| University of Ottawa Law School | |
| Motto | Deus Scientiarum Dominus Est |
|---|---|
| Established | 1953 |
| School type | Public |
| Parent endowment | $128.4 Million[1] |
| Dean | Bruce Feldthusen, S.J.D. (Michigan) (common law section), Sébastien Grammond, D.Phil (Oxford) (civil law section) |
| Location | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
| Enrollment | 1300 |
| Faculty | 105(full-time professors) |
| Annual tuition | $12,200.00 (common law), $7,900.00 (civil) |
| Website | www.commonlaw.uottawa.ca, www.droitcivil.uottawa.ca |
The University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, sometimes colloquially known as U of O Law, is the law school of the University of Ottawa, located in Ottawa, Ontario. The University of Ottawa Law School is one of Canada's most influential, having produced lawyers throughout French and English Canada since the 1950s. It is the largest law faculty in Canada and is divided into two sections: a civil law and a common law section. The faculty is very highly rated and maintains close links with the legal community in both Quebec, Ontario and abroad. The Law School is especially well regarded in the fields of : international Law, Law and Technology, Environmental law, Aboriginal Law, Human Rights Law, Labour Law, Linguistic Law, Public Law, Fiscal Law and Social Justice. The faculty of law is also home to (2) highly respected bilingual law journals, one produced by the civil law section (Revue Générale de Droit) and the other produced by the common law section (Ottawa Law Review)
Established by former Chief Justice Gerald Fauteux, the faculty and has been conferring degrees since the 1950s and often emphasizes that its location in close proximity to federal government agencies, courts, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Parliament of Canada, international organizations, foreign embassies and large law firms in city centre offers a significant advantage in the study of law. In 2003, the common law section celebrated the 50th anniversary of its English program and the 30th anniversary of its French program.
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Maclean’s released its first annual law school ranking on September 13, 2007. In the evaluation, Ottawa’s Faculty of Law placed first in the “National Reach” category, making it the most diversified program in the country. Maclean's ranked the common law program in fourth place overall. “We do well on Bay Street and everywhere else,” states Dean Daniel Gervais, “and we are proud of the fact that our students often choose alternative career paths.” In addition, Canadian Lawyer ranked the school as 5th-best in the country. More recently, in their 2009 Knights Schools report, the Corporate Knights business magazine ranked the University of Ottawa Common Law Section as the 3rd best program in the country (out of 21). The civil law faculty was ranked 2nd in Canada and is ranked 1st for Supreme Court Clerkships and National Reach. Furthermore, in the 2009 Law School Student Survey which ranks student satisfaction, the Faculty of law was ranked amongst the best, an overwhelming 97% of students say they would choose the Ottawa law school all over again if they had a choice.
The law school was created in 1953 on the initiative of Gerald Fauteux, former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (and who the law school's building, Fauteux Hall, built in 1973, is named after). It began as an exclusively civil law faculty, designed to train lawyers who would enter the Quebec legal system, particularly in order to practice in the Outaouais region just across the Ottawa River from Ottawa. In 1957, the faculty began training students in the common law as well; the two sections were then divided, with each keeping its own program, faculties and deans. Graduate programs were introduced that same year by the civil law section; it was not until 1981 that the common law section began offering them as well.[2]
Although the school has had since 1970 a system in which students from either the common or civil law sections could receive further training and accreditation in the other, it was not until 1994 that this system was formalized into the National Program. In doing so, the faculty became only the second law faculty in Canada, after McGill University's law school to offer bi-juridicial training in both the common law and civil law, the two formally recognized legal systems in Canada.
During the 2006 fall semester, the university's president Gilles Patry announced that Fauteux Hall would undergo extensive renovations, slated to begin in 2009.
In the common law section, most students who enter are expected to have completed a three-to-four year undergraduate program; in the civil law section, it is only necessary for a student applying from Quebec to have obtained a Diploma of Collegial Studies (DEC) before applying. Acceptance to the common law program in particular is highly competitive; students generally have an A average and a very high LSAT score when being considered for admission; however, the program also claims a more holistic admissions process, taking into account a variety of factors including work experience, prior education, and other circumstances that may make one's application exceptional.[3] According to the Law Faculty's website, there were 3495 applications for 200 first year common law places in 2007. The civil law section's requirements are generally considered to be less stringent; a B+ average or so, for example, if one is applying from a Quebec university. If a student is applying directly from CEGEP, however, the requirements are considerably higher.[4]
Generally the French-language common law section admits up to 60 new students per year, while the English-language section admits up to 250 new students. The civil law section (French-language only) typically admits around 150.
The language of instruction depends on the faculty; while the civil law section is instructed entirely in French, the common law section is available in both English and French, and students can take classes in both languages. In compliance with university policy, all written work can be submitted in either language with the exception of the French Common Law program in which all written and oral work must however be submitted in French.
Students graduating in the common law section receive the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree, while students in civil law receive the Bachelor of Civil Law (LL.L) degree. On May 3, 2010, the Senate of the University approved a motion to change the designation of the Common Law degree from LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) to J.D. (Juris Doctor) [6]. A new elite program, Programme du Droit Canadien (PDC), was recently created that allows eighteen exceptional students to earn an LL.B and an LL.L simultaneously in three years. The National Program allows students in both faculties to complete the other's degree as well in a total of four years (after completion of a civil law degree, for example, students can take an extra year to complete the common law requirements and thus have both degrees, and vice versa). The school also offers several other joint programs, including:
In addition to the aforementioned programs, graduate work, leading to the Master of Laws (LL.M) and Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degrees, is offered by both sections.
Tuition at the University of Ottawa's law school varies according to the program being studied. Students enrolled in the civil law program pay the lowest, with the tuition rates 2007-2008 set at $6,779.00; this stands in contrast to the common law program, where annual tuition rates for incoming 2007-2008 students are $10,310.98. Students in the National Program pay $10,077.70 for their extra year of study.[5] Students enrolled in the joint LL.B./J.D. program with an American law school pay what the University of Ottawa has termed "regular Canadian law student rates during the entire program," presumably meaning the regular common law tuition fees at the school.[6]
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