The McGill Faculty of Law is one of the professional graduate schools of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the oldest law school in Canada. 180 candidates are admitted for any given academic year. For the year 2021 class, the acceptance rate was 10%.QS World University Rankings by Subject 2016 – Law QS Top Universities, Retrieved 21 August 2017
Notable alumni include prime ministers John Abbott and Sir Wilfrid Laurier, thirteen Justices of the Supreme Court (Including the most recent appointments, Mahmud Jamal and Nicholas Kasirer), as well as Members of Parliament. Marc Miller, a current member of the Canadian House of Commons and a current minister of the Cabinet of Canada, is a graduate from the faculty.
Academics
Bachelor of Civil Law and Juris Doctor program The McGill Faculty of Law offers a unique combined Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) and Juris Doctor (JD) program. The BCL/JD program emphasizes a transsystemic and polyjural approach that integrates common law and civil law, sometimes within a single class. More recently, the faculty has incorporated Indigenous law into its curriculum in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's recommendations for Canadian law schools.
In 2016, the faculty reviewed its curriculum and added Integration Week: an introductory week of group work and lectures for first-year students. They also added two Focus Weeks—one in fall and one in winter—that allow students to take intensive one-week courses. In winter 2023, the first student seminar on Abolitionist practices and Transformative Justice was launched.
The duration of BCL/JD program is somewhat flexible: the program can be completed in 3, 3.5, or 4 years. Students who opt for a minor, major, or honours program generally require 4 years to complete their degree. Majors are offered in International Human Rights and Development and in Commercial Negotiation and Dispute Resolution.
The Faculty of Law, in collaboration with the Desautels Faculty of Management and the Faculty of Art's School of Social Work, offers joint programs that combine the BCL/JD program with either a Master of Business Administration (MBA) or a Master of Social Work (MSW). A joint program takes 4 to 5 years to complete.
The Faculty of Law's Admissions Office has an acceptance rate of 15.9%.
Master of Laws (LLM) The faculty offers four LLM programs for students: one general LLM program, and three specialized LLM programs in Air and Space Law, Environment, and Bioethics. Except for the LLM Bioethics program, all programs have thesis and non-thesis options. The non-thesis Master's of Law option prioritizes course work and can be completed in twelve months. The thesis option prioritizes research; it can be completed in sixteen to twenty-four months. Student in the LLM Bioethics program write a thesis.
Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) The faculty offers three DCL programs in General Law, Comparative Law, and Air and Space Law. Students generally complete the DCL program in 3 to 4 years.
Graduate certificates The faculty offers graduate certificates in Comparative Law and in Air and Space Law. Graduate certificates are awarded upon completing a set number of credits. Certificates are based on coursework, and no thesis is required.
History
The Faculty of Law was officially created in 1853, after a petition signed by young men studying law in Montreal was made to McGill in 1848. With the incoming class of 1969, the faculty added a stand-alone common law degree, suitable to the practice of law in other Canadian provinces, which could be taken individually or jointly with the traditional Civil Law curriculum. The joint degree was then referred to as the National Programme, and taught common law and civil law in separate courses, but combined their study in a year-long introductory "Foundations" course and in some upper-year seminars.R. Macdonald, "The National Law Program at McGill: Origins, Establishment, Prospects" Dalhousie Law Journal, 1990: 13: 211–363. In 1951, McGill inaugurated its first post-graduate law program with the creation of its Institute of Air & Space Law. The institute was founded by John Cobb Cooper, who had served as a senior official in Pan American World Airways, and the International Air Transport Association. Canada's only United Nations organ, the International Civil Aviation Organization, is also headquartered in Montreal.John Cobb Cooper
With the incoming class of 1999, the faculty eliminated its civil, common, and national programs, and replaced them with a single program, which includes some mandatory first-year courses and some upper-year courses which integrate both common and civil law. This joint and bilingual degree, which all students must take, is now referred to as the transsystemic program.Morissette, Yves-Marie, "McGill's Integrated Civil and Common Law Program" J. Legal Educ., 2002: 52: 12–28. This program underwent slight revisions during a curriculum renewal unrolled in 2016. Under the newly revised program, criminal and property law are taught differently; incoming students also undergo two "integration weeks" (one in the fall and winter).
The Transsystemic program was created under the direction of former Dean Stephen Toope, whereby every student graduates with degrees in both civil law and common law. This means that, from the first year, courses now explore civil and common law concepts in close comparison. Students analyse and critically evaluate the two traditions, their histories, and their social, political, and cultural contexts. Undergraduate students may participate in international exchange programs, and in the International Courts and Tribunals Program, which in 2006 received a Scotiabank-AUCC Award for Excellence in Internationalization.
Since 1976, the Faculty of Law's Institute of Air and Space Law, has annually published the first and only bilingual journal in the field of air and space law, the Annals of Air and Space Law. Other Faculty of Law bilingual publications include the McGill Law Journal and the McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law.
The Buildings Old Chancellor Day Hall and New Chancellor Day Hall are the names of two joined buildings at McGill University's downtown campus that house the Faculty of Law. Old Chancellor Day Hall was designed by noted architect Bruce Price for businessman James Ross. New Chancellor Day Hall was completed in 1967 by architecture firm Bland, Lemoyne, Edwards, and Shine. The Old and New Chancellor Day buildings are connected by an underground passage and by an atrium, which also connects to the Nahum Gelber Law Library. Old Chancellor Day Hall is used for administrative and faculty offices. New Chancellor Day Hall includes all classrooms, a moot court room, student spaces, law student services, and administrative and faculty offices.
Old Chancellor Day Hall In 1892, Canadian civil engineer, businessman, and philanthropist James Ross hired architect Bruce Price (whose other masterworks included Windsor Station and Château Frontenac) to design a château-style mansion in Montreal's Golden Square Mile, on Peel Street. Built largely of yellow sandstone from New Brunswick, the James Ross House was one of the most expensive private homes built in Canada during the nineteenth century. The house was a social centre for the Golden Square Mile.
His son John Kenneth Leveson Ross, a noted bon vivant and sportsman, inherited both the house and the Ross fortune. In the 1919, J. K. L. Ross hired architects Trowbridge and Livingstone to undertake $600,000 of renovations that affected every room in the house. The renovation included adding a private bathroom to each bedroom, covering up a skylight, and adding windows to create a library/reading room in what is now the Common Room. John Ross declared bankruptcy in 1928, and the James Ross House was sold at auction in 1929 for a mere $51,000. The mansion was purchased by J. W. McConnell in 1948 as a gift to McGill University.
While the university may have initially planned to use it for a student residence, the Faculty of Law officially moved into the mansion in a ceremony attended by many members of the judiciary and the Montreal Bar on 9 February 1950. At the ceremony, McGill's chancellor, Orville S. Tyndale, declared on behalf of the Board of Governors that the mansion would be named Chancellor Day Hall in honour of McGill's first chancellor, Charles Dewey Day. The opening ceremony was held in the students' handsomely furnished common room, a gift from Maurice Pollack.
On 9 July 2014, Old Chancellor Day Hall closed for 14 months for renovations to upgrade the building's heating, electrical systems, plumbing, windows, and more. Thirty-four staff and faculty members were relocated to New Chancellor Day Hall and to temporary offices on McGill College Avenue.
In December 2017, representatives of the Clan Ross Association of Canada and members of the Faculty of Law unveiled a plaque commemorating James Ross. The plaque is located near the main entrance.
New Chancellor Day Hall New Chancellor Day Hall was built in 1967 to address the Faculty of Law's growing program and increased enrolment. A six-storey precast concrete tower designed by architectural firm Bland, Lemoyne, Edwards, and Shine was erected just west of Chancellor Day Hall and connected to it by a corridor, at the cost of $1.825 million. This extension was named New Chancellor Day Hall and blended with the adjacent Stewart Biological Sciences Building. New Chancellor Day Hall included additional classrooms, study spaces, and a moot court. Prior to the construction of the Gelber Law Library, the top floors of New Chancellor Day Hall housed the library.
The building was inaugurated on 21 January 1967. During the bilingual ceremony, the Faculty of Law awarded seven honorary degrees, including degrees to Chief Justice Robert Taschereau of Canada, Chief Justice Earl Warren of the United States, and Lord Denning of Great Britain. Following the inauguration of the Gelber Law Library in 1998, the empty floors of New Chancellor Day that had previously been used as the library were used by McGill University to house various small research units attached to different faculties. In 2005, all student services at the Faculty of Law were consolidated on the fourth floor of New Chancellor Day Hall.
From 2008 to 2009, New Chancellor Day Hall underwent major renovations. The project overhauled the third, fifth, and sixth floors. New architectural features included adding a massive skylight above a staircase between the fifth and sixth floors, piercing windows on the sixth floor, and creating partially frosted glass partitions between offices to allow natural light inside interior offices. The third floor is devoted to student spaces, accommodating a multimedia classroom with movable walls and a seminar room. The third floor is also home to multiple student clubs, student-run law journals, and the graduate students' lounge. The fifth and sixth floors feature a conference room, and house some of the Faculty's research units, as well as offices for professors, staff, graduate students, and visiting scholars.
Nahum Gelber Law Library The Nahum Gelber Law Library is one of the 13 branches of the McGill University Library and houses over 220,000 volumes of statutes, regulations, law reports, treatises, books, journals and other legal material. Designed by Dan Hanganu, the Nahum Gelber Law Library was inaugurated September 1998. The building was designed to link to New and Old Chancellor Day Halls via a two-level atrium for socializing and studying.