Robson Hall (Faculty of Law - University of Manitoba)
Encyclopedia
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
's faculty of law, also known as Robson Hall, is located on the Fort Garry
Fort Garry
Fort Garry, also known as Upper Fort Garry, was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in what is now downtown Winnipeg. It was established in 1822 on or near the site of the North West Company's Fort Gibraltar. Fort Garry was named after Nicholas...
campus of the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It boasts a long-standing tradition of clinical legal education, with strong links to the bar and bench, and an increasingly robust interdisciplinary research profile, particularly in feminist legal theory, human rights law, and business law.
History
The University of Manitoba first became involved in legal education in 1885, when it established a three-year course of studies leading to the LL.B. degree. This course did not include instruction; it simply prescribed a reading program, with three annual examinations, which articled law students could follow concurrently with the course prescribed by the Law Society. For roughly the next quarter century, the pattern of legal education in Manitoba changed very little. Minor alterations were made from time to time, but the basic method of education continued to be apprenticeship supplemented by private study. In 1911-12 the Law Society was prompted by the Law Students Association to provide a short series of lectures. In 1913 H. A. Robson, then Manitoba's Public Utilities Commissioner and a former judge of the Court of King's Bench, organized a considerably improved course of lectures and began to lay the groundwork for the establishment in the following year of a permanent law school modeled after the Osgoode Hall Law SchoolOsgoode Hall Law School
Osgoode Hall Law School is a Canadian law school, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and affiliated with York University. Named after the first Chief Justice of Ontario, William Osgoode, the law school was established by The Law Society of Upper Canada in 1889 and was the only accredited law...
of the Law Society of Upper Canada
Law Society of Upper Canada
The Law Society of Upper Canada is responsible for the self-regulation of lawyers and paralegals in the Canadian province of Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1797, it is known in French as "Le Barreau du Haut-Canada"...
.
The Manitoba Law School was jointly sponsored by the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
and the Law Society of Manitoba
Law Society of Manitoba
The Law Society of Manitoba is the self-governing body for lawyers in Manitoba, Canada. Its mandate is to regulate the legal profession.To practice law in the Province of Manitoba, a person must be a member of the Law Society of Manitoba. The Law Society of Manitoba sets its own admission...
; both bodies took part in its planning from the beginning. In the summer of 1914 they entered into an agreement, subsequently endorsed by legislation, which provided for the creation of the School, offering a three-year course consisting of lectures and apprenticeship leading to both an LL.B. degree and a call to the Bar of Manitoba. The expenses of the School were shared equally by the two parent bodies, and its operations were supervised by a jointly appointed Board of Trustees. This arrangement between the University of Manitoba and the Law Society of Manitoba continued until 1966, when the Law School became the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law.
Programs
Robson Hall currently offers J.D.Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
(Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
) and LL.M. (Master of Laws
Master of Laws
The Master of Laws is an advanced academic degree, pursued by those holding a professional law degree, and is commonly abbreviated LL.M. from its Latin name, Legum Magister. The University of Oxford names its taught masters of laws B.C.L...
) programs. The latter program was brought into existence in 1949 by the Manitoba Law School and it was substantially revamped by the Faculty of Law in 1968. Robson Hall is renowned for its strong advocacy component, which includes several required and optional courses in legal advocacy, as well as a number of mooting opportunities throughout the degree program. The school has won thirteen of the past thirty-one Western Canada Moot Trial Competitions, and consistently places at the top of national moot competitions.
Robson Hall is home to the Marcel A. Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law. The Centre was formed with a mandate to "integrate the disciplines of law, business and the humanities as they apply to family-controlled and other private enterprises, the principal foundation of all economic activity in Canada." The Centre provides academic programs that allow students to be trained with the necessary skills to provide well-rounded legal representation and advice to a variety of private businesses.
Robson Hall is also home to the Legal Research Institute, which was created to obtain research funding and grants, as well as to engage in various research projects.
Admissions
The Faculty of Law's application deadline is November 1 of each year. The school accepts 101 students for entry into the J.D. program each year. The admissions policy of the school is strictly numbers-based for regular applicants (i.e. in accordance with a formula based upon GPA and LSATLaw School Admission Test
The Law School Admission Test is a half-day standardized test administered four times each year at designated testing centers throughout the world. Administered by the Law School Admission Council for prospective law school candidates, the LSAT is designed to assess Reading Comprehension,...
scores).
Publications
Robson Hall publishes three legal journals: the Canadian Journal of Human Rights, the Manitoba Law Review and the Asper Review of International Business and Trade Law. It also publishes a legislative review journal entitled Underneath the Golden Boy.The Faculty of Law is affiliated with the [Canadian Journal of Women and the Law]] through Debra Parkes, a faculty member currently serving as its chief English-language editor. It is also affiliated with the Canadian Legal Educational Annual Review (CLEAR) through Lorna Turnbull, current dean of the Faculty of Law and its founding editor.
Recent books
John Eaton, Finding English Law: Key Titles for non-UK Lawyers & Researchers (London: Wildy Simmonds & Hill, 2011)John Eaton and Denis Le May, Essential Sources of Canadian Law / Les references essentielles en droit canadien (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2009)
Alvin A.J. Esau, The Courts and the Colonies: The Litigation of Hutterite Church Disputes (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004).
Michelle Gallant, Money Laundering and the Proceeds of Crime: Economic Crime and Civil Remedies (Northampton, MA: E. Elgar, 2005).
DeLloyd J. Guth, Family Law in the Medieval World: An International Survey (Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire: Alan Sutton, 2000).
Bruce A. MacFarlane, Robert J. Frater, and Chantal Proulx, Drug Offences in Canada, 3d ed. (Aurora, ON: Canada Law Book, 1996).
Philip H. Osborne, The Law of Torts, 3d ed. (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2007).
Evaristus Oshionebo, Regulating Transnational Corporations in Domestic and International Regimes: An African Case Study (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009).
Roland Penner, A Glowing Dream: A Memoir (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing, 2007).
Barney Sneiderman, John C. Irvine, and Philip H. Osborne, Canadian Medical Law: An Introduction for Physicians, Nurses and Other Health Care Professionals, 3d ed. (Scarborough, ON: Carswell, 2003).
Lorna A. Turnbull, Double Jeopardy: Motherwork and the Law (Toronto: Sumach Press, 2001).
Recent edited volumes
DeLloyd J. Guth, ed., Brian Dickson at the Supreme Court of Canada, 1973-1990 (Winnipeg: Canadian Legal History Project, 2000).DeLloyd J. Guth and W. Wesley Pue, eds., Canada's Legal Inheritances (Winnipeg: Canadian Legal History Project, 2001).
Stéphane Beaulac, Stephen G.A. Pitel and Jennifer L. Schulz, eds., The Joy of Torts (Markham, ON: Lexis Nexis Butterworths, 2003).
Antoine Masson and Mary J. Shariff, eds., Legal Strategies: How Corporations Use Law to Improve Performance (Berlin: Springer, 2010) ISBN 978-3-642-02134-3.
Faculty
- Dr. Lorna Turnbull (Acting Dean)
- Lisa K. Fainstein (Acting Associate Dean - LL.B Program)
- Dr. Jennifer L. Schulz (Associate Dean - Research & Graduate Studies)
- David AsperDavid AsperDavid Asper is a Canadian businessman and lawyer. He is the former Executive Vice President of the Canadian media company CanWest Global Communications Corp. He is also a Professor at the Robson Hall Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba.Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Asper is the eldest son...
(Executive Vice-President, CanWest Global Communications Corporation) - Karen Busby
- David Deutscher
- John Eaton (Librarian)
- Alvin Esau
- Michelle Gallant
- Brenda Gunn
- Dr. DeLloyd Guth
- Dr. Gerald Heckman
- Vivian Hilder
- John Irvine
- Darcy MacPherson
- Anne McGillivray
- Dr. David Milward
- Philip H. Osborne
- Dr. Evaristus Oshionebo
- Umut Özsu
- Debra Parkes
- John Pozios (Director, Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise & the Law)
- Dr. Bryan Schwartz (Asper Chair in International Business and Trade Law)
- Harvey Spector
- Mary J. Shariff
- Dr. Donn Short
- Wendy Whitecloud
Retired and emeritus faculty
- Cameron Harvey, Q.C. (Chair, Manitoba Law Reform Commission)
- Trevor Anderson, Q.C.
- Dale Gibson, Q.C.
- Arthur E. Braid, C.M., Q.C.
- Gerry Nemiroff (Senior Scholar)
- Roland PennerRoland PennerRoland Penner was Dean of Law at the University of Manitoba and a is a former politician and Manitoba Cabinet minister.Penner was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the son of Winnipeg alderman Jacob Penner...
, C.M., Q.C.
Notable sessional instructors
- Mr. Justice Charles HubandCharles HubandCharles Huband was a Manitoba politician, who subsequently became a judge. He was the leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party between 1975 and 1978....
(Justice, Manitoba Court of Appeal [Retired]) - Bruce MacFarlaneBruce MacFarlaneBruce A. MacFarlane, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is a Canadian lawyer, Crown prosecutor, legal scholar, and former federal and provincial Department of Justice official.-Education:...
, Q.C. (Professional in Residence & Crown Prosecutor, Manitoba Justice) - Jeff Hirsch (President, Law Society of ManitobaLaw Society of ManitobaThe Law Society of Manitoba is the self-governing body for lawyers in Manitoba, Canada. Its mandate is to regulate the legal profession.To practice law in the Province of Manitoba, a person must be a member of the Law Society of Manitoba. The Law Society of Manitoba sets its own admission...
& Lawyer, Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP - The Hon. Raymond E. Wyant (Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of Manitoba [July 10, 2002 to July 9, 2009])