USask Law – a Detailed Law School Overview

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USask Law is the only law school in Saskatchewan. It provides legal education to law students from all over Canada and students from abroad. On this page, you will learn about special qualities, enrolment statistics, admission requirements, tuitions fees, scholarships, and the curriculum of USask Law.

2-Year Graduate Entry LLB is a popular alternative for many Canadian students.

Law School Summary

There are many unique qualities of the University of Saskatchewan School of Law, some of them are listed below.

Strengths of USask Law

The University of Saskatchewan is one of the very few Canadian law schools to teach the Certification in Common Law in French (CCLF), also known as the Certification de common law en français. Cross-institutional bonds with the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law have been formed for the purpose of materializing the CCLF tuition.

Apart from that, the University of Saskatchewan Law has a Native Law Centre and operates a Human Rights Chair, simultaneously running combined programs in Law and Business, Arts or Sciences.

The University also has a well-equipped law library with 241 seats and 345,302 volumes of legal academic work from Canada, Britain, the United States, the Commonwealth and other international jurisdictions. Aboriginal Law, Criminal Law, Contract Law, Tort Law, and International Human Rights Law are some of the most prevalent academic topics across the library’s index of topics.

Special Qualities of USask Law

Saskatchewan may not be the largest Canadian province, yet that has not detracted it from supplementing its exchange programs to Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom with newer destinations, namely Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Hungary.

The University of Saskatchewan Law has adopted the following motto to accurately reflect its equity in education – ‘Let Justice Be Done’ (Fiat Justitia). More specifically as to the latter, the Faculty of Law operates the so-called CLASSIC (Community Legal Services for Saskatoon Inner City Inc) law clinic current students can partake in to obtain legal work experience.

For those keen on developing their written and verbal communication, they can participate in the Saskatchewan Law Review journal. That involves submitting their own publications. To improve their advocacy students engage in the mandatory segment of the first-year Legal Research and Writing module – Mooting.

Check out Different Types of Law Degrees.

USask Law Admissions

Current and former residents of Saskatchewan (or the Yukon, Northwest and Nunavut Territories, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador) or those with spouse and/or sibling connections to Saskatchewan are advantaged during the selection process.

Saskatchewan Law School’s website has a link to an online application form that must be submitted during the period of November 1 (preceding year) to February 1 (intake year), which is also the overall application deadline.

Applicants are categorized as ‘Regular’, ‘Special’ or ‘Indigenous’. ‘Special applicants’ are those, who are non-native English speakers, are part of the ethnic minorities’ groups, or have learning/physical disabilities or any other educational interruptions arising from employment, household obligations, or educational interruptions.

Undergraduate Degree

Having come from a standard three-year undergraduate degree worth 90 credits will cause you no problems applying for a Juris Doctor place at the Saskatchewan Law School. For those with shorter/interrupted bachelor degrees, two years of higher education equalling a minimum of 48 credits may also secure you a place.

LSAT

The LSAT is a vital application component and must be sat between June of the preceding year and January of the intake year. A score of 158-159 or more should satisfy the College of Law’s LSAT admission criterium.

GPA

Grade point average of 3.36-3.7 (depending on the results of other applicants) would guarantee applicants a higher chance of acceptance. Having said this, for instance, the 2015 cohort of candidates exemplified a median grade score of 3.34 and an average LSAT score of 159.

Enrolment Statistics

The latest statistics published on the University of Saskatchewan Law website suggest that the average volume of entry submissions fluctuates between 900 and a peak point of 1,250.

In principle, standardly 126 places are awarded to first-year Juris Doctor students. Thus, the base acceptance rate is 14%, although it can decrease down to around 10% depending on how many applications are received.

In more recent times, approximately 1,120 applications were submitted by each of the 2020 and 2021 cohorts of applicants, resulting in the quite exceptional 138 and 126 places being awarded, respectively. This translates to the acceptance rate of 12.3% and 11.3%

The latest data related to the admission of Indigenous students confirms that 33 such offers were made, of which 16 were accepted.

The overall number of law students has gone down to around 346-347 since the early 2010 heights. But in recent years, on average, there are 356 full-time students and 16 part-time. 48% of these were female, whereas on the broader scope two territories and 10 provinces were represented at the U of S Law.

In terms of academic staff, numbers have typically varied around 29, of which 21 are employed on a full-time basis and 11 are female.

Student Finance Information

Tuition

Tuition fees for International students are set at three times the rates of those for domestic citizens and residents, whereby this is exclusive of financial support arrangements.

Scholarships

A pragmatic approach of pre-screening first-year students determines the recipients of these academic financial awards (whereby only the first two are application-based):

• The J. Barrie Thomson Scholarship for those with high academic performance and interest in agricultural law ($2,000 CDN);
• The Mohinder Chadha Memorial Award for female Indigenous students ($2,000 CDN);
• The Harris & Lauretta & Raymond Earl Parr Memorial Scholarship ($5,000 CDN);
• The James M. Stevenson Entrance Scholarship ($1,000 CDN);
• The Justice John H. Maher Memorial Scholarship ($1,500 CDN);
• The Law Foundation of Saskatchewan 25th Anniversary Scholarship ($2,500 CDN);
• The Law Society of Saskatchewan Scholarship ($6,000 CDN);
• The MLT Aikins LLP Scholarship in Law ($6,000 CDN);
• The Morris and Jacqui Shumiatcher Scholarship in Law ($2,500 CDN);
• The Gary & Tammy Bugeaud Centennial Entrance Award ($10,000 CDN);
• The Thomas P. & Peter S. Deis WWII Memorial Scholarship ($1,300 CDN); and
• The William Elliott Scholarship ($6,000 CDN).

The Curriculum of USask Law School

In this final section of the article, we shall list the mandatory, elective, and application-based modules on offer under the overarching three-year JD degree program. U of S Law has included a 115-page downloadable document with detailed course breakdowns on its website.

First-Year

September 2019 placed a boundary between the actual numbering of modules, yet they have remained the same in their essence (e.g. Property I 208.6 changed to Property I 210.5). Other than that, the present-day number of modules that are to be mandatorily completed by first-year law students is:

• Contracts;
• Criminal Law;
• Property I;
• Tort Law (the module code changed from 212.6 to 211.5);
• Constitutional Law;
• Kwayeskastasowin Setting Things Right (the module code changed from 243.0 to 245.2);
• Legal Research and Writing (passed only by scores of over 60%); and
• Dispute Resolution.

Upper-Years

Graduation would be impossible without the next four compulsory modules totalling 60 credits (each module is weighted equally at 15 credits). They are listed as it follows:

• Minor or major papers (60% is the pass mark);
• Seminar class (Year 2 or Year 3);
• LAW 340.3 (Year 2); and
• LAW 421.3 (Year 2 or Year 3).

There are also semi-optional modules, whereby students must take up a certain number of three-credit modules approved by the Associate Dean Academic from the following field of scholastic disciplines:

• Global Indigenous Rights and Resource Development;
• Selected Topics in Indigenous Legal Studies;
• First Nations Economic Development;
• Indigenous Legal Processes;
• Aboriginal Law;
• Indigenous Peoples and the Criminal Process;
• Aboriginal Rights Moot;
• Aboriginal Law and Policy in Canada;
• Indigenous Self Government in Canada;
• Selected Topics in Indigenous Legal Studies Seminar;
• Indigenous Peoples in International and Comparative Law; and
• Special Topics: Indigenous Nation Building.

We shall divide the optional modules into several different categories (with deliberately shortened module lists), namely:

Standard elective courses (Semesters One and Two);

• Commercial Relationships;
• Secured Transactions – Personal Property;
• Immigration Law;
• Global Indigenous Rights and Resource Development;
• Regulation of Professions;
• Administrative Law;
• Business Organizations;
• Family Law;
• Bankruptcy, Insolvency and Receiverships;
• Intellectual and Industrial Property;
• Insurance Law;
• Legal Ethics and Professionalism;
• Aboriginal Law;
• Labour and Employment Law;
• Taxation;
• International Law;
• Wills;
• Environmental Law;
• Municipal Law;
• Trusts;
• Construction Law; and
• Criminal Procedure.

Limited availability standard elective courses (Semesters One and Two);

• Appellate Advocacy;
• Civil Procedure;
• Sentencing in the Criminal Justice System;
• Negotiation and Dispute Resolution;
• Corporate Restructuring;
• Law Review;
• Individual Directed Research (IDR);
• Administrative Law;
• Mediation;
• Trial Advocacy; and
• Criminal Intensive Practicum.
• Seminars (Semesters One and Two); and
• Current Issues in Law Reform;
• Sports Law;
• Human Rights;
• Law and Economics;
• Youth Criminal Justice;
• First Nations’ Economic Development;
• Current Issues in Insolvency;
• Advanced Health Law; and
• Business Regulation.

Moots:

• The Environmental Law Moot;
• The Laskin Moot;
• The Aboriginal Rights (Kawaskimhon) Moot;
• The Western Canada Moot;
• The Dispute Resolution Moot;
• The Donald G.H. Bowman National Tax Moot;
• The Gale Moot; and
• The Jessup Moot.

More About U of S Law School

Established in 1912, the University of Saskatchewan College of Law was the first academic institution to offer legal education in the province of Saskatchewan other than the only available route in law back then – a five-year-long apprenticeship.

A rivalry of legal education providers occurred when the Law Society opened and ran Wetmore Hall in the province’s capital Regina. Yet hopes for expanding legal tuition in Saskatchewan were short-lived as the Hall closed in 1922. Since then, people have headed only to Saskatoon for the completion of their law degrees.

The University of Saskatchewan Law School alumni network includes an ex-Prime Minister of Canada, a Governor-General of Canada, Saskatchewan and Alberta Premiers, policy advisors, journalists, counsellors, private-practice mediators and arbitrators, government officials, Supreme Court of Canada staff, and most obviously – lawyers!