Eric Grigg

A month into law school I have noticed one thing above all: some are better academically prepared than others. Law schools say there is no such thing as a ‘pre-law’ course of study, but I think they are doing future students a disservice. Do you have to take certain courses to succeed at law school? No. Do you have to take certain courses to get into law school? No. Could you take certain courses to mitigate the overwhelming unfamiliarity of the first term of your first year? That would be a resounding Yes.

Core Courses

The following are what I would consider ‘core courses’ insofar as they provide a comprehensive grounding in the subject matter you will encounter, if not in first year, during the course of you legal education. I say ‘core’ and not ‘required’ because you can obviously excel without them. That said, they will provide you with some basics that might be taken for granted once you get there.

The following are generic course names and/or the way the courses were organized at my alma mater. Your millage may vary.

• Early Modern & Modern English (or British) history
  • Like it or not, a great deal of Canadian law stems from the English common law tradition. Understanding its development requires an appreciation of its context, which these two history courses will provide. Given the common law’s reliance on precedent for deciding cases, it is not unheard of to reach all the way back to the 1600s for an authority in certain areas of law.

• 19th & 20th Century Canadian History
  • Though we have inherited a great deal from the UK, a lot of our law post-1867 has been a made-in-Canada affair. This is especially true in constitutional law. Again, this is about context.

• Canadian Government
  • This is fairly obvious, but often overlooked. Law doesn’t develop in a vacuum and understand how laws come to pass can be as important for understanding their content as the history that preceded them.

• Basic/Intro Logic (Philosophy)
  • This is more for the LSAT than law school, but it might possibly be a truism that more logic never hurt an argument.

• Basic/Intro Ethics/Morality (Philosophy)
  • This serves two purposes. First, a lot of law, and especially criminal law, deals with moral questions. Second, as a law student, and especially as a lawyer, you have certain ethical standards to which you must adhere. Going beyond those minimums, however, a lawyer is generally expected to act in the public interest and it can be useful to understand the different perspectives on what exactly that might mean.

Supplemental Courses

These are courses that would broaden your perspective and provide greater context for your legal education, but if you were not interested in them or if you could not make them fit, then you would not be any poorer for it. I have listed them in order of priority (from my perspective at least).

• Basic Business
  • Two things here. First, you’ll be surprised just how many courses at any given law school revolve around business or business transactions. As such, a basic familiarity will be useful in these courses, even if you don’t ever intend to practice ‘business law.’ Second, and not unrelated, you’ll be surprised just how much the practice of law is about business. Either you ‘learn’ it in school or on the job, you’re choice.

• Canadian Politics
  • Similar idea to ‘Canadian Government’ but with a more of a focus on the action and not the process. Less important for context than Canadian Government, but won’t hurt you either.

• Intro Economics
  • While ‘law & economics’ is less of a focus in Canada (outside UofT, anyway) it does still crop up in US cases and from certain classmates. Much like ‘Intro Logic,’ it can only make you stronger.

• Roman History
  • Whether you are aware of it or not, the roots of much of our society can be traced back to this little village in Italy called Rome. Never heard of it? Then this course is for you.

• Christian Religion
  • Similar to the above, a great deal of our laws, though less than in the past, are rooted in Judaeo-Christian morality. This is especially true in criminal law (laws against suicide anyone?), but also comes up in that mysterious concept of Equity.

• Intro Political Theory (aka Political Philosophy)
  • You don’t get too much of this in first year, but I have found it useful context for understanding some of my constitutional lectures. If the course is just about reading the ‘greats’ it might be less useful to you than a course that discusses liberal and democratic theory, but you might be interested to know that Mill’s Harm Principle ended up in a Charter challenge regarding the criminal consequences of marijuana possession.

• Advanced Logic
  • See ‘Intro Logic’