Osgoode Hall Law School

Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, Canada’s largest English-language law school, is committed to setting the standard for excellence in legal education and legal scholarship. In the coming year, Osgoode expects to make two faculty appointments that will further enrich the strong and innovative teaching and research program and the diversity of the faculty. Subject to final budgetary and Osgoode Faculty Council approval, these appointments will be effective July 1, 2012.

In making these appointments, Osgoode Hall Law School wishes to sustain its commitment to a broad and innovative curriculum that responds to the changes in Canada’s social, economic, political, and intellectual environments and to enhance its long-standing involvement in interdisciplinary and theoretical teaching and scholarship. Appointment rank (assistant professor to full professor) is open. To these ends, the Law School will consider all individuals with exceptional records of academic accomplishment in the following areas of priority for the two appointments.

• (1) Private Law/Property – The focus of this recruitment category is, first of all, on the areas of property and trusts and, secondly, on the areas of contracts and restitution. Applications are encouraged from candidates who approach their private-law specialty or specialties, as well as private law as a whole, from a general theoretical framework such as that of law and economics. 
• (2) Dispute Resolution – This recruitment priority includes Legal Process, Civil Procedure, Alternative Dispute Resolution, the Administration of Justice, and Legal Ethics. The recruitment emphasis is on candidates who focus on the critical interrogation of a range of mechanisms to address and resolve disputes. There is significant crossover between this dispute-resolution priority and experiential learning as well as innovative and interactive pedagogy.
• (3) Aboriginal Law – Osgoode seeks to build on its long-standing preeminence in Aboriginal law research and teaching. The Law School also seeks to deepen its engagement with the Aboriginal community and to enhance support for and mentorship of Aboriginal students. A successful candidate should expect that Osgoode’s Intensive Program in Aboriginal Lands, Resources and Government may be one teaching responsibility.
• (4) Environmental Law – Osgoode has traditionally been a leader in environmental law studies, including through the pioneering joint Juris Doctor / Master in Environmental Studies degree established in 1974. A candidate is sought who can further strengthen the JD/MES and interdisciplinary research in this field, with a special interest in candidates who are grappling in their own research with one or more of the great global challenges – climate change, water scarcity, food systems challenges, oceanic fisheries collapse, and so on. 
• (5) Public International Law – Osgoode seeks an accomplished scholar whose emphasis is scholarship on general public international law, or an entry-level or emerging scholar who has great potential to emerge as a leading public international law generalist. Top candidates will have, or aspire to achieve in their future career, comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge of the state of public international law – producing scholarship that contributes to key debates about its general organizing principles, concepts and processes and to related theoretical inquiries. It will be a bonus if the leading candidate can also contribute to the development of clinical or related experiential teaching in sub-fields of public international law; another bonus would be European Union law expertise. 
• (6) Special Distinction – The category of “Special Distinction” primarily refers to "candidates who are nationally recognized as one of the top scholars in their selected field(s),” where the field or fields need not be one of the above-listed priorities.

Preference will be given to candidates who have doctoral degrees or doctoral studies in progress, but Osgoode is willing to consider candidates who have completed, or are completing LL.M. programs or have equivalent credentials. The category of “Special Distinction” primarily refers to "candidates who are nationally recognized as one of the top scholars in their selected field.”

Osgoode Hall Law School is committed to equality and diversity. The Law School has an Employment Equity Plan, which aims to ensure that our faculty is reflective of the four designated societal groups identified in the federal Employment Equity Act: women, visible minorities, Aboriginal persons, and persons with disabilities. The Law School welcomes applications from members of these groups and encourages candidates to self-identify in their initial applications (e.g. in cover letters). All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, in accordance with HRSDC regulations, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.

Interested individuals should send an application that identifies their areas of specialization and areas of competence in research and teaching, together with a curriculum vitae, copies of law and graduate transcripts, copies of sample publications, and three signed confidential letters of academic reference, to be received as soon as possible, and in any event no later than Friday, September 30, 2011 to: Amanda Wassermuhl, Secretary of the Faculty Recruitment Committee, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, e-mail: facultyrecruitment@osgoode.yorku.ca. Please note that electronic applications are strongly preferred, and hard copies will not be returned.

Applicants who currently hold faculty positions are invited to contact Professor Craig Scott, Chair, Faculty Recruitment Committee at cscott@osgoode.yorku.ca or Lorne Sossin, Dean at lawdean@osgoode.yorku.ca.