The first year course schedule is designed to build organically on your growing knowledge over the course of the academic year. The seven core courses are:

• Ethical Lawyering in a Global Community
• Legal Process
• State and Citizen: Canadian Public and Constitutional Law
• Torts
• Contracts
• Criminal Law
• Property Law

First Year Schedule

Current sessional dates, including reading weeks and statutory holidays, can be found here.

Course Descriptions

Ethical Lawyering in a Global Community

This course integrates legal ethics and professionalism with an introduction to the international, comparative, and transnational dimensions of contemporary Canadian law and lawyering.  It is delivered in two segments, commencing with one week at the start of the fall semester, and concluding with a two-week intensive at the beginning of the winter semester.   

Full Year Courses

Legal Process

This full-year course deals with processes and skills related to the resolution of civil disputes.  It includes an introduction to the theory and practice of negotiation and mediation, along with the goals and procedural mechanisms involved with the court process. Legal Process is a skills-oriented course in which legal research and writing is taught through case studies and exercises that draw on the law and practice of dispute resolution.  Students learn how to conduct legal research and how to utilize and communicate their findings in a variety of written and oral forms.

State and Citizen: Canadian Public and Constitutional Law

This full-year course addresses the relationship between the state, the individual, and communities.  How does law shape these relationships, and how do these relationships create or shape law?  The course introduces students to basic architecture of the Canadian legal system including the processes by which statutes and regulations come into being; the principle of the rule of law; the role of the judiciary and judicial review of legislation and government actions; statutory interpretation; the creation and amendment of the Constitution; the division of powers in a federal system of government; the relationship and roles of different branches of government; the relationship between Aboriginal peoples/nations and the Canadian state; and the entrenchment of rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Single Semester Courses

Torts

The law of torts is primarily concerned with compensation for injury or loss caused by another person’s fault.  Students study torts in the fall term.

Contracts

This is an introductory survey of the law relating to the judicial enforcement of promises.  Of primary concern are the problems associated with the formation and enforcement of commercial and consumer transactions such as agreements to buy and sell goods or supply services.  Contract law is taught in the fall term.

Criminal Law

This course examines the general principles of liability under the criminal law and various procedural matters relating to the trial of an accused person.  It provides a general introduction to the criminal process and notions of criminal procedure, evidence and sentencing.  Students study criminal law in the fall term.

Property Law

Students are introduced to the basic principles of property law in a context that permits a critical examination of law.  Students develop an understanding of the unique historical role that property law has played in the development of our legal and economic systems.  Property law is taught in the winter term.