LAW455
Legal Seminar: Law, Social Justice & Ethics
(Fynn Bruey)
Prerequisite courses:
Prerequisite for:
Instructor(s): Veronica Fynn Bruey
Course credit: 3
Method of presentation: Seminar
METHOD OF EVALUATION
Class Participation and Attendance: 10%
Personal Reflection: 15%
Legal Ethics Case Study (25%)
Research Paper (50%)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Law, Social Justice and Ethics (LSJE) raises many questions about the role of law in society, the power of lawyers, and fundamental ideas of fairness and morality. Therefore, LSJE is designed to broaden students’ knowledge beyond descriptive and factual understanding of the law and legal studies. While students can happily acquire their law degree with good results by regurgitating black letter law, LSJE is primarily about big ideas, inviting students to debate issues, explore values and principles, and ask questions to which there may not be definitive answers. That is why LSJE dissects law critically (asking ‘why is it so?’), and in context (asking ‘what else is going on?’). Such critique requires students to engage in research, analysis and evaluation, constant reflection, questioning statutes, decisions, and stated rules, while questioning their purpose and effect on your role as a lawyer. These are skills that you are required to demonstrate throughout your legal studies and in your working life. The LSJE Seminar also provides opportunities to meet law and social justice practitioners who are influencing social change, confronting moral dilemmas, and examining the efficacy of dispensing justice. Each section will critically analyze a specific topic, to inquire about theoretical, pragmatic and ethical choices to explore competing views of law, social justice, and ethics.
SPECIAL COMMENTS
Description updated 2024-25. Please contact the instructor for any specific questions you may have related to this particular course section.
REQUIRED TEXTS (IF ANY):
Alice Woolley and Amy Salyzyn, Understanding Lawyers’ Ethics in Canada (3rd ed). LexisNexis 2023.