Osgoode Hall Law School

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Osgoode Hall Law School
Motto	Per Jus Ad Justitiam
Motto in English	Through law to justice
Established	1889
Type	Public
Dean	Lorne Sossin
Academic staff	141 (51 F/T, 90 adjunct)
Undergraduates	867
Postgraduates	107
Location	Toronto, ON, Canada
Campus	Urban/Suburban
Sports teams	Owls
Website	osgoode.yorku.ca

Osgoode Hall Law School is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the professional faculties at York University. Named after the first Chief Justice of Ontario, William Osgoode, the law school was established by The Law Society of Upper Canada in 1889. Osgoode Hall Law School is consistently ranked as one of the top law schools in Canada by Maclean's Magazine, ranking second among common-law schools in 2011.^{[1] [2] [3]}

The school was at the centre of the debates over the principles of modern legal education in the 1950s. Osgoode Hall Law School provided many of the founding members of the bar in the prairie provinces. Today, the law school offers a professional degree in law that is accepted for bar admission in every province in Canada with the exception of Quebec, as well as the American States of Massachusetts and New York. Osgoode has three joint degree programs, as well as Canada's largest graduate program in law. Osgoode Hall Law School has adopted the Juris Doctor degree designation which has replaced their previous Bachelor of Laws designation.

The newly-renovated building which houses the law school, occasionally called "New Osgoode Hall".

The law school is home to the Law Reform Commission of Ontario, the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, the German Law Journal, and the largest law library in the Commonwealth. Osgoode Hall Law School students may participate in a number of clinical and intensive programs, including the Community and Legal Aid Services Program (CLASP), the Poverty Law Intensive at Parkdale Community Legal Services, the Criminal Law Intensive, the Innocence Project, and the Osgoode Business Clinic.^[4] According to the Official Guide to Canadian Law Schools, Osgoode Hall Law School has the most extensive range of clinical programs in Canada. The primary student government at Osgoode is the Legal and Literary Society.

Osgoode Hall Law School is particularly known for its leading role in the areas of constitutional law, the Charter and human rights, and international law. (Peter Hogg, Brian Slattery, Patrick J. Monahan, Jean-Gabriel Castel)

Some of the world's most important legal scholars teach at Osgoode, including Leslie Green who holds the University of Oxford's statutory Chair in Philosophy of Law. Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former judge at the Supreme Court of Canada, Louise Arbour taught at, and later became the associate dean of, Osgoode Hall Law School.

The current dean of the law school is Lorne Sossin.^[5] He succeeded Patrick J. Monahan. Monahan, in turn, succeeded Peter Hogg who is a leading Canadian constitutional expert and the author of Constitutional Law of Canada, the single most-cited book in decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada.

History

The first year class of Osgoode Hall Law School in 1944

For its first seven decades, Osgoode Hall Law School was located at Osgoode Hall at the corner of Queen Street and University Avenue near the University of Toronto. The law school was not affiliated with the University of Toronto since law schools at that time traditionally were not connected with a university. The Law Society of Upper Canada maintained control of professional legal education in Ontario until 1957. In 1969, after a decision by the Ontario Ministry of Education requiring law schools to be affiliated with a university, the Osgoode Hall Law School relocated to New Osgoode Hall, on the campus of York University.

The structures at Queen and University (the earliest dating from 1832) are still known as Osgoode Hall, but are commonly referred to as "Old Osgoode Hall". They remain the headquarters of the Law Society of Upper Canada and house the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

The law school is responsible for numerous firsts in legal education in Canada. Osgoode was the first law school to introduce curricular streams in 2001, giving a student the opportunity to graduate with a concentration in a particular area of law, namely International, Litigation or Tax. Osgoode was the first law school to establish a combined law and business degree. Osgoode was the first law school to establish a combined law and environmental studies degree. Osgoode was the first law school to establish a student-staffed community legal services clinic (Parkdale Community Legal Services, in 1972). Osgoode was the first law school to develop innovative intensive programs and clinical teaching programs.^{[citation needed]} In 2007 Osgoode's Intensive Program in Aboriginal Lands, Resources and Governance won the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) Award for "Outstanding Program" in recognition of "high quality" of education. (http://www.yorku.ca/mediar/archive/Release.asp?Release=1287)

Renovation project

Osgoode Hall Law School has the largest law library in the Commonwealth.

In May 2007, Dean Monahan announced plans for an extensive renovation and extension of Osgoode Hall Law School's current premises. The project involves a renovation of the existing building, and addition of an additional wing.

Construction of the renovated building began in the summer of 2009. When completed the new building, designed by architect Jack Diamond, will introduce natural light to classrooms, lecture theatres, and social spaces. It will showcase classroom windows and a multi-story atrium that will serve as the living room or common area for the law school, uniting student space, faculty offices and the library. The library will be revamped to emphasize comfortable work-spaces, while maintaining its extensive holdings. Staircases will be removed to provide more "universal" accessibility, and student spaces, such as the cafeteria and student-run "Junior Common Room" will be thoroughly upgraded and relocated to prominent areas within the facility.

In recognition of his $2.5 million gift to The Building Osgoode Campaign, the building that houses Osgoode Hall Law School on the York University campus will be named the Ignat Kaneff Building.

Academics

In 2007, teams from Osgoode Hall Law School won several major mooting competitions in Canada.^[6] During this same year they went on to win the Sopinka Cup, to be honoured by the American Trial Lawyer's Association for their excellence, and to win all three of the 1st prizes at the US Mediation Tournament.^[7]

Clinical programs

Osgoode is well known for the breadth of its clinical programs, which include well known clinics such as the Innocence Project and the Community and Legal Aid Services Programme (CLASP). Other clinics include the Osgoode Business Clinic, the Advanced Business Clinic, the Aboriginal clinic, the Mediation Clinic, the Poverty Law clinic at Parkdale, and several more.

Admissions

Admissions to Osgoode is extremely competitive, with over 3,000 applicants competing for a place in Osgoode's first year class of 290 students in 2012. The median undergraduate GPA of accepted students is 3.7 (about 84%), and the median LSAT score is 162 (85th percentile).^[8] Moreover, Osgoode Hall has recently altered its admissions process to a more holistic system, similar to that employed at McGill University Faculty of Law. Holistic admissions processes take into account both Undergraduate GPA and LSAT scores, as well as "other relevant criteria" such as graduate degrees, work experience, and difficulty of prior academic studies.^[9] While it is possible to be admitted with only three years of undergraduate university study, in practice the majority of successful candidates arrive to first year law at Osgoode already possessing one or more degrees.

Joint degrees

Osgoode Hall Law School offers a joint M.B.A./J.D..^[10] program with the Schulich School of Business at York University, a combined J.D. and Master of Environmental Studies degree, and a combined J.D. and Master of Arts in Philosophy degree.

Osgoode Hall Law School also offers the Osgoode/NYU Juris Doctor program with New York University School of Law. Both schools offer joint-degree programs where students can earn an American J.D. (ABA-Approved) and Canadian J.D. in four years, spending two years at each institution.^[11] Osgoode and NYU have also recently introduced an Osgoode J.D./NYU LL.M. program, whereby a student can obtain both degrees in just three and a half years instead of the four years it would normally take.^[12]

Osgoode is also one of the few law schools to offer the possibility of graduating with both an English Canadian J.D. and a Quebec LL.L. degree, enabling graduates to practice in the province of Quebec and providing graduates of this program with training in the Civil Law System in addition to common law. This program is offered in conjunction with the law school at the Université de Montréal.

Academic graduate programs

Osgoode is home to the largest academic Graduate Program in Law in Canada. Osgoode also hosts the only Professional Development Program in Canada, whose courses are taught at the satellite campus located at the Osgoode Professional Development Centre at 1 Dundas Street West in downtown Toronto. A variety of LL.M. and academic Ph.D. degrees in law are available.

Notable alumni

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Supreme Court of Canada justices

• John Robert Cartwright, former Chief Justice
• Peter Cory, former Puisne Judge and former Chancellor of York University
• Frank Joseph Hughes, former Puisne Judge
• Wilfred Judson, former Puisne Judge
• Andromache Karakatsanis, current Puisne Judge
• Patrick Kerwin, former Chief Justice
• Bora Laskin, former Chief Justice
• Wishart Spence, former Puisne Judge

Other judges

• Kim Carter, former Chief Military Judge of the Canadian Forces, now Ombudsman of British Columbia
• Charles Dubin, former Chief Justice of Ontario
• Harry S. Laforme, Ontario Court of Appeal Judge, head of the Aboriginal Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
• Patrick LeSage, former Chief Justice of Ontario
• Allen Linden, Federal Court of Appeal judge
• Goldwyn Arthur Martin, QC, former Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, prominent criminal law scholar
• Roy McMurtry, former Chief Justice of Ontario, current Chancellor of York University
• Dennis O'Connor, Ontario Court of Appeal judge and Associate Chief Justice of Ontario
• James O'Reilly, Federal Court Judge
• John Richard, current Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal
• Warren Winkler, current Chief Justice of Ontario

Others

• John Black Aird, former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Canadian Senator and founding partner of Aird & Berlis LLP
• Lincoln Alexander, 24th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
• Sir Edward Wentworth Beatty, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway
• Michael Bryant, former Attorney General, Ontario Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Government House Leader
• Donald Carrick, Olympic boxer, golf champion, former MP
• Carme Chacón, Minister of Defence for the present government of Spain
• Lionel Chevrier, former Attorney General of Canada
• Marshall A. Cohen, former President and CEO of Molson, member of the Trilateral Commission
• Deborah Coyne, prominent legal scholar
• Bill Davis, 18th Premier of Ontario
• George Drew, 14th Premier of Ontario
• Marlys Edwardh, highly-reputed Canadian constitutional lawyer, worked on the Maher Arar case
• Ward P.D. Elcock, former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
• Ernie Eves, 23rd Premier of Ontario
• J. S. Ewart QC, advocate of Canadian independence
• Gordon Fairweather, first Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission
• Jim Flaherty, federal Minister of Finance
• Leslie Frost, 16th Premier of Ontario
• Herb Gray, former Deputy Prime Minister and Solicitor General of Canada
• Edward Greenspan, highly-reputed Canadian barrister, Vice President of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association
• Hugh Guthrie, former Attorney General of Canada
• Barbara Hall, former mayor of Toronto, Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission
• Carol Hansell, Board of Directors, Bank of Canada
• Bill Hastings, former Chief Censor of New Zealand
• James C. Hathaway, scholar, author on international refugee law
• William Howard Hearst, 7th Premier of Ontario
• Ron Irwin, former federal cabinet minister, former Ambassador to Ireland
• William Kaplan, writer, former University of Ottawa professor
• James Kelleher, former member of the Senate of Canada
• William Lyon Mackenzie King, former longtime Prime Minister of Canada
• Peter Kormos, former Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations, House Leader for the Ontario NDP Caucus
• Faisal Kutty, lawyer, writer, human rights activist and academic teaching at Osgoode Hall Law School and at Valparaiso University
• Judy LaMarsh, former federal Cabinet Minister, writer, and broadcaster
• Floyd Laughren, former Ontario Minister of Finance and Deputy Premier of Ontario
• Jerry Levitan, Academy Award nominated filmmaker
• William Ross Macdonald, former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
• Mark MacGuigan, former Attorney General of Canada
• Gavin MacKenzie, Treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada
• Alexander Malcolm Manson, former Attorney General of British Columbia
• Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat and Chrysler Group, LLC
• Paul Martin Sr., longtime MP and Cabinet Minister
• John Matheson, former MP, retired Justice of Ontario, helped develop Canada's flag and the Order of Canada
• George Mcllraith, former acting Attorney General of Canada
• Arthur Meighen, former Prime Minister of Canada
• Willy Munyoki Mutunga, Chief Justice, Republic of Kenya
• Lisa Raitt, Canadian Minister of Labour, former Canadian Minister of Natural Resources
• William E. Raney, former Attorney General of Ontario and later Ontario Supreme Court Justice
• John Robarts, 17th Premier of Ontario
• Ted Rogers, President and CEO of Rogers Communications
• Ian Scott, former Attorney General of Ontario
• Greg Sorbara, former Ontario Minister of Finance
• Paula Todd, award-winning journalist formerly on TVO and currently host of The Verdict on CTV
• John Tory, former President and CEO of Rogers Communications, former Campaign Chair for former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
• David Tsubouchi, former Solicitor General of Ontario
• Peter Van Loan, current Minister of Public Safety in the Canadian House of Commons
• Paul C. Weiler, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Law School
• George Stanley White, former Speaker of the Canadian Senate
• David Young, former Attorney General of Ontario

See also

• List of law schools in Canada

References

External links

• Osgoode Hall Law School
• The Law Society of Upper Canada
• Obiter Dicta, Osgoode's student newspaper

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Coordinates: 43°46′15″N 79°30′16″W / 43.770699°N 79.504436°W / 43.770699; -79.504436