Curricular Streams at Osgoode Hall Law School
In 2001-02, Osgoode Hall Law School introduced a significant innovation in the upper-year curriculum. Students have the opportunity to concentrate their studies in a particular subject area of the curriculum. Three curricular streams are currently offered: International, Comparative and Transnational Law; Litigation, Dispute Resolution and the Administration of Justice; and Tax Law. Additional streams will be introduced in future years. It is not imagined that all, or even most, students will elect to enrol in one of the streams being offered this year. All students, whether enrolled in a stream or not, will have equal access to all courses offered in the upper-year curriculum. However, those students with a particular interest in one of the subject areas covered by the offered streams may wish to consider enrolling.
Osgoode Hall Law School has a rich, diverse and fully elective
upper-year curriculum. Within this curriculum, students are generally
able to plan a course of studies that enables them to pursue their
special interests, that is consistent with their individual learning
styles, and that ensures they obtain an excellent and comprehensive
legal education. The purpose of organizing some of the upper-year
courses into streams is to provide more structure to aspects of
the upper-year curriculum and to allow certain curriculum goals
to be pursued more systematically. By providing an organized sequence
of courses in particular subject areas, the curricular streams
will challenge students to undertake truly advanced work on difficult
and complex legal problems. This will enable students to build
cumulatively on the skills and knowledge they have acquired in
other law school courses, to develop sufficient expertise in the
subject area that they can confidently challenge underlying concepts
and assumptions, and to collaborate intellectually in the subject
area with scholars, public policy analysts and practitioners.
Another purpose of the curricular streams is to ensure that within
a coherent course of studies students are exposed to the significant
theories, principles, conceptual frameworks and tools of policy
analysis needed for the serious study of the law and for the full
range of important lawyering skills such as problem solving, legal
analysis and reasoning, legal research, factual investigation,
communication skills, and recognizing and resolving problems of
professional responsibility. Also, a capstone course in each curricular
stream will enable students to engage in a major exercise of research
and writing that will consolidate, deepen and enrich their understanding
of the law.
The First Three Curricular Streams
- The International, Comparative, and Transnational Law Program
- The Program in Litigation, Dispute Resolution, and the Administration of Justice
- The Tax Law Program
More detailed information on each of these programs can be found by following these links:
- http://www.osgoode.yorku.ca/ict-program
- http://www.osgoode.yorku.ca/lda-program
- http://www.osgoode.yorku.ca/tax-Program
It is important to note that these three programs represent only a few of Osgoode Hall’s areas of special strength. Additional streams will be introduced in future years. As well, students will continue to enjoy full access to the existing unstreamed – but rich – curriculum. Further, there is no expectation that students must enrol in a curricular stream.
Balanced within a coherent program structure, flexibility will be a hallmark of Osgoode Hall curricular streams. For example, program credits may be received for relevant coursework in non-program courses and some program requirements may be fulfilled as part of a study abroad experience. Also, each program leaves at least half a student’s upper-year credits available for taking non-program courses, so as to ensure a comprehensive legal education.
The
International, Comparative and Transnational Law Program ["ICT Program"]
Convenor–Professor
Craig Scott
The world is changing rapidly and, with it, the nature of governance
and the practice of law. Osgoode is well positioned to respond to
these changes, both through curriculum offerings available to all
students and through the specialized study represented by the ICT
Program. There is a large range of courses taught in the international,
comparative and transnational field in any given year at Osgoode,
both by regular faculty and by visitors. Over half of Osgoode’s
full-time faculty members are currently working on some aspect of
international, comparative and transnational law, including the
interaction of various forces of globalization with the development
of domestic law.
Program
in Litigation, Dispute Resolution and the Administration of Justice (“LDA Program”)
Convenor
– Professor Janet Walker
Osgoode was the pioneer law school to forge innovative learning
opportunities that combine scholarly inquiry and training in the
practice of law, and that marry critical legal education with clinical
legal education. The LDA Program builds on this tradition and the
faculty strengths in this area in this curricular stream, which
focuses on five key elements of learning: the law of evidence, alternative
dispute resolution, witness examination, written advocacy, and doctrinal
study and critical reflection on dispute resolution and the justice
system. The Program begins with the foundational knowledge and skills
that students acquire in the first year Civil Procedure I and Legal
Research and Writing courses, and goes on to ensure that each graduating
student has benefited from the basic learning necessary to thrive
in a career in dispute resolution. This program also extends beyond
private law litigation and dispute resolution to public law dispute
resolution, including advocacy in the criminal law and administrative
law contexts. Further, it extends to related subjects in the fields
of professional responsibility and the operation of the justice
system.
The
Tax Law Program [“Tax Program”]
Convenor
– Professor Neil Brooks
The Tax Program reflects a special strength of Osgoode. The tax
and related curriculum is rich and diverse. Three full-time faculty
members devote their energies primarily to teaching and researching
tax law and related public policy issues. The program also draws
upon expert adjunct faculty members with a wide variety of experiences.
The development of skills in statutory interpretation and analysis,
critical thinking, problem-solving, communicating, analyzing public
policy, resolving professional ethical problems, and planning will
be emphasized throughout the program. Therefore, the Tax Program
will be of interest not only to students who might be considering
a career relating to the practice of tax law but also more generally
to those interested in developing these skills in the context of
tax law.
Further Information
For more detailed information on these three programs, go to
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