Jowell, Jeffrey

English

York University, Osgoode Hall Law School

Osgoode Hall Law JournalVolume 8, Number 2 (November 1970) Article 8Introduction: [Conference on the Teaching ofUrban Legal Studies]Jeffrey JowellOsgoode Hall Law School of York UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohljArticleThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Osgoode Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Osgoode HallLaw Journal by an authorized editor of Osgoode Digital Commons.Citation InformationJowell, Jeffrey. "Introduction: [Conference on the Teaching of Urban Legal Studies]." Osgoode Hall Law Journal 8.2 (1970) : 345-346.http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol8/iss2/8INTRODUCTIONJEFFREY JOWELL*The urban riots in the mid-1960's kindled the belated discovery ofpoverty and racial tensions in North American cities. The concern of lawteachers to introduce courses in the area of urban studies can be traced tothat time. Just as International Law courses had proliferated during theprevious decade in response to a desire for international order, lawyers werenow expected to provide prescriptions for social control (later to be known as'law and order') and perhaps even for social change, on the urban level.Law teachers, however, were not wholly prepared for this task. Theirteaching tools consisted largely of appellate judgments and the odd statute.Urban legal studies, however, seemed to demand more flexible techniquesand knowledge of human phenomena that could be acquired better fromdisciplines other than law. For example, in order to examine the structureof public welfare, the law by itself provides little enlightenment. In order todiscover what 'poverty' or 'need' might mean, writings in the field of econo-mics might have to be considered. Similarly, in order to understand the life-styles of the 'lower classes' and to know something of the limits of bureau-cratic responsiveness, it would be necessary to consult sociology. Many otherquestions about institutional design and decision making would have to beasked in a spirit of intellectual speculation perhaps alien to the traditionallegal approach that feels more secure in a structured situation and thepresence of a concrete plaintiff, defendant and judgment.Whatever the initial motives for the creation of legal courses in theurban area, their introduction has presented both law and legal education witha profound challenge. Motivated by a desire to accept this challenge, aconference on The Teaching of Urban Legal Studies was held at OsgoodeHall Law School, York University, Toronto, on October 17-19, 1969. Thepapers that follow were presented at that conference, which consisted ofsix sessions. The subject matter of those sessions, and the authors of thepapers reproduced in this Journal are as follows:t1) Law and Social change in an urban environment(Lawrence Friedman and Daniel Mandelker)2) The scope of urban legal studies (Norman Redlich)3) The scope of interdisciplinary collaboration(Johann Mohr, Harold Kaplan, Julian Levi, Glendon Schubert)4) The role of the lawyer in today's city (Adam Yarmolinsky)*Associate Professor of Law and Administrative Studies, Osgoode Hall Law School,tSeven other papers are not reproduced here for technical reasons. They were deliveredby John Wofford, Jane Jacobs, Jack Ladinsky, Clinton Bamberger, Norman Dorsen,John Ferren and John Hogarth.346 OSGOODE HALL LAW JOURNAL [VOL. 8, NO. 25) Clinical training as a teaching tool (No papers reproduced here)6) The use of field work in urban legal research (Joel Handler)Marshall McLuhan has noted that Julius Caesar's first act upon assum-ing power was to restrict the night movement of wheeled vehicles in thestreets of Rome, in order to permit sleep. Some problems that we regardtoday as an integral part of our modem urban crisis, such as noise pollution,are age-old problems which we have either neglected or, unlike Caesar, lackedthe capacity to deal with effectively. Other problems, such as those that haveat their root issues of race, class, or bureaucracy, are of more recent origin,and await our consideration. It could be that the structure of urban govern-ment is itself a cause of many city problems. Urban legal studies will beginto confront issues such as these. It is hoped that the papers that follow willstimulate thought on this subject as a new area of law and as an opportunityto refashion our approaches, skills and techniques as lawyers, legal scholarsand teachers.

Introduction: [Conference on the Teaching of Urban Legal Studies]

bepress Legal Repository

https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2573&amp;context=ohlj

Introduction: [Conference on the Teaching of Urban Legal Studies]

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

York University, Osgoode Hall Law School

bepress Legal Repository