Hi eveyone! My name is Hasna, and I am also joining McGill this fall. I am from Iran and I have admissin from the ICL. I am really glad to see all u in McGill. Unfortunately i guess I will not be in McGill till late August.

Hey Hasna! Great to hear you ended up choosing McGill! Last we talked, I think you were still considering a few other schools.

I have some ideas, but obviously it's going to be impacted by my meeting with the dean.

For the Fall, I'm looking at:

Legal Research Methodology (required*)
Theoretical Approaches to Law (required*)
Canadian Legal History
Civil Law Perspectives
Legal Education Seminar

That said, I might switch out one of the latter two for Medieval Law, though it's pretty early in the morning. I also considered Roman Law, but it conflicts with Theoretical Approaches to Law.

Not quite as sure about the spring term, but I know I'll be taking the second half of Legal Research Methodology, as well as Legal Traditions, since both are required.*

* These courses are required for the non-thesis LLM through the Institute of Comparative Law. They may not be required for the other LLM programs.

Not sure where everyone else is with their housing search, but saw this article about housing scams in Montréal and thought I would share:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Rental+scammers+find+prey+online/3361785/story.html

Especially important since some of us are making housing arrangements sight-unseen.

thank u Charles.

Gentlemen,

It seems as if I might be later than intially anticipated. I am yet to get a response to my application for a study permit from the the Canadian High Commission in Lagos. Bottomline, I will arrive in Montreal very very late, perhaps later than intially anticipated.

Leading me to the big question - what is the state of the accomodation market right now? How much will a short term accomodation (say for a week or two pending when a get accomodation) cost. what are my chances of getting a good place at a good price around late august/early septmber.

Secondly are students in the ICL required to do legal research and methodology both 1st and 2nd semester? I actually assumed that the course is required to be taken either first or second semester and not both.

Secondly are students in the ICL required to do legal research and methodology both 1st and 2nd semester? I actually assumed that the course is required to be taken either first or second semester and not both.

Has the Faculty of Law put out the LLM orientation schedule yet? I know about the breakfast on the 30th and the university-wide open house on the 31st, but was wondering if anyone knew about what else was going on and when and if maybe I accidentally deleted an email or something.

Hi Charles,

as far as I know that's the "orientation schedule":
- Dean's breakfast @ 9h30 am on August 30th; and
- Grad student orientation at Thomson House (=the Grad student society I believe) from 4h30 pm until 7h30pm on August 31st.

I'va lready been to Thomson House twice and once to the Faculty of Law, but that's all in terms of orientation onformation that I got.

Something else: for those who are already in Montréa, there's a Grad student trip to Gaspésie from August 21st to 23rd. Info on PGSS's Facebook page or on their website: http://thomsonhouse.ca/wordpress/
Me and my boyfriend are going, so maybe I'll see you there? Cheers :-)

Thanks for the info! I won't be able to make it on the trip, as I probably won't be up to Montreal until the 21st, and will then almost certainly have to come back to New York sometime that week (my life is particularly complicated right now...), but it sounds like fun. Hopefully we can all arrange a law grad student trip somewhere in the fall/spring.

Anyway, should hopefully be in Montreal more or less "permanently" by the 30th, so should see everyone at the breakfast. Unless my wife hasn't gone into labor by then, in which case I'll probably be in New York until who knows when...

Alexandra, just realized I have my meeting with the Associate Dean right before you do! Mine is Aug. 24 at 9:20am.

Hello everyone. I have been reading your posts with interest and thanks for sharing your knowledge. How is course registration going?

I'm in the Air/Space Law LLM, so I imagine my course selections are more restricted than some other programs. Minerva's a little different to my home university, but seemingly OK to use (apart from the fact it tends to hide away which term (Fall/Winter) you are dealing with when registering). However, just to confirm, we must enrol in the REGN thing for both Fall and Winter before August 13? I imagine that just confirms our status as Graduate Law Students - sort of like a placeholder for enrolment purposes?

Anyway, so I have registered for both terms and selected a few courses with what information I could for my program. I haven't added any courses for Winter 2011 yet - what are others doing on this? Do you prefer a 'wait and see' or 'lets start now' rationale? I'm preceding on the basis that our enrolments aren't final and that any selections are going to be reviewed with the Associate Dean in due course.

I'm in Melbourne at the moment, but should be in Montreal on the 15/16th. Graduate housing has been very good and apparently have my room set up (although probably for more in rent than most will pay). I look forward to seeing you all at orientation (or before) and do travel safely.

PS: I think all we all share Theoretical Approaches to Law, which will be a good chance to work together.

Kind Regards

Hello everyone!

I arrived in Ottawa yesterday after a 25 hour flight all the way from India. Have been staying at my sister's place and the weather's beautiful here. I will be driving down to Montreal this weekend.

Alexandra, good to know about the student trip to Gaspésie. I'm not sure if I will be able to make it, but if I can finalize my residence by the end of this week, then I should be able to. I'm a single guy and am looking for a place under $500. Do you know of any places for this budget close to our faculty? I'd be very thankful if you can provide any info.

Patosky, I've been looking for housing on this website called kijijo.com which has a lot of listings. I've shortlisted a few and will be checking them out this weekend. Will let you know how it goes. As for course registration, I think Charles is right about doing 2 courses each semester. I couldn't find an option to register for all 4 together in the same semester.

Jonathan, you will have to register for
1.Legal Research Methodology (CMPL 610D1) AND
2.Theoretical Approaches to Law (CMPL 641)
for the Fall 2010 and for Winter 2011, you will have to register for
1.Legal Research Methodology (CMPL610D2) AND
2. Legal Traditions (CMPL 600).
These are mandatory courses for all graduate law students.

Charles, really appreciate all your help with providing information. Good luck with everything!

Hope to see all of you on the 30th for the breakfast.

Best,

Mithun

Hey mikey!

Really glad to learn you have a safe trip to Montreal. well that's it as to the registration and whether we need to register for legal research for the two semesters, i believe you ve clear the air on this issue.

i will check the housing site you mentioned. hopefully i will get some nice places i can check out later in the month.

thanks a bunch

Jonathan, you will have to register for
1.Legal Research Methodology (CMPL 610D1) AND
2.Theoretical Approaches to Law (CMPL 641)
for the Fall 2010 and for Winter 2011, you will have to register for
1.Legal Research Methodology (CMPL610D2) AND
2. Legal Traditions (CMPL 600).
These are mandatory courses for all graduate law students.

Charles,

You're probably right. I haven't looked at the requirements for students registered with the IASL.

Hello again,

Charles, that's funny, I guess I'll see you when you come out of your meeting with the associate Dean! Looking forward to meeting you! And all the best to your wife :-)

Mithun, welcome to Montréal! COncerning housing, I don't want to demoralize you, but I think a studio (1 1/2 or 2 1/2 what they call it here, that means not a separate bedroom) for 500$ will be hard to find in the McGill or Concordia Ghetto. We have been focusing more on the Guy-Concordia area and all we saw started at 700$... However, if you are willing to go a bit further east, e.g. in the Plateau Mont-Royal area, I'm sure you will find something decent. The metro connection is really good, so all you need to add is the annual metro fee. I have friends living in Little Italy, much cheaper but quite nice, close to the Jean Talon market and Parc Jarry. We focused our research on downtown in order to be able to go by foot to work/McGill. However, from Maisonneuve West/Rue du Fort where we are it's a 15min walk (in summer...). By the way, in my building there are still some apartments left, and I like the place, it's clean and bright. If anyone wants information, write me an email to alexandra.klein@mail.mcgill.ca :-)
The streets directly west of campus (Simpson, Drummond, Peel, Park) are veeery nice but veeery expensive. Well, as always, a question of budget.
Apart from Kijiji and Craigslist , McGill has a very good off-campus housing website: http://francais.mcgill.ca/offcampus/ (English available, too). They even have an office on campus, but I don't know where.

Concerning the Gaspésie trip, I think it will be cancelled, b/c there are not enough participants and this Friday is deadline. But my partner and I will participate anyway, we found the same trip with the same travel agency. It's just 30$ more, since we won't have the McGill discount. It's on http://www.wondertravel.net/.

Cheers!

Hi again. I hope housing resolves itself for everybody and you all end up in charming French digs! I've heard from my Montreal friend that, as Alexalou writes, there are some very nice and affordable places away from the Ghetto.

However, I'm still nutting out the technicalities of registration. Now I have registered most/all of my coursework, but not any courses for Summer 2011. I wonder: are the other non-thesis LLMs also 27 credits of coursework? To be honest, I'm struggling to get my Air/Space LLM to 27 credits. The Theoretical Approaches and Research Methodology units have odd credit weightings (4) and, as a result, I either fall short by 1 credit of 27 or have to exceed the credit target. Does the faculty expect us to take more credits than we actually need in this scenario? I note that the requirement is expressed "as a minimum of 27 credits". I don't mind extra courses, but I still need to pay for those additional credit points - and that hurts when you are income-less.

The other thing worrying me at the moment is whether the non-thesis LLM has much in the way of academic advancement options. I note that the DCL (at McGill at least) usually wants an LLM by thesis. Certainly, to say the McGill non-thesis LLM is merely a coursework degree is not quite right. But, again, I wonder how that choice of course over, say the thesis option, may limit any future academic aspirations I, and others, may have. I'd certainly be interested to hear from others doing the non-thesis. Charles? My main rationale for choosing it was to expose myself more broadly to the aviation law corpus, because I didn't feel I had enough aviation experience/background to simply walk into a research only degree. Now, however, I see the that there was probably enough coursework in that degree in any case (20 credits or so).

Kind Regards

The other thing worrying me at the moment is whether the non-thesis LLM has much in the way of academic advancement options. I note that the DCL (at McGill at least) usually wants an LLM by thesis. Certainly, to say the McGill non-thesis LLM is merely a coursework degree is not quite right. But, again, I wonder how that choice of course over, say the thesis option, may limit any future academic aspirations I, and others, may have. I'd certainly be interested to hear from others doing the non-thesis. Charles? My main rationale for choosing it was to expose myself more broadly to the aviation law corpus, because I didn't feel I had enough aviation experience/background to simply walk into a research only degree. Now, however, I see the that there was probably enough coursework in that degree in any case (20 credits or so).

Hey Gentlemen!

Well I hope Charles is right. The issue has actually been agitating my mind as well. Not that I ve made my mind up to proceed to DCL upon finishing the LL.M but it is nice to know the option is there for the taken!

Thanks to you guys I have finalling registered for most of the courses I ll do. Though I have a rude shock while doing so. I discovered that Civil Law perspective is closed right now! i guess that is because it is quite popular with the students. now does that mean I cannot take the course. It is one of the courses I was earnestly looking forward to taken and I ll be massively dissapointed if I cannot do so. anybody has any idea whether i can still take it.

Thanks Alex, i hope you re settling in nicely. I checked the mcgill housing sites you mentioned. I am also open to exploring the houses in your neighborhood option. I ll therefore send a message to the e mail address you indicated.

thank you all

Though I have a rude shock while doing so. I discovered that Civil Law perspective is closed right now! i guess that is because it is quite popular with the students. now does that mean I cannot take the course. It is one of the courses I was earnestly looking forward to taken and I ll be massively dissapointed if I cannot do so. anybody has any idea whether i can still take it.