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Photo collage provided by Karen Kavanaugh, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University
Law school accreditation
in historical perspective
The recent decision by the Council of the Nova Scotia
Barristers’ Society respecting Trinity Western University’s
proposed law school affords an opportunity to examine the
relation of the LLB to Bar admission in this province.
Academic legal education was not historically in vogue within a
system traditionally driven by apprenticeship, and in the early days
of statutory regulation it was the law degree, not the law school
conferring it, that was potentially a source of controversy.
The Bachelor of Arts counted towards Bar admission; the LLB
did not. Few lawyers held the BA, fewer still the LLB, which was
considered an ornament for elite lawyers rather than a path to the
law. (Nova Scotia’s first lawyer with an LLB, Samuel Cunard West of
Halifax [Harvard, 1847], was called to the Bar in 1849.)
In this regard, New Brunswick was far in advance of Nova Scotia.
In 1867, without consulting the law society, the New Brunswick
legislature amended the law relating to the admission of “attorneys”
to authorize the holder of an LLB from Harvard Law School or any
other legally authorized law school to be called to the Bar after three
years’ studentship rather than four. According to historian D. G.
Bell, New Brunswick thus became “the first Canadian jurisdiction to
recognize the value of the LLB.”
In 1884, Nova Scotia, taking into account the recent opening of
Dalhousie Law School, went much further. The legislature enacted
that the holder of the LLB could waive articled clerkship altogether.
(This radical provision was apparently opposed by the Council of the
Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society and did not last; articled clerkship for
LLBs was soon restored.)
In 1887, the preamble to an act amending the Barristers and Attorneys
Act asserted Council’s control over “the legal education of candidates
for admission to the bar” and implicitly its right to accredit law
schools before the LLB could be granted standing.
In 1891, Dalhousie Law School received statutory recognition;
any holder of the Dalhousie LLB who had passed the Society’s
examination in practice and procedure could be called to the Bar.
Finally in 1899, the Barristers and Solicitors Act was passed, professional
self-regulation achieved and Council
authorized to accredit law schools.
Barry Cahill
Independent scholar
From and after 1939 that power was
embedded in the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society’s Regulations. It
seems doubtful whether law school accreditation ever became an issue
or could have done before 1970, when the LLB became mandatory
for Bar admission.
By 1971 Council had ceased to accredit law schools. The Regulations
defined the law degree as “a bachelor’s degree in law from Dalhousie
University, or when approved by the Committee [i.e., Qualifications
– now Credentials], a degree in law with requirements equivalent
to those for a similar degree from Dalhousie University and from a
university with standards equivalent to those of Dalhousie University.”
The focus and emphasis lay more on the degree than on the degreegranting
institution and reflected the Society’s long-standing special
relationship with Dalhousie Law School.
In 1991, the regulation was amended to make it less Dalhousiespecific;
law degree meant “a bachelor’s degree in common law from a
Canadian law school or, when approved by the Committee, a degree
in law with requirements equivalent to those for a similar degree from
a Canadian law school or from a university with standards equivalent
to those of a Canadian law school.”
In 1997, the regulation was trimmed even further – law degree
meant “a bachelor’s degree in common law from a Canadian law
school” – but an important new element was added: a Certificate
of Qualification issued by the Joint Committee on Accreditation
appointed by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and the
Committee of Canadian Law Deans (now the FLSC’s National
Committee on Accreditation). This revised regulation was carried
over into the Regulations enacted under the Legal Profession Act
in May 2005. Further amendments were made in 2012 when the
Society adopted a definition of ‘law degree’ that reflected the new role
the FLSC was playing in the accreditation of law schools. The Society
purported to delegate its role to the Federation but later determined
that to be inappropriate and, in light of Trinity Western University’s
proposed law school, Council revised the regulation in July 2014 to
the following:
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