For more than 50 years, Windsor Law has had a rich history of upholding an access to justice mission. We define ourselves as a justice-seeking, people-centered and community-engaged law school. Windsor Law is an exceptional law school offering a broad legal education and practical law skills in an intimate environment that nurtures lifelong relationships. We have an international reputation for our focus on the themes of access to justice and transnational legal issues. It permeates all that we do – our admission policy, our curriculum, our experiential learning and our research.
Faculty of Law Commitment Truth and Reconciliation
Truth and Reconciliation Steering Committee
The Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor formed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Steering Committee.
The Committee was launched pursuant to the Recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report, “Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future”, which calls on law schools and many other social and sociolegal systems to both come to grips with the destructive role law and other systems have played in the lives of Indigenous and Métis communities, and to make significant reforms to improve our collective futures.
The Committee’s work will include curriculum reform recommendations, improved space for Indigenous and Métis students, and deepened community connections. The Committee aims to strike a balance between decisive action on a long-neglected part of Canada’s colonial history and a reflective and critically aware process required to sustain reconciliation over the next many decades.
Windsor Law sits on the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, comprised of the Ojibway, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi. We are ensuring that Indigenous legal orders are fully acknowledged and respected in our teaching, research and community engagement. There is an abundance of Indigenous-specific courses in our Faculty of Law curriculum, including a mandatory first-year course on Indigenous Legal Orders and several upper-year options, including Indigenous law camps. We also have an Indigenous Legal Orders Institute and an elder-in-residence program.
Call to Action # 28
We call upon law schools in Canada to require all law students to take a course in Aboriginal people and the law, which includes the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and antiracism.
Mandatory Course for ALL law students: Yes
LAW G5962: Indigenous Legal Orders: 3 Credits
There are three founding partners of confederation, which includes Indigenous Peoples, who contributed all of the lands and resources to what is now known as Canada. Indigenous Nations also have laws, which form part of Canada’s legal heritage along with both common (English) and civil (French) legal orders. In recent years, law school curriculum across Canada has been expanding to include course content on Indigenous legal orders, taught alongside both common and civil law.
This course explores Indigenous legal orders through the lens of Indigenous worldview(s). Evolving out of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the mandate of the Law Society of Ontario and the Federation of Law Societies, this course is a substantive law course structured on Indigenous methodologies and pedagogies.
This course is focused on substantive content of Indigenous legal orders, not a critique of Canadian law. In particular, given the law school itself sits on Anishinaabe lands, this course begins with Anishinaabe law. Haudenosaunee and Cree laws are also laws of these lands and included in this course.
Faculty of Law Commitment to Call to Action # 28: 4 out of 5 = 80%
| 1 | The history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools |
| No. Not explicitly identified in course material | |
| 2 | The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples |
| Yes. Referenced by LAW G5962 Indigenous Legal Traditions course description evolving out of the TRC Calls to Action and UNDRIP | |
| 3 | Treaties and Aboriginal rights |
| Yes. Directly addressed directly by LAW G5962 Indigenous Legal Traditions that explores Indigenous legal orders through the lens of Indigenous worldview(s). | |
| 4 | Indigenous law |
| Yes. Addressed directly by LAW G5962 Indigenous Legal Traditions with a focus on Anishinaabe law. Haudenosaunee and Cree laws are also laws of these lands and included in this course. | |
| 5 | Aboriginal–Crown Relations |
| Yes. Addressed directly by LAW G5962 Indigenous Legal Traditions | |
Land Acknowledgement:
In Windsor Law Viewbook
Windsor Law sits on the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy, which is comprised of the Ojibway, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi. We are committed to ensuring Indigenous legal traditions and perspectives are fully acknowledged and respected in our teaching, research and community engagement
| NOTE: All content has been submitted to the respective faculty for validation to ensure accuracy and currency as of the time of posting. The University of Windsor Faculty of Law did not respond. Managing Editor: Douglas Sinclair: Publisher, Indigenous Watchdog Lead Researcher, Timothy Maton: Ph.D |