Canadian Lawyer 4Students

C A N A D I A N L a w y e r 4 s t u d e n t s F a l l 2 0 1 4 27 law or Quebec law, there are multiple textbooks that you can rely on and the structure of your course is pretty much given," says Jutras. But at a school that's embraced transsystemic law, a profes- sor will bring together multiple legal traditions to bear on every subject and will have to find sources from around the world. "In a sense that freedom be- comes both a challenge and a burden," says Jutras. "ose questions mean that pedagogy and the content of the courses and how the courses are structured is a constant question for my colleagues. And that means that they have to be re- ally committed to this." But should law schools really be emulating McGill at all? Arthurs thinks they should, but not by copying the transsystemic curriculum. "I don't particularly think McGill should send missionaries and establish colonies in France or Saskatchewan." Instead, ac- cording to Arthurs, the truly radical aspect of what McGill has done lies less in the content of its curriculum, but instead how it got there. "What they should emulate is sitting down, figuring out where their intellectual strengths lie," he says. Jutras agrees. "I wouldn't really nec- essarily aspire to see all Canadian law schools doing what we're doing," he says. "I think each law school in Can- ada brings something really valuable and is doing it really well. is is our niche, this is something we do really well." Instead, universities must do seri- ous soul searching. McGill's history as an anglophone institution in a fran- cophone province, in a country with two systems of law, led it to the trans- systemic program. Other universities must figure out the advantages their own history and geopolitical circum- stances give them and exploit them. Jutras points to the University of Victo- ria, now headed by Jeremy Webber, an alumnus of McGill's 1999 transition, as a university that's doing the right thing. "ey're looking at a program that will achieve some kind of integration of aboriginal legal perspectives and non- aboriginal perspectives in ways again that resemble some of our pedagogical and institutional assumptions." Arthurs, however, thinks any sort of specialization is becoming more of a challenge today than when McGill did it in 1999. "One challenge that McGill didn't face was that the Federation of Law Societies has for the first time ever laid down requirements if a law school wants its degree to be recognized so its students gain admission to the bars of the various provinces, they now have to ensure their students study certain subjects and acquire what the federa- tion calls competencies," he says. "It's a nonsense list, it's a counterproductive exercise, and it will inhibit people doing what I think they should do and what McGill did." But Arthurs urges universities to fol- low McGill's example nonetheless. "I think the deliberateness, the care with which McGill did what it did, is what wants emulating rather than having a curriculum that looks like McGill's cur- riculum." ■ Rely on this well-organized, straightforward primer for a refresher in tort law and practice in Canada. Canadian Tort Law in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition covers the key principles and relevant issues, explains how the various tort law concepts apply in practice, and highlights the leading decisions in the area. New in this edition • New commentary and case law including: R. v. Imperial Tobacco Ltd., Jones v. Tsige, Clements v. Clements, Grant v. Torstar, Alleslev-Krofchak v. Valcom Ltd. • Recent developments relevant to liability for negligent misrepresentation Find fast answers on tort law issues and practice New Edition Canadian Tort Law in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition Margaret Kerr, JoAnn Kurtz and Laurence M. Olivo Available risk-free for 30 days Order online: www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 Order # 986267-65203 $93 Softcover approx. 140 pages April 2014 978-0-7798-6267-2 Shipping and handling are extra. Price subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes.

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