-on experience to law school students and services to various clients. Academic Clinics are usually directed by clinical professors...

s staffed by students as well as practitioners.

The Faculty of Law has close to 60 full-time faculty members, and 600 undergraduate and graduate students, giving it a student-faculty ratio of approximately 10:1, one of the lowest in North America. Its "Distinguished Visitors" program brings 15-25 short-term visiting professors from the world's leading law schools to teach at the school each year. For 2010-11, visiting professors include: Frank Iacobucci
Frank Iacobucci
Frank Iacobucci, CC was a Puisne Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1991 to 2004 when he retired from the bench. He is an expert in business and tax law.-Early career:...

, former Puisne Justice
Puisne Justice
A Puisne Justice or Puisne Judge is the title for a regular member of a Court. This is distinguished from the head of the Court who is known as the Chief Justice or Chief Judge. The term is used almost exclusively in common law jurisdictions such as England, Australia, Kenya, Canada, Sri Lanka,...

 of the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...

; Aharon Barak
Aharon Barak
Aharon Barak is a Professor of Law at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a lecturer in law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Yale Law School, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law....

, former President of the Supreme Court of Israel
Supreme Court of Israel
The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...

; Dieter Grimm, former Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...

; and James C. Hathaway
James C. Hathaway
James C. Hathaway is an eminent Canadian/American legal scholar in the field of international refugee law. He earned his J.S.D. and LL.M. at Columbia University, and an LL.B. at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University...

, former Dean of the Melbourne Law School.

The Faculty of Law lies at the geographic centre of the University of Toronto. It is located at the corner of Queen's Park Crescent and Hoskin Avenue, south of the Royal Ontario Museum
Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...

 and slightly north of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...

.

Among its alumni are two Canadian Prime Ministers, three Chiefs of Staff
Chief of Staff (Canada)
The Chief of Staff of Canada's Prime Minister's Office is the top official of the office. It was created in 1987 to head the Prime Minister's Office or PMO....

 to the Prime Minister, two Premiers of Ontario, two Mayors of Toronto, and six Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, including three of the nine currently-sitting Justices (Louis LeBel
Louis LeBel
Louis LeBel is a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.LeBel was born in Quebec City. He was the son of lawyer Paul LeBel, Q.C. He went to school at the Collège des Jésuites, graduating with a BA in 1958 from College des Jesuites. He earned his law degree at Université Laval in 1962 and...

, Rosalie Abella
Rosalie Abella
Rosalie Silberman Abella, is a Canadian jurist. She was appointed in 2004 to the Supreme Court of Canada, becoming the first Jewish woman to sit on the Canadian Supreme Court bench.- Early life :...

, and Michael J. Moldaver
Michael J. Moldaver
-Education and Early Career:A native of Peterborough, Ontario, Justice Moldaver earned a B.A. from the University of Toronto, before completing his legal training at the school's Faculty of Law, where he graduated in 1971 as a Gold Medalist. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1973...

).

The current Dean of the Faculty of Law is Professor Mayo Moran
Mayo Moran
Mayo Moran , a native of the Canadian province of British Columbia and daughter of author Bridget Moran and Pat Moran, has been Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto since January 1, 2006, the first ever female dean of the Faculty of Law. She replaced former dean Ronald J...

, who was reappointed for a second five-year term as Dean beginning January 2011.

Falconer Hall

Falconer Hall is home to many of the faculty's offices, including the Office of the Dean, and four seminar rooms. The third floor of Falconer Hall currently hosts the offices of most of the Faculty's scholars of law and economics, including one of the field's founders, Michael Trebilcock
Michael Trebilcock
Michael J. Trebilcock, LL.B. 1961, LL.M. 1962, called to the Bar of New Zealand in 1964 and the Bar of Ontario in 1975 is a Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law at the University of Toronto, specializing in law and economics.Professor Trebilcock taught at the University of...

. Falconer Hall is also the current home of the Trebilcock Law and Economics Common Room, which is named in Trebilcock's honour.

Early history

Although the University of Toronto Faculty of Law was established in 1887, it was not until 1949 that it adopted its current form. In the 1940s, the Faculty played the leading role in making legal education in Ontario into a modern academic degree course, rather than an apprenticeship.

In 1949, Cecil (“Caesar”) Wright
Caesar Wright
Cecil Augustus Wright , often called Caesar Wright, was a famous Canadian jurist, law professor, and a prominent figure in the Canadian legal education reform. He was among the first law professors to import the Harvard case method into Canadian legal education...

 assumed the deanship of the Faculty of Law. He first had to resign his post as Dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...

 of Osgoode Hall Law School
Osgoode Hall Law School
Osgoode Hall Law School is a Canadian law school, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and affiliated with York University. Named after the first Chief Justice of Ontario, William Osgoode, the law school was established by The Law Society of Upper Canada in 1889 and was the only accredited law...

, the seat of the Law Society of Upper Canada
Law Society of Upper Canada
The Law Society of Upper Canada is responsible for the self-regulation of lawyers and paralegals in the Canadian province of Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1797, it is known in French as "Le Barreau du Haut-Canada"...

, rejecting the Law Society's apprenticeship model of legal education in favour of the University of Toronto's vision of a full-time legal education, hinging on the professional bachelor of laws degree and embedded within a university. Wright brought with him his colleagues John Willis
John Willis
Air Chief Marshal Sir John Frederick Willis GBE, KCB, FRAeS , was a senior Royal Air Force officer.-Flying career:...

 and Bora Laskin
Bora Laskin
Bora Laskin, PC, CC, FRSC was a Canadian jurist, who served on the Supreme Court of Canada for fourteen years, including a decade as its Chief Justice.-Early life:...

, the latter of whom would go on to become Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...

 of the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...

.

Despite the Faculty of Law's academic program, the Law Society of Upper Canada refused to recognize it as a degree-granting institution for the purposes of accreditation. In the early 1950s, law students and their supporters petitioned the Law Society, and in 1953, a group of 50 student protesters marched on Osgoode Hall
Osgoode Hall
Osgoode Hall is a landmark building in downtown Toronto constructed between 1829 and 1832 in the late Georgian Palladian and Neoclassical styles. It houses the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice, and the Law Society of Upper Canada...

 demanding formal recognition for the Faculty of Law. Finally, in 1958, after years of negotiation and discord, the Law Society began to give credit to graduates of the law school seeking admission to the Ontario bar.

Tuition and financial aid

Tuition fees for entering Juris Doctor (J.D.) students as of 2011 are $25,389 per annum (excluding incidental fees). Although the Faculty of Law has the highest tuition fees of any law school in Canada, it also has a generous financial aid program.

All students who have eligible unmet need according to the financial aid policies will receive assistance in the form of bursaries and interest-free loans. The most controversial part of the faculty's financial aid program, which was initially designed by students and administration collaboratively, is that it uses a "deemed parental contribution" as part of determining a student's unmet need. There is no deemed parental contribution below an income threshold that is around the average Canadian household income. The deemed parental contribution phases out with the age of the student.

The Faculty of Law is the only law school in Canada with a back-end debt relief program for graduates who choose to pursue low income employment. The "back end debt relief program" is targeted to relieve debt with respect to financial aid/interest-free loans that are recognized by the faculty; most third-party debt (lines of credit; credit cards; mortgage debt) is not recognized and is not eligible for faculty support.

Degrees granted

The Faculty of Law was the first law school in Canada to offer the Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...

 (J.D.) rather than the Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws
The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...

 (LL.B). The J.D. designation is intended to reflect the fact that the vast majority of the law school’s graduates enter the law school with at least one university degree. (In fact, approximately one quarter enter with one or more graduate degrees.) The J.D. designation does not, however, reflect significant changes in the law school's curriculum. The move to the J.D. was controversial at the time it was announced, though it has now gained wide acceptance and has been emulated by a number of other Canadian law schools.

Student organizations

Students manage a remarkable range of organizations and activities at the Faculty of Law. Activities include free legal clinics such as Downtown Legal Services, mooting, law journals, and interest oriented clubs. The umbrella organization for JD students at the Faculty of Law is the Students' Law Society. The umbrella organization for graduate students is the Graduate Students' Law Society. The student societies act as student governments, providing funding to student organizations and advocating on behalf of students to the faculty and administration.



The four student-run law journals at the Faculty are:
  • University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review
    University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review
    The University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review is a law review at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, run by law students at the Faculty and publishing scholarly work by law students from any institution.It was first published in 1942...

  • Journal of International Law and International Relations
    Journal of International Law and International Relations
    The Journal of International Law and International Relations is an inter-disciplinary, student-run academic journal at the University of Toronto, a joint project of the Faculty of Law and the Munk School of Global Affairs. The journal was the 5th most cited Canadian law journal in 2010 according...

  • Journal of Law and Equality
  • Indigenous Law Journal

Selected alumni

  • William Lyon Mackenzie King
    William Lyon Mackenzie King
    William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...

     (1896) - Prime Minister of Canada
    Prime Minister of Canada
    The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

     (1935-1948)
  • Bora Laskin
    Bora Laskin
    Bora Laskin, PC, CC, FRSC was a Canadian jurist, who served on the Supreme Court of Canada for fourteen years, including a decade as its Chief Justice.-Early life:...

     (1933) - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (1973-1984)
  • Jerry Grafstein
    Jerry Grafstein
    Jerahmiel S. "Jerry" Grafstein is a former Canadian Senator and lawyer.He is married to Carole and has two children, Laurence Stephen and Michael Kevin....

     (1954) - Senator (1984-2010)
  • John C. Major
    John C. Major
    John Charles "Jack" Major, CC, QC is a Canadian jurist and was a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1992 to 2005....

     (1957) - Puisne Justice of Supreme Court of Canada (1992-2005), Commissioner for the Air India Inquiry
    Air India Flight 182
    Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi route. On 23 June 1985, the airplane operating on the route a Boeing 747-237B named after Emperor Kanishka was blown up by a bomb at an altitude of , and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace.A...

  • John Sewell
    John Sewell
    John Sewell, CM is a Canadian political activist and writer on municipal affairs; he was the mayor of Toronto, Ontario from 1978 to 1980.-Background:...

     (1964) - Mayor of Toronto (1978-1980), columnist
  • Paul Martin
    Paul Martin
    Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

     (1964) - Prime Minister of Canada (2003-2006)
  • Bill Graham (1964) - former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence, and interim Leader of the Opposition
    Leader of the Opposition (Canada)
    The Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition , or simply the Leader of the Opposition is the leader of Canada's Official Opposition, the party with the most seats in the House of Commons that is not a member of the government...

  • Ian Binnie
    Ian Binnie
    William Ian Corneil Binnie was a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, serving from 1998 to 2011. Of the justices appointed to the Supreme Court in recent years, he is one of the few to have never sat as a judge prior to his appointment.- Personal life and career as lawyer :Binnie was...

     (1965) - Puisne Justice of Supreme Court of Canada, (1998-2011)
  • Louis LeBel
    Louis LeBel
    Louis LeBel is a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.LeBel was born in Quebec City. He was the son of lawyer Paul LeBel, Q.C. He went to school at the Collège des Jésuites, graduating with a BA in 1958 from College des Jesuites. He earned his law degree at Université Laval in 1962 and...

     (1966) - Puisne Justice of Supreme Court of Canada, (2000-Present)
  • David Peterson
    David Peterson
    David Robert Peterson, PC, O.Ont was the 20th Premier of the Province of Ontario, Canada, from June 26, 1985 to October 1, 1990. He was the first Liberal premier of Ontario in 42 years....

     (1967) - Premier of Ontario
    Premier of Ontario
    The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...

     (1985-1990)
  • Clayton Ruby
    Clayton Ruby
    Clayton Charles Ruby, CM, QC is a Canadian lawyer, specializing in constitutional and criminal law and civil rights. He is one of the most famous lawyers in Canada at present, having served as a defence lawyer in a number of high-profile cases....

     (1969) - criminal lawyer
  • Rosalie Silberman Abella (1970) - Puisne Justice of Supreme Court of Canada (2004-Present)
  • Michael J. Moldaver
    Michael J. Moldaver
    -Education and Early Career:A native of Peterborough, Ontario, Justice Moldaver earned a B.A. from the University of Toronto, before completing his legal training at the school's Faculty of Law, where he graduated in 1971 as a Gold Medalist. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1973...

     (1971) - Puisne Justice of Supreme Court of Canada (2011-Present)
  • Ernest Weinrib (1972) - professor and noted private law theorist
  • Bob Rae
    Bob Rae
    Robert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

     (1977) - Premier of Ontario (1990-1995), Member of Parliament (1978-1982, 2008-present), Liberal Party of Canada
    Liberal Party of Canada
    The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

     foreign affairs critic
  • Stephen Stohn
    Stephen Stohn
    John Stephen Stohn is a Canadian-based, American-born entertainment lawyer and television producer. He is the president of Epitome Pictures Inc., and is executive producer of the teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation and Instant Star , and most recently the television movie Degrassi Goes...

     (1977) - television producer (Degrassi franchise)
  • David Shore
    David Shore
    David Shore is a Canadian writer, best known for his work writing and producing in television. As a former lawyer, Shore became known for his work on Family Law, NYPD Blue, and Due South...

     (1982) - television writer (House
    House (TV series)
    House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...

    )
  • George Triantis (1983) - Harvard professor and specialist in corporate law
  • Patrick Macklem (1984) - professor and specialist in labour, indigenous, and constitutional law
  • David Miller
    David Miller (Canadian politician)
    David Raymond Miller is a Canadian politician. He was the 63rd Mayor of Toronto and the second since the 1998 amalgamation. He was elected to the position in 2003 for a three-year term and re-elected in 2006 for a four-year term...

     (1984) - Mayor of Toronto (2003-2010)
  • Tony Clement
    Tony Clement
    Tony Peter Clement, PC, MP is a Canadian federal politician, President of the Treasury Board, Minister for the Federal Economic Initiative for Northern Ontario and member of the Conservative Party of Canada....

     (1986) - current President of the Treasury Board
  • Ronald J. Daniels
    Ronald J. Daniels
    Ronald J. Daniels is President of the Johns Hopkins University, a position which he assumed on March 2, 2009. Previously, Mr. Daniels was the Vice President and Provost at the University of Pennsylvania, and prior to this was Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. Mr. Daniels...

     (1986) - Dean of the Faculty of Law (1995-2005), current President of Johns Hopkins University
    Johns Hopkins University
    The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

  • Kent Roach
    Kent Roach
    Kent Roach is a professor of law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He is well known for his expertise and writings on criminal law, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and more recently anti-terrorism law...

     (1987) - professor and specialist in criminal and constitutional law
  • Karl Jaffary
    Karl Jaffary
    Karl Jaffary , is a former municipal politician in Toronto, Ontario.Karl was born in New Orleans and moved to Toronto with his family in 1940. He went to school in Toronto and attended North Toronto Collegiate Institute and University of Toronto Schools. He went to the University of Toronto and...

     - Vice-President of the New Democratic Party
    New Democratic Party
    The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

     (1969-1973), Toronto city alderman (1969-1974), and noted urban reformist.
  • Robert Prichard
    Robert Prichard
    For the theologian at Virginia Theological Seminary, see Robert Prichard John Robert Stobo Prichard, OC, O.Ont is a Canadian lawyer, economist, and academic.-Academia:...

     - Dean of the Faculty of Law (1984-1990), President of the University of Toronto (1990-2000)
  • David Kilgour
    David Kilgour
    David Kilgour, PC is a former Canadian politician.Kilgour graduated from the University of Manitoba in economics in 1962 and the University of Toronto law school in 1966. From crown attorney in northern Alberta to Canadian Cabinet minister, Kilgour ended his 27 year tenure in the Canadian House of...

    - democracy activist and former MP (who represented both the Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties)

External links

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