University of British Columbia Faculty of Law - History

History

Courses in law were taught at UBC from its founding. However, it did not create a formal Faculty of Law until 1945 in response to the large number of veterans returning from World War II needing education. Given special funding by the Provincial Government, the school hired George Curtis from Dalhousie's Faculty of Law to serve as their first Dean and within two months the Faculty was educating its first incoming class. Due to a lack of infrastructure, the University secured army huts that had been used to house servicemen during the war to house the law school until a permanent structure became available. The law school became the standard means by which prospective lawyers could become members of the bar, replacing the traditional approach that involved articling under an established lawyer in a relationship much like an apprenticeship.

UBC was recognized as Canada's second academic legal institution, following in the footsteps of Dalhousie and in the tradition of Harvard Law School. It was unique in offering a broad range of courses, including International Law, Taxation, Labour Law, Conflicts of Law, and Municipal Law in addition to the traditional black letter law classes. UBC was one of the first schools in Canada to have professors utilize the Socratic method in teaching, pushing students to think critically of the cases they were expected to read.

In 1951, after the inadequacy of the army huts became apparent, the Faculty received funding from the university to build its own permanent structure. This building became the first permanent structure for UBC Law, and remained so until 1973. During this era, UBC Law pioneered the use of casebooks, collections of excerpts from legal cases designed to illustrate principles derived from judicial decisions.