Legal Research

Law School Looking South

By Simon Fodden

For some time there’s been a movement at Osgoode Hall Law School to change the degree awarded graduates from the LL.B. to the J.D. Recently the President of the Alumni Association reported that of the 500 or so alumni who responded to a survey on the matter, “approximately 90%” were in favour of the change, and that a vote by the current students found 75% of them in favour. (Note: Osgoode creates 300 alumni each year.) The issue now goes to the law school’s academic policy committee for consideration.

<rant>For what it’s worth, I’m agin’ it. The University of Toronto started this Canadian copycatting of the American puffery and now, sadly, others are joining in for fear of somehow being left behind in the greed stakes. The current law school experience, on both sides of the border, has (sadly) far more in common with high school than it does with graduate school, and to give its graduates the title of “doctor” is nearly shameful. A case of Gresham’s law, sort of, in which bad money drives out good. </rant>

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on May 04, 2008 (boomark / email).