In the Fall, newly admitted law students will experience first-hand major innovations to the first year curriculum at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, including improvements that are the first of their kind in North America.
The new curriculum will prepare students to meet the challenges of legal practice by giving them a deeper understanding of administrative law, professionalism and ethics, and international perspectives. It will also create additional opportunities for students to hone their legal writing skills. The revamped curriculum is the product of a two-year consultation and research-based review of the first year program, including analysis of 17 comparator law schools, which was led by Associate Dean Sujit Choudhry. The recommendations of the Choudhry Committee were overwhelmingly passed by the law school's governing body in April 2009. (Click here for the Choudhry Report (PDF)).
Perhaps the most innovative reform is the requirement for students to complete Administrative Law in the first year of their legal studies. According to Associate Dean Choudhry: "Our core first year curriculum is modeled after the predominantly private law courses devised by Dean Langdell of Harvard more than a century ago. Moving Constitutional Law into the first year program two decades ago was a major innovation. With the transfer of Administrative Law into the first year of law school, our program will now more appropriately reflect the importance of regulatory state in Canadian society. This is a first in North America and an innovative solution to a problem that has bedeviled law school curricula in the common law world for decades."
Another significant innovation is the inclusion of a course in Legal Process, Ethics and Professionalism. The course will focus on the foundations of the legal system, dispute resolution, and access to justice, and will incorporate an intensive week on professionalism delivered by esteemed members of the bar and judiciary. According to Dean Moran: "The new curriculum will equip our students to deal with the complexities of practice. Regulatory bodies have recently identified a need to formally expose students to the importance of professionalism from the very beginning of their legal career, and our new curriculum does just that." Moreover, the new curriculum will also expose students to the global legal order by requiring them to complete a course in international, comparative or transnational law prior to graduation.
The Faculty's new curriculum draws upon current research on best practices in teaching by creating the opportunity for students to take one of their core courses in a mid-sized section of approximately 45 students. The focus in the mid-sized section will be on providing opportunities for analytical writing, providing interim feedback, and diversifying evaluation beyond the 100 percent final exam. The Faculty's small group program, which allows students to take one of their core courses in a seminar format of no more than 20 students and which requires extensive legal writing, will be maintained.
