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York University is the new home of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice. The forum is moving to York from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law and will partner with the York Centre for Public Policy & Law (YCPPL) and Osgoode Hall Law School on various socio-legal research initiatives.
“The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice is one of the country’s leading organizations devoted to interdisciplinary research on civil justice,” says Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Professor Lesley Jacobs, who teaches law & society and political science and is the director of the YCPPL. “It is a non-profit, independent, national organization established in May 1998 to help meet the challenges of modernizing our civil justice systems in Canada.”
The forum works collaboratively with all of the sectors and jurisdictions in the justice community in Canada, and increasingly those based internationally. Serving as a clearing house, coordinator and facilitator to share knowledge between jurisdictions, the forum creates new knowledge, addressing gaps in information and understanding about the civil justice systems.
“It acts as a catalyst to transform this knowledge into successful reform and encourages evaluation of new initiatives so that we may learn from the reforms that are undertaken,” says Jacobs. “I anticipate numerous collaborative research projects between YCPPL and the forum. These projects will offer Osgoode faculty and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies many exciting opportunities.”
Leadership for the forum is provided by Osgoode Professor Trevor Farrow, who serves as the law school’s director of clinical legal education, as well as chair of the board for the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice.
“The forum has emerged as a leading voice in the search for accessible and effective civil justice. This is a wonderful opportunity for Osgoode and York that benefited from Professor Jacobs of the YCPPL and Professor Farrow’s strong leadership,” says Osgoode Hall Law School Dean Lorne Sossin.
The forum will be hosted by the YCPPL on the sixth floor of the York Research Tower. A workshop is planned for mid-January to offer all interested faculty an opportunity to see the research opportunities the forum offers and to help shape the future of the forum at York.
For more information, visit the York Centre for Public Policy & Law website or the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice website.