Professional LLM in Canadian Common Law

OsgoodePD’s Professional LLM is a graduate program in law designed specifically for lawyers and professionals with legal work experience. Each of our distinct specializations focuses on interdisciplinary learning and provides you with a unique mix of academic, applied, and theoretical perspectives. You will learn through interactive discussions and explore practical issues related to your specialization. You’ll have access to a wide range of elective options to broaden your legal knowledge or explore new areas related to your professional interests.

The Canadian Common Law specialization offers an in-depth examination of core Canadian common law topics alongside a wide range of elective options. Internationally trained lawyers and law graduates who pursue this specialization benefit from academic and career support to assist in their transition to the Canadian legal marketplace. Core courses are specifically designed to meet the requirements of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada’s National Committee on Accreditation (NCA). Note: Completing the Professional LLM in Canadian Common Law does not automatically entitle you to practice law in Canada or to be admitted to the Bar of a Canadian province or territory. Consult the NCA or your provincial/territorial law society for more information.

Who is the Specialization for?

• Graduates of law degree programs from outside Canada, OR graduates with a civil law degree from a Canadian university who wish to become licensed to practice in a Canadian common law jurisdiction or want a solid grounding in Canadian common law for comparative law purposes.
• Applicants are required to have at least 2 years of professional work experience.

Note: Canadian Common Law is available on both a full-time and part-time basis. Full-time studies are geared to applicants who are in a career transition period or who wish to take time away from work to focus on their studies. This is also the appropriate option for international applicants. While full-time students are welcome to work part-time during their studies, we encourage those working full-time to consider our part-time option if their legal status will enable them to.

Course Requirements

The Professional LLM in Canadian Common Law requires the completion of 36 credits. The program is designed to be completed in one year (three active terms) through a combination of core courses, related electives, and up to 6 credits of outside electives. Students also have the option to engage in a research component.

What You Can Expect

The program is designed to be completed in one year (three active terms) by completing 12 credits (two to four courses) per term. Full-time students usually take all their courses in person and are expected to visit campus on a regular basis.

Courses in the Canadian Common Law specialization are scheduled in a variety of ways, primarily as daytime intensive courses or weekly evening courses. Courses may be held at our downtown Toronto location or on the York University Keele campus.

In your first term of admission, you may be assigned a course as a condition of your admission. Admission condition courses count towards your degree requirements. Students with the following profiles usually have required introductory courses:

• Internationally trained lawyers: GNRL 6209 – Canadian Graduate Legal Research & Writing (Online) (3 Credits)
• International students from civil law or distance education backgrounds: GNRL 6514 Introduction to Canadian LLM Studies (no weighting)

Your remaining course selections should be driven by your own interests, goals, and strengths. Generally, students in the Professional LLM in Canadian Common Law will want to prioritize courses that satisfy their NCA requirements. For students from civil law jurisdictions, this usually means taking as many of the five mandatory and three core NCA subjects as possible.

Core Courses

Core courses are frequently offered twice a year and include some of the following:

• CCLW 6842 – Canadian Administrative Law (6 Credits) – Fall, Winter, and Summer terms
• CCLW 6841 – Constitutional Law (6 Credits) – Fall and Winter terms
• CCLW 6843 – Canadian Criminal Law (6 Credits) – Fall, Winter, and Summer terms
• CCLW 6844 – Canadian Professional Responsibility (3 Credits) – Fall, Winter, and Summer terms
• CCLW 6850 – Canadian Tort Law (6 Credits) – Fall and Winter terms

Elective Courses

You must complete at least 18 credits of Canadian Common Law core courses. The remaining credits may be drawn from elective courses in International Business Law or unrelated specializations, so long as you have any required prerequisite knowledge for those courses.

Optional Research Requirement

The optional research component can be fulfilled through one of the following three options. Most students elect to fulfill the requirement through option 3:

1. A Major Research Paper (70 pages, 6 Credits)
2. An Independent Significant Research Paper (30 pages, 3 Credits)
3. A Significant Research Paper (30 pages) is completed as the means of assessment for one of the courses within the specialization.