NLS Faculty Seminar | Towards a Pluralistic and Engaged Legal Education: Insights from UVic Law

In this week’s faculty seminar, guest speaker Prof. Andrew Newcombe from the University of Victoria, Canada, will give a talk titled ‘Towards a Pluralistic and Engaged Legal Education: Insights from UVic Law.’

Abstract

This presentation will explore the evolving regulatory framework shaping legal education in Canada and examine how Canadian law schools — especially UVic Law — are responding to these changes. With the Federation of Law Societies of Canada updating the national requirement for the common law degree, provincial law societies introducing new competency frameworks, and a series of reports criticizing legal education in Canada, there is pressure for change. Canadian legal education must address the country’s colonial legacy, the treatment of Indigenous peoples and the resurgence of Indigenous legal orders.

Since its founding, UVic Law has led the way in innovative approaches to legal education, adopting a critical, interdisciplinary, and policy-oriented perspective that views law as a dynamic and contextual process. UVic Law aspires to provide a pluralistic and integrated legal education that is interdisciplinary, experiential, and deeply engaged with community. This commitment is evident in both its common law JD program and its ground-breaking joint degree programs in Canadian common law and Indigenous legal orders (JD/JID). The presentation will highlight the Faculty’s existing curriculum and discuss potential innovations for the future.

About the Speaker

Professor Andrew Newcombe has been a faculty member at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria since 2002. In 2022, he was appointed Associate Dean, Academic and Student Relations. Before joining the faculty, he articled and practised as an associate with a midsize law firm in Vancouver. After pursuing his LLM, he worked with the International Arbitration and Public International Law groups at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Paris.

Professor Newcombe teaches Contracts, International Arbitration and International Trade Law. He is an internationally recognized scholar in international investment law and arbitration. In 2004, he created  ita (investment treaty arbitration): a leading international research website focused on international investment treaty law and arbitration. Amongst other publications, he is the co-author of a leading treatise, Law and Practice of Investment Treaties: Standards of Treatment, and co-editor of Sustainable Development in World Investment Law. In addition to his academic work, he has advised governments, investors and non-State actors, and acted as counsel and arbitrator in international arbitrations.