Education, law, and social justice

Until approximately the 1970s, Canadian law schools were primarily viewed as ‘trade schools’ whose main purpose was to provide a new generation of lawyers trained in a narrow way, without questioning the role of law or lawyers in relation to society and power. Further until the 1970s, few women, persons of colour, or Aboriginal people were admitted to Canadian law schools. Only more recently still did critical thinking made inroads on legal education and knowledge. The question is whether these innovations are already being unraveled, by conservative corporatist and commodifying trends. This article tracks the considerable extent to which these trends prevail in the Canadian context, and considers the related question of whether the period of challenging the paradigm of ‘legal education as training for hierarchy’ has ended. The author’s conclusion briefly identifies the contradictions tempering corporatist trends in Canada and perhaps providing space for struggle and resistance.

Corporatism and Legal Education in Canada

Last year, the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto approved a plan that will see tuition fees increase from $12 000 to $22 000 dollars over the next five years. Other Canadian law faculties are beginning to follow, or are considering following, the University of Toronto's lead. In light of this trend toward higher tuition fees, the time is ripe to step back and ask: what will this mean for legal education in Canada? In particular, on the twentieth anniversary of the release of Law and Learning (the “Arthurs Report” ), it would seem important to reflect on the impact that higher tuition fees might have on law and learning in Canada. What will dramatic increases in tuition mean for the values and laudable objectives set out in the Arthurs Report? These are some of the issues that I seek to address, partly through a personal reflection on my own experience as a law student and as someone who is near the completion of graduate studies in law.

Jo-Anne Pickel

Papers

What Will Rising Law School Tuition Fees Mean for Law and Learning

Susan B. Boyd, Child Custody, Law, and Women's Work. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2003, 283 p.