Mining Law at Western
Western Law is Canada’s leading business law school and in Canada, mining matters. For the mining industry, a commitment to sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and community consultation are important elements of business conduct. At Western Law, our commitment to teaching mining law best practices provides law students with a unique and practical opportunity to learn about this challenging global sector.
Our Partners
Thanks to a generous gift from alumnus Stephen Dattels (LLB ’72), Western Law has become Canada’s leader in mining law and finance education. His contribution supports the Stephen Dattels Visiting Pre-eminent Speakers in Mining Law and Finance Series and the Stephen Dattels January Term Fellowship in Mining Law and Finance.
Western Law also enjoys the support of one of Canada’s leading law firms in the mining sector, Cassels, Brock & Blackwell. The firm’s gift of $750,000 supported the Mining Law Chair at Western Law, along with other initiatives to prepare students for the mining law and finance sector.
Our Curriculum
Western Law’s curriculum doesn’t simply focus on the traditional components of mining law. Western is a leading university in both business and earth sciences. As a result, Western Law is able to embed strong technical and business aspects of the mining sector into our curriculum, and present them in a legal context for students in order to impart a comprehensive understanding of sustainable development in today’s mining sector.
Together with the Department of Earth Sciences and the Ivey School of Business, Western Law has developed a Global Sustainability Certification Program to train the next generation of leaders in the global mining industry. This interdisciplinary program teaches students to collaborate with professionals in a variety of relevant fields and develop workable strategies to promote sustainable resource exploration and extraction.
Mining Finance Speaker Series
The Mining Finance Speaker Series brings in real-world expert mining practitioners together with industry leaders, regulators, academics and NGOs to provide students with a unique bird’s eye-view of the interrelationships between the various industrial stakeholders, as well as the realities of the extractive market.
Our Students
Western Law students are at the heart of our success. The Western Mining Law Society is one of the largest student associations at the law school. Also, Western is the only university in Canada to offer combined degrees in law and geoscience. The combined JD/MSc (Geology or Geophysics) is designed for students who envision a career where earth science and law intersect. This interdisciplinary approach gives students a unique perspective and skill set that will set them apart from others in industry.
Graduate Diploma in Mining Law, Finance and Sustainability
In Fall 2019, Western Law will reach another important milestone in its interdisciplinary, market-pertinent extractive programming with the launch of its Graduate Diploma in Mining Law, Finance, and Sustainability in a flexible combination of online and attendance-based courses. Read more about that in our Graduate Study section.
