U of T to establish $20-million law centre for telecom, e-comm and IT

Ontario's six law schools are receiving $20 million and an influx of talent to improve the quality of research and education for law students who want to practice in the burgeoning fields of high tech and intellectual property. The University of Toronto's law faculty - which is taking the lead on this initiative - also hopes the new Centre for Innovation and Policy will bring a stronger academic perspective to policy questions dealing with telecommunications, e-commerce and other pillars of the new economy. The new centre's executive director, Greg Warren, says it will act as a research, teaching and policy centre devoted to the study of law and policy as they relate to innovation and technological change. Its main objective is to broaden and deepen law school curriculum in areas of innovation law. He acknowledges that when it comes to law and policy issues related to the new economy, Canada is at a disadvantage. For example, he notes that the U.S. accounts for 74% of global e-commerce revenues, with Canada coming in a distant second at 7%. When compared to the volume of legal academic research that's being done in each country, the gap widens even further. "A (Web) search of U.S. legal academic journals turned up 1368 articles that mentioned the phrase "electronic commerce"," says Warren. "In Canada, the corresponding number was 13 - not even one-one hundredth of U.S output. In other areas, such as intellectual property, more work is being done, but it's still too little in relation to the importance of the areas in legal, social and economic terms." A second objective of the centre is to promote research in the areas of innovation law and policy. The centre's core disciplines represent the focus of the e-economy: telecommunications, e-commerce, intellectual property, biotechnology, and the process of commercial and industrial innovation. Headquartered at the U of T campus, the centre will operate at all six of Ontario's law schools. A curriculum development fund has been established, which will be spent over the next five years to enhance law and technology courses in Ontario. The lion's share of funding for the centre -- $12 million -- is coming from the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund, with a further $7 million from the U of T, and $1 million from Osler Hoskin & Harcourt. The university has also established four endowed chairs: The Osler Hoskin & Harcourt chair in law and technology, which will focus on telecommunications; a chair in intellectual property; one dedicated to e-commerce; and a chair focused on the legal, ethical and cultural impact of technological change. A new graduate fellowship program at the university hopes to attract top national and international graduates to conduct research into areas of innovation law and policy. As well, the centre has hired a specialist librarian who will spend $500,000 over the next five years to enhance the collection at the Bora Laskin Library. "Our dean, Ron Daniels, recognized that there is a need for this faculty and in Ontario (law schools) generally to fill a hole in areas such as e-commerce, intellectual property and biotech, the emerging pillars of the new economy," Warren told Network Letter. "So he went to the Ontario government and put forward a proposal saying that it's okay to fund traditional scientific research, but if you don't have also a legal and policy environment that properly promotes innovation and deals with the issues that arise out of these areas, then you're not going to be able to fully promote that activity. "(Daniels also said governments) should be investing in a sector that allows an academic perspective to be brought to bear on the policy questions that come in areas such as telecommunications, increasingly intellectual property, obviously e-commerce.

U of T to establish $20-million law centre for telecom, e-comm and IT

News | 03/08/2000 5:00 am EST

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