| University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Sapere Aude (Dare to be Wise) |
| Established | 1785 (Saint John) |
| Type | Public |
| Chancellor | Richard Currie |
| President | John McLaughlin |
| Dean | Ian Peach |
| Admin. staff | 20 faculty |
| Students | 230 (Fredericton) |
| Location | Fredericton, NB, Canada |
| Campus | Urban |
| Sports teams | UNB Varsity Reds (Fredericton), Seawolves (Saint John) |
| Affiliations | AUCC, IAU, CIS, CVU, ACU, CUSID, AUS |
| Website | http://law.unb.ca |
The University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law is a Canadian law school which offers a bachelor of laws degree (LL.B.). It is located in New Brunswick's capital city, Fredericton, and is one of two law schools located in the province (the other being a French language common-law school, La Faculté de droit de l'Université de Moncton). The current Dean of the Faculty is Ian Peach. Former Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Gerard V. La Forest is the Distinguished Legal Scholar in Residence.
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With a total student body of approximately 230 and about 20 full-time professors/instructors, the school ranks among the top Canadian law schools (based on surveys of over 500 lawyers and former law students [1]).
The second-oldest common law school in the Commonwealth, the institution relishes its small size. With only 80 first year students, a close-knit community forms among the students and professors/instructors.
In 1892 the King's College Law School was established in Saint John, New Brunswick in the Provincial Building at the instersection of Princess Street and Canterbury Street in the city's central business district. This building hosted the offices of various Government of New Brunswick civil servants as well as the Saint John Law Society. The parent institution of the King's College Law School was King's College which was located at that time in Windsor, Nova Scotia; Windsor, being a port located on the Bay of Fundy developed strong commercial connections with Saint John during the 19th century.[1]
Beginning in 1912, the King's College Law School entered into a partnership with the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton whereby undergraduates in arts at UNB were permitted to take first-year law studies at the UNB campus in Fredericton.[1]
A disastrous fire occurred on the King's College campus in Windsor on February 3, 1920, placing the future of the institution in doubt. An offer by the Carnegie Foundation to fund moving King's College from Windsor to Halifax where it would be located adjacent to and integrated with Dalhousie University was accepted in 1922; this resulted in King's College being renamed as the University of King's College.[1]
These events saw various suggestions made as to the future of the orphaned King's College Law School located in Saint John. One option was for the law school to continue to operate in New Brunswick either independently or as a school of the proposed new University of King's College. The latter option proved difficult, given the existence of the Dalhousie University Faculty of Law and the fact that the University of King's College was to have considerable integration with Dalhousie.[1]
Instead, a third option was undertaken in 1923 where the King's College Law School became the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law. The integration into UNB saw the law school continue to operate in Saint John much as before. The earlier link made with UNB in 1912 for first year law students undertaking their studies in Fredericton also continued.[1]
In 1948 the newly installed Chancellor of the University of New Brunswick, Lord Beaverbrook, who had registered at the King's College Law School in the 1890s but did not attend the institution, was shocked at the condition of the instructional space used by the law school in Saint John's Provincial Building. Lord Beavrbrook arranged to purchase two buildings on Germain Street to move the school into new facilities; he had also purchased the residence of the late F.P. Starr on Coburg Street with the intention of creating a joint-use reception centre for the law school and Saint John City Council, however, this plan was subsequently scrapped.[2]
Prior to 1950 the UNB Faculty of Law only had one professor of law at its campus in downtown Saint John with the majority of instruction being provided by members of the Court of Queen's Bench of New Brunswick or practising barristers. In 1950 two professors of law were appointed. In 1953 the law school moved from the Provincial Building to Beaverbrook House on Carleton Street which also saw the creation of the faculty's dedicated law library; this year also saw the appointment of the first full-time dean of law. In 1956 an additional professor of law was appointed.[1]
In 1959 the faculty moved from Saint John to Fredericton where it was located in Summerville House, the residence on Waterloo Row having been purchased in 1948 by Lord Beaverbrook as his Fredericton residence before donating it to UNB in the late 1950s. The UNB Faculty of Law remained at Summerville House for until the October 1968 opening of Ludlow Hall, located at the intersection of Dineen Drive and Kings College Road on the university's College Hill campus.[1][3][4]
According to the book "Quiet Campus" by Dr Peter McGahan of UNBSJ, the Saint John Law School moved from Saint John as a result of a report on the status of legal education in Canada by Professor Cohen from McGill University. In his report, he stated that the Saint John Law School was only "nominally a faculty of UNB". This prompted the two Saint John Law Professors, McAllister and Ryan to encourage Lord Beaverbrook (Max Atkin), as Chancellor, and UNB President Colin B McKay of Rothesay, NB, to permanently move the Saint John Law School to the UNB Fredericton campus, despite the Dean's objections.
The 1960s were a period of post-secondary education reform throughout New Brunswick and Saint John did not fare well, having lost all of its professional programs in a push to centralize them at UNB Fredericton, including the Teachers College, the Nursing School, as well as Engineering and Architecture classes. During this same period, the Irish Roman Catholic community in the town of Chatham saw its Catholic liberal arts institution, St. Thomas University move to Fredericton under McKay's direction.
Graduates include Provincial and Federal judges, members of the Supreme Court of Canada, members of the provincial and federal government, as well as business and industry leaders.
Located in Ludlow Hall, on the University of New Brunswick's Fredericton campus, the Faculty is home to the Gerard V. La Forest Law Library and the UNB Law Journal.
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