Criminal justice professor, former FBI special agent takes prelaw curriculum to Canada

Luke William Hunt in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Luke William Hunt in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Luke William Hunt, assistant professor of criminal justice and prelaw advisor, traveled to the University of Toronto to internationalize Radford University’s prelaw program.

The trip, which highlighted the educational opportunities available to students, was made in part by a McGlothlin Faculty Travel Grant.

Hunt met with officials at both the University of Toronto Centre for International Experience and the university’s law school, known as the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, explaining that he wanted to accomplish two goals.

“I wanted to learn about the University of Toronto’s international programming, both in terms of best practices and in terms of potential research opportunities for Radford students,” Hunt said. “I also wanted to do comparative law research that could be incorporated into the law courses I teach at Radford.”

Hunt was “excited about the possibility” of Radford graduate students participating in the University of Toronto’s International Visiting Graduate Student (IVGS) program, which encourages qualified international graduate students to study at Toronto to foster the exchange of ideas, receive specialized training and participate in research collaboration.

In order to work toward achieving the partnership, Hunt plans to incorporate his comparative law research into his fall seminar called “The Law School Experience.”  The objective of the course is to examine the philosophical underpinnings of the core subjects covered during the first year of law school, including Contract, Property, Tort, and Criminal Law.

“Although American and Canadian law is very similar, there are also interesting differences,” Hunt said. “For instance, unlike U.S. legal education, Canadian legal education involves a one-year apprenticeship – known as ‘articling’ – after law school. Canada also retains the ‘barrister’ and ‘solicitor’ terminology, which indicates a lawyer’s practice area.”

Hunt sees this type of study as important in the twenty-first century.

“I think these and other comparisons help students think about law on a global level and find common ground with our international partners.”

Jun 28, 2018
Max Esterhuizen
540-831-7749
westerhuizen@radford.edu