THE EDUCATION OF BC NOTARIES
APPLIED LEGAL STUDIES 602
Legal Research and Writing APPLIED LEGAL STUDIES 620
Graeme Bowbrick
Selected Topics in Applied Legal Studies Graeme Bowbrick, QC, BA, LLB, LLM, is a visiting professor at SFU teaching in the MA-ALS Program. He occasionally teaches undergraduate courses in Criminology and Political Science at SFU and is a regular faculty member in the Criminology and Legal Studies department at Douglas College. A lawyer with experience in both private and public sector practice, from 1996–2001 Graeme was a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia and spent time as a Cabinet Minister, holding the portfolios of Minister of Advanced Education (2001) and Attorney General (2000–2001).
Sometimes a criticism leveled at postsecondary legal education is that it is too “academic” and not “applied” or “practical” enough. I’ve always been of the view that can be an artificial distinction: Law is both an academic and an applied subject. That is certainly true of the MA-ALS Legal Research and Writing course.
Applied Legal Studies 602: Legal Research and Writing
When students begin the course, I always make the point about the applied nature of legal research and writing and that the course is, in effect, really about legal problem-solving. We then begin the course with a hypothetical problem and briefly run through the steps that are necessary—in particular the legal research—to solve the problem. I explain that by the end of the course, students will be able to do that for themselves; for the remainder of the term, we essentially break down the legal problem-solving process into parts that we master one after another.
was approached about developing this course back in 2006 and have taught it since the MA-ALS Program’s inception in 2008.
We look at legislation. Rather than simply leap straight into the tools we can use to research legislation, we first consider, broadly, what legislation is and how it is made. We look at the political and legislative processes
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Volume 30 Number 1 Spring 2021
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in a British parliamentary system of government, with specific emphasis on British Columbia. The idea is that when we research legislation, we can have a much greater insight into what we find (statutes, regulations) if we understand how the legislation came about—who made it (hence the consideration of the political process leading to the formation of the legislative and executive branches of government) and how it is made (hence the detailed consideration of exactly how the legislative process works). It is only after looking at the political and legislative processes, as a way to provide a better foundation for understanding legislation when we research it, that we then turn to the tools and approach to researching legislation. They include some excellent free resources, notably • BC laws (for BC legislation); • Justice Laws (for federal legislation) and CanLii; • as well as the main subscription resources of QuickLaw and LawSource. After completing our consideration of legislation, we move on to case law, beginning with TABLE OF CONTENTS
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