McGill University Faculty of Law
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The Faculty of Law is a constituent faculty of McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec. Its graduates obtain both a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) and Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.), concurrently, in three to four years, allowing them to practice in both the Canadian, U.S. and U.K. common law system as well as Quebec's civil law system.
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[edit] Curriculum
[edit] Before 1968
The Faculty of Law was officially created in 1848, making it the first to be established in Canada, as a response to a petition from 23 young men who had been studying independently for the bar. Before that, lawyers in Quebec, like in the United States, did not need a law degree and typically pursued five-year apprenticeships to be called to the bar. For most of its history, it offered degrees only based on Quebec law, which features the civil law system in the sphere of private law.
[edit] Optional National Program, 1968-1999
With the incoming class of 1969 the Faculty added a stand-alone common law degree, suitable to the practice of law in other Canadian provinces, which could be taken individually or jointly with the traditional civilian curriculum. The joint degree was then referred to as the National programme, and taught common law and civil law in separate courses, but combined their study in a year-long introductory "Foundations" course and in some upper-year seminars.
[edit] Mandatory Transsystemic Programme, 1999-present
With the incoming class of 1999 the Faculty eliminated its civil, common, and National programmes, and replaced them with a single programme, featuring some mandatory first-year courses and some upper-year courses which integrate both common and civil law. This joint and bilingual degree, which all students must take, is now referred to as the Transsystemic programme.
The Transsystemic programme was designed under the direction of then-Dean Stephen Toope (currently President of the University of British Columbia). It is unique in that every student graduates with degrees in both civil law and common law, two of the world's major legal systems. This means that, from the first year, courses now explore civil and common law concepts in close comparison. Students analyse and critically evaluate the two traditions, their histories, and their social, political, and cultural contexts. Philosophy and comparative law are incorporated into the curriculum in a way similar to how graduate law degrees are delivered at many universities.
[edit] Graduate Programs
The Faculty of Law offers the LL.M. (Master of Laws) and D.C.L. (Doctor of Civil Law) degrees through two institutes: the Institute of Comparative Law, and the Institute of Air and Space Law. While students must undertake their graduate degrees through one of these two institutes, in practice a number of other research centres and institutes help focus many students' research, including an Institute for European Studies; Centre for Human Rights & Legal Pluralism; Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law; Centre for Intellectual Property Policy; and Centre for International Sustainable Development Law. Recently, McGill also began to offer a non-thesis LL.M. option. The majority of students in these programmes are not domestic students, and hail from a wide range of other countries.
[edit] Admission
Admission to both undergraduate and graduate programmes is competitive. At the undergraduate level, the Faculty receives nine times more applications[1] than the 170 available spaces in the first year class, an admission rate of 11-12%. The most selective top-tier U.S. law schools, by comparison, have admissions rates of 6-8%[2] and larger applicant pools. Because reading ability in French (largely self-assessed) is a requirement for admission -- a choice consistent with the Faculty's incorporation of French-language materials and Quebec civil law into its mandatory curriculum -- it is, however, difficult to compare these selectivity rates or applicant pools, since potential non-bilingual applicants or, alternatively, those uninterested in acquiring a mastery of the French language, are deterred from applying.
Undergraduate candidates are selected on what is referred to as a "holistic" basis. This means that, in addition to students' academic records, recommendations, work experience, graduate studies, experience abroad, community involvement and leadership skills are each given weight in admissions decisions; the relative weight given to each of these is not published, and probably varies on a candidate-to-candidate basis. The LSAT is not required for admission, but for those admitted who did take LSAT, the median LSAT score is 161.[3]. Canadian students of Aboriginal ancestry are actively recruited by the admissions office in an ongoing effort to increase enrollment from these groups across Canadian law faculties.
[edit] Costs
[edit] Tuition
In Quebec, university tuition is capped at rates relatively low compared to most Canadian provinces. The Faculty of Law has therefore become known among anglophone applicants, who are more likely to compare McGill to other English-language schools and less likely to compare it to other Quebec schools, for its low tuition rate and commitment to ensure access to legal education regardless of ability to pay. Approximate tuition and fees in 2005-6 were $3,036 for Quebec students, $5,951 for non-Quebec Canadians, and $13,082 for international students.[4] These are somewhat higher than other Quebec law faculties, but lower than virtually every other comparable institution in Canada.
[edit] Funding
The combination of Quebec's low tuition rates, which are regulated, and the Quebec government's level of postsecondary funding, felt by many to be chronically low and even incompatible with the decision to limit tuition rates, has led to sustained efforts by the Faculty administration to rely on individual philanthropists and alumni to remain competitive with peer institutions. The high-tech Nahum Gelber Law Library was almost entirely funded by alumni and friends of the Faculty. A multi-million dollar private endowment created in 2005 enabled the establishment of graduate fellowships in human rights scholarship. Still, the faculty's operating budget remains modest in comparison with its peer institutions in Canada and the United States.
[edit] Employment
Leading law offices from Canada (particularly Montreal and Toronto, but also Vancouver and other cities), the U.S. (primarily New York and Boston), and Europe (particularly London and Paris), and Asia (particularly Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo) employ many McGill law graduates. In 2005, McGill was one of a handful of leading law faculties (including Michigan, Yale, Columbia, Harvard, New York University, Geneva and Strasbourg) to be invited by the International Court of Justice to supply clerks to the Judges. Most students are fluent in both English and French -- some fluency in each language is an official requirement -- enhancing their candidacies for clerkships at the bilingual Supreme Court of Canada. Eight students were selected as Supreme Court of Canada Clerks in 2005, and similar numbers went to other appeals courts across Canada.
[edit] Renowned faculty members
- F.R. Scott (constitutional rights lawyer and civil libertarian)
- Irwin Cotler (human rights lawyer and former Canadian Minister of Justice)
- John Peters Humphrey, (founding Director of the United Nations Human Rights division and author of the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
- Stephen Toope (constitutional scholar, current President of the University of British Columbia)
[edit] External links
- McGill University Faculty of Law
- LSAC guide to McGill University Faculty of Law
- Canadian Lawyer magazine's 2005 ranking of Canadian Law Schools
[edit] References
"'A Noble Roster': One Hundred and Fifty Years of Law at McGill" (McGill University, 1999), by Ian C. Pilarczyk.
