The University of Ottawa has opened a new classroom that also serves as a fully functional courtroom.
The Ian G. Scott courtroom, named after the former attorney general of Ontario, opened Oct. 23 by members of the Scott family, the Chief Justice of Ontario, and local judges and members of the university’s Common Law Section, according to the university website.
The courtroom is the first of its kind at a Canadian university, according to the university. It is located across the street from the university’s Brooks building, where the Faculty of Law is based.
The courtroom has an attached classroom separated by one-way glass and soundproofing that allow students and professors to talk about the proceedings as they are happening, according to Bruce Feldthusen, the university’s former dean of common law.
Andrew Kuntze, manager of marketing and communications for the Faculty of Law, said the classes will be structured around the cases being heard.
“We’ll be able to have professors who are teaching in that field of law or professors who happen to be teaching that particular day will have the option of taking their classes to the classroom to observe the actual hearing or point of law that’s being debated,” he said.
The university is focusing on providing students with “active learning experiences,” according to Kuntze.
“This gives them a chance to actually observe real law happening,” he said. “They’re actually going to get real hands-on experience with practitioners of real law, which is not something that they would otherwise be exposed to.”
The courtroom will hear civil cases rather than criminal, Feldthusen said.
“It remains to be determined precisely, but I would expect more often than not they’ll be motions, which would involve legal argument, not witnesses,” he said.
Feldthusen said the university “hopes and expects” that after the proceedings end, the lawyers and judges will be able to discuss what happened with the students.
“I think we have an obligation to make it a success,” Feldthusen said. “If so, I can’t imagine any law school that wouldn’t be interested in having this opportunity.”
Kuntze said the idea for the courtroom came from David Scott, a prominent Ottawa advocacy lawyer and brother of Ian Scott.
“He essentially approached the dean back in 2010 and suggested a project that he wanted to pursue,” he said.
Kuntze said Scott wanted to contribute to the community and “provide something that would help develop future legal minds.”
Devin Persaud, a third-year English common law student, called the courtroom “innovative.” He said integrating federal court matters into the class curriculum is going to be “pretty amazing.”
“Usually they have that barrier between what you actually get to see and what you actually are learning and this tears down that wall,” Persaud said.
