UBC Law: History

Chapter 11: The Modern Web of Legal Education

Looking Forward

Although few things remain constant in life, two features of legal education recur. First the history of legal education, along with the history of the profession in general, is quickly forgotten. In the workaday world of legal practice the current file demands the fullest possible attention. Many lawyers like to imagine that they are heirs to a noble and long tradition, but few in fact have the time or inclination to learn about the profession’s past. It is routinely presumed to have been much like the present although probably not quite so good! "History" and living memory become co-extensive. Living memory is both short and fallible.

[F]irst of all, [I would like my contribution to legal education in Canada to be remembered for] making good the case for a university law school, the present system in Canada, at a time when that was still very much an issue, when people divided and divided with passion on the subject. That would be the first, making that case by, not only by advocacy, but above all by demonstration that this was the right system.

The second, I think, would be this. That I tried never to lose sight of the fact that what was wanted was a quality law school. It would be wrong to settle on something parochial and merely a service school. It had to have a large view of the profession and the place of the profession and the responsibilities of the profession both individually and collectively to the general national and international good. I am very, very persuaded of that. That’s what I’d wanted—that was the effort with pretty small resources at first and never very ample resources. . . . I still say that legal education in Canada is not supported as fully as it should be. It’s much more important than people regard it, I think. We need to—there is still much to be done.

—Dean George Curtis, 1980

The second notable feature of legal education is that its future has always proved unpredictable. Law is too closely associated with politics, culture, technology, value systems, and social life to be immune from "outside" influences. The best programmes of legal education constantly re-invent themselves in response to changing social and legal conditions. It is therefore no more possible to project the future of legal education than it is to predict economic cycles, political victories, or future developments in technology.

Legal education in British Columbia in all its forms stands well prepared to adapt to whatever challenges are thrown its way. With two outstanding law faculties each of which enjoy the active support of the practising profession, a much-admired "bar admission course", a world-class school of criminology, ongoing professional development through continuing legal education courses, and a plethora of non-professional university "law" courses, British Columbia at century’s end is a far, far different place from the marginalized province that only sixty years ago stood in danger of losing both its professional trade school and its solitary university.

The occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of the province’s first law faculty is time to reflect on the achievements of the past, a time to contemplate the role of law and lawyers in Canadian society, and a time to plan for the challenges of the future.

The last word properly belongs to the University of British Columbia’s original law dean. In 1980 George Curtis explained to Murray Fraser, then dean of the University of Victoria Faculty of Law, that "law schools are not teaching or laying the foundations for practising tomorrow morning. You’ve got to think twenty years ahead if you can."

That, in a nutshell, is history’s lesson. It is also a considerable challenge for the future.

Five individuals have served as dean of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law during its first fifty years. From left to right: George F. Curtis (1945–1971); Kenneth M. Lysyk (1976–1982), C. Lynn Smith (1991 to present), Albert J. McClean (1971–1976), and Peter T. Burns (1982–1991).

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