Law Students' Voice

Hey everybody!                

You all must have heard that a reform of our current curriculum at the law faculty at McGill is planned. From what I gathered, our National Program as it was established in 1968 and reformed in 1985 is to be replaced by what seems to be a mazy mix of education in civil law and education in common law. Students won´t be able to choose anymore which degree they want to obtain, or whether they want to obtain the second one in an additional fourth year, but will be expected to do both in only three years!

As Yves- Marie Morissette explains in her article “McGill´s Intergrated Civil and Common Law Program”, students under the current system can choose to either complete a “(1) B.C.L. (civil law degree) over 3 years and 95 credits, or (2) an LL.B (common law degree) over 3 years and 95 credits, or (3) completing seriatim the B.C.L. and LL.B. degrees over 4 years and 125 credits.”. She adds that “many students chose just one degree”. There is a reason for this choice! Law is not meant to be comparative, law is not meant to balance between two (or more!) legal systems, but law is meant to ensure justice, to improve justice. Legal education must train students with the purpose of equipping them with the tools they need in order to reach that goal and, moreover, reach that goal in the country or province where they intend to practice as lawyers. Being from Québec I am therefore interested in getting to know the civil law system as it exists and as it functions in Québec! When choosing to go to a law school in Québec, I expect this focus; planning to take the bar in Québec, I even need the focus to be there and three years are merely enough time to thoroughly get to know one system.

I am not against hearing from time to time about other civil law or common law systems- after all, we can learn from each other and we must coexist with the common law system here in Canada; equally, I can understand that students choose to study in the common law branch here at McGill and I can also understand that students choose to stay one additional year in law school in order to obtain a second degree. However, I am against forcing students from Québec, who intend to take the bar in Québec, to study common law in a law school in Québec if they do not want to.  McGill, albeit special due to its reputation and its affiliation to the English language, nonetheless is, in essence, nothing else but a law school in Québec and it must not undermine the legal system of the province it is located in. 

-Jean-Francois M.