Faculty
Since 1949, when Caesar Wright became Dean of the modern Faculty of Law, the law school has been home to many of Canada’s great legal academics and scholars. The law school continues to attract scholars and teachers who are known for their unwavering commitment to the study of law and who are widely respected as leaders in their fields.
At its inception, the law school’s original teaching complement was just eight full-time law teachers and 17 part-time or special lecturers. Great legal minds such as John Willis, Bora Laskin, Jim Milner, Wolfgang Friedmann and Albert Abel lent a special character and intellectual tradition to the law school which has endured to the present day.
Over the last half century the law school has been enriched by outstanding new scholars who have chosen to make the University of Toronto their home.
In recent years, the Faculty has experienced tremendous growth, adding over 20 new professors to its ranks. There is arguably no other law school in the world which has grown as rapidly, and today the Faculty boasts over 50 full-time faculty, approximately 60 adjunct faculty and 15-25 distinguished visiting faculty.
This expansion has created a student-faculty ratio of 10:1, one of the best in North America.
Rigorous Scholarship
Our ambition is to make major contributions to scholarly and general debates, often by challenging perceived wisdom, and, in so doing, transforming understandings of the idea of law. To that end, the Faculty’s scholars enjoy an international reputation for research excellence in wide-reaching areas of law.
There is a strong and shared commitment to this scholarly enterprise, and to conducting this enterprise against the highest international standards. Faculty work addresses important contemporary questions and dilemmas of law at their most foundational level.
The Faculty’s success in shaping and informing contemporary debate is demonstrated in the numerous journals that have published their work. The law school enjoys the strongest international reputation of any Canadian law faculty, publishing widely in top law journals of Canada, Great Britain and the United States. View recent faculty publications.
Our faculty's excellence is also recognized by the prestigious prizes and fellowships they are awarded.
Inter-Disciplinary Study
Faculty members are engaged in both traditional scholarship and theoretical and inter-disciplinary study, creating an intellectually vibrant and highly energetic environment. Few law schools can match this cross-disciplinary sophistication of our program which is reflected in the curriculum, teaching approach, and research.
Over a third of our faculty members are cross-appointed to other faculties, departments and centres at the University, including:
- political science
- economics
- sociology
- management
- criminology
- philosophy
- industrial relations
- medicine
- women's studies
Adjunct Faculty
While the heart of the curriculum is developed and delivered by full-time academics, the program is enriched by adjunct instructors who provide students with valuable insights into the rigours and pleasures of various legal careers.
The law school’s proximity to the courts and Toronto’s commercial core make it possible for leading members of the bar, bench and business community to participate frequently and in a meaningful way in the Faculty’s academic and social life.
Whether as moot court judges, sponsors of student activities, workshop participants, mentors or teachers, adjunct faculty are experts in a particular area and bring exceptional skills and experience as advocates, negotiators, drafters, policy-makers or adjudicators to the courses they teach. Students learn technical skills and gain confidence in their abilities after working with adjunct teachers.
See a list of current adjunct faculty.
Distinguished Visiting Faculty
First introduced in 1986, the visiting professors program is among the most distinctive aspects of the curriculum. The Faculty welcomes for several weeks at the beginning of each term some of the world’s outstanding legal scholars and law teachers.
During this two- or three-week period, students and faculty engage with our visitors in lively and stimulating debate and discussion during classes, workshops, and in other less formal situations. The “intensive courses,” as they are known, allow upper-year students to take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn from leading legal academics.
See our list of distinguished visiting faculty.
Legal Workshops and Seminars
 Our faculty participate in a community of leading international scholars concerned with law. As part of this community, they organize workshop and seminar series to bring some of the world’s most prominent legal scholars to our school, while our faculty participates in counterpart workshops at Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Stanford, Virginia, Michigan, Oxford, Cambridge and elsewhere.
Our faculty members organize the following workshops and seminars:
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