Osgoode 1L course materials to study over the summer

[Student569]

Good morning, I am looking to get a hold of 1L textbooks and study materials to read in preparation for starting 1L in September 2025 at Osgoode. Anyone looking to get rid of their materials for a reasonable price? Thanks.

[Hecrim]

You don’t even know your profs yet, so you won’t know what material you’ll need. Enjoy your time not being a law student.

[Student569]

Yes, that's true, but I'm sure the 1L standard courses share a lot of the same material between professors so I would still like to get ahead on the reading if possible. Thanks.

17 minutes ago, Hecrim said:

You don’t even know your profs yet, so you won’t know what material you’ll need. Enjoy your time not being a law student.

Yes, that's true, but I'm sure the 1L standard courses share a lot of the same material between professors so I would still like to get ahead on the reading if possible. Thanks.

[Hecrim]

As a current 2L at Oz, every section essentially used different materials based on their profs. That is also not considering that profs might switch materials. We also don’t know if the profs teaching right now will be the profs teaching you. Profs also don’t use the entire textbook, they focus on specific sections. So you’d be teaching yourself (likely not successfully) things that are not relevant for your course. I get you are excited and keen to start, but the best thing you can do right now is be patient. You will get your profs in July, then you can start early if you really want. 

[MyWifesBoyfriend]

46 minutes ago, Student569 said:

Yes, that's true, but I'm sure the 1L standard courses share a lot of the same material between professors so I would still like to get ahead on the reading if possible. Thanks.

This is a fool's errand. Casebooks are oftentimes massive, and professors will constantly tweak the syllabus. Some Professors even have their own casebook that is not published. They only disclose this to their class. Furthermore, your professor has their take on cases, which may or may not be present in the reading materials. This is the interpretation you will ultimately be graded on. It's pointless trying to learn the law on your own. 

If you're actually looking to "get ahead", then I'd recommend keeping your gears oiled over the Summer by reading constantly. During my Summer, I read Ross Garner's Point Made, and it had a lot of useful legal writing tips that have helped me on exams and papers. 

[imhereandimready]

okay, here's an unpopular opinion:

I also wanted to do readings over the summer, and I didn't, since everyone told me not to. Here I am thinking what I could have done differently I hindsight.

If you don't have a legal background, I recommend reading a case or two. The important ones, like the UK case of Donoghue v Stevenson (which guaranteed will come up in torts) or the Supreme Court of Canada case of Tsilhqot'in Nation (which will absolutely come up in PubCon, and even if it doesn't there, it will come up in Property) or R v Oakes (which will come up in either Criminal Law or PubCon).

It is so so so important to do the readings in the law school, and it sucks not to know *how* to read a case without spending 3 hours on a single case.

You don't have to understand what they are talking about, or what the law is, or what the application of the law is. Just read it so that you get used to the structure of cases. 

That's my only piece of advice - regardless, you'll show up to law school, nobody will know what's going on, and you'll learn as you go.

 

[StoneMason]

In addition to what everyone else has stated here, not only would this probably not help, it will likely be counterproductive as you wouldn't even know what to focus on or how to read the case. It may distort your understanding of very fundamental concepts that might be difficult to overcome once you actually start at Osgoode. The problem is right now, you have no idea to know whether you are doing it correctly or incorrectly. Imagine if you kept taking practice LSATs without any training and without an answer key. Asides from some reading practice, as suggested above, you wouldn't really get anywhere.

[StoneMason]

Just to add on to my comment above –– I don't mean to demotivate you since this desire of yours is clearly coming from a good place. You seem like a diligent person who wants to do well, and that is great. Instead of going through substantive material, you could consider directing your motivation and efforts towards other things like:

• Learning how to type really fast (important for timed exams). 
• Getting used to reading hundreds of pages a week –– does not have to be law related, but being comfortable reading copious amounts of seemingly boring content is a very useful skill. 
• If you want to do business law, keeping up with the news can be very helpful. This would be as simple as reading the WSJ, Bloomberg, Globe and Mail, etc; also get familiar with Investopedia. Ignore this if you don't want to do business law (Sorry – I can't provide tips on non-business content since that isn't my focus).

Edited April 8 by StoneMason

[LMP]

I'd agree that reading textbooks and trying to predict what will be relevant to law school is a waste of time (at best). 

Having said that I don't think there is any harm spending the summer reading through canlii. Start with keywords you find interesting and just dive in. 

You'll be able to familiarize yourself with what different areas of law look like, who the players are and what tends to be relevant. 

Don't approach it systematically, rather just look at whatever catches your interest. 

[tobi]

you know this is your last normal summer right?

lol go on vacation

signed, 

an osgoode 1L student who only has a week vacation before their summer job starts 

[GoatDuck]

I do understand the desire to get ahead and beat the curve, but the truth is, unless you started reading caselaw in high school, you are probably already behind. But Cs get degrees, and the thrill is in the chase, so I'd just enjoy this summer. Good luck!  

[SNAILS]

If you do this, don't do it to get better grades. Do it because you are excited about being a lawyer some day. Then, if you get bored or reading, enjoy the rest of your summer. 🙂

You might as well read about the type of law you are interested in - perhaps an over view of criminal or civil procedure. Perhaps some interesting cases.

[SmallBart]

On 4/8/2025 at 1:30 PM, LMP said:

I'd agree that reading textbooks and trying to predict what will be relevant to law school is a waste of time (at best). 

Having said that I don't think there is any harm spending the summer reading through canlii. Start with keywords you find interesting and just dive in. 

You'll be able to familiarize yourself with what different areas of law look like, who the players are and what tends to be relevant. 

Don't approach it systematically, rather just look at whatever catches your interest. 

I would second this. I spent some time over the summer picking recent cases out at random on CanLii and it helped me get a feel for the basics of what was getting talked about and the language judges use. Don't worry about learning any specific rules; you won't need to know anything that isn't in your assigned readings.

In general, the advice given to 0Ls is that you shouldn't try to learn the law ahead of time because there's a significant danger you'll learn it wrong, and it's much harder to unlearn mistakes than it is to learn it right the first time. 

One piece of advice that I haven't seen given before; I've noticed a lot of my fellow 1Ls had a lot of trouble with the language of the older cases. You'll be assigned at least a few 19th and early 20th cases, and while it's hardly Beowulf (or even Shakespeare) the writing style can be challenging particularly for students who aren't familiar with formal writing from that period.

For example, the ratio in Hughes v Metropolitan Railway, a key case on promissory estoppel in contract law, is given in this sentence:

Quote

 It was not argued at your Lordships' Bar, and it could not be argued, that there was any right of a Court of Equity, or any practice of a Court of Equity, to give relief in cases of this kind, by way of mercy, or by way merely of saving property from forfeiture, but it is the first principle upon which all Courts of Equity proceed, that if parties who have entered into definite and distinct terms involving certain legal results—certain penalties or legal forfeiture—afterwards by their own act or with their own consent enter upon a course of negotiation which has the effect of leading one of the parties to suppose that the strict rights arising under the contract will not be enforced, or will be kept in suspense, or held in abeyance, the person who otherwise might have enforced those rights will not be allowed to enforce them where it would be inequitable having regard to the dealings which have thus taken place between the parties. 

One hundred and seventy words, one period. 

Victorian English takes some getting used to and it will be slow going if you aren't already familiarized with it. A good way to prepare yourself, especially if you don't have a history background, is to get cracking on some classic literature; Dickens, Brontë, maybe even Austin although she's a bit earlier than most of what you'll encounter. The style will be different from legal writing - it will be much better written, for one thing. But it will help you get a handle for the language used which will make it easier to read and understand the older cases. You won't read enough cases from the 16th or 17th centuries for anything older than ~1800 to be helpful (those reasons are usually like one paragraph anyway) and by the mid-20th century the writing style is similar enough that it shouldn't be too much of a challenge apart from legal jargon, which your Profs will explain.

Other than that, there are a few books such as 'Getting to Maybe' that give advice specific to law school (focusing on the exams) that I found very helpful. If you haven't taken undergraduate courses in law, reading through an undergraduate Canadian law textbook can help orient you in terms of what the various courses are talking about. This will explain background things like the structure of the Canadian court system which are very helpful to know to understand the context of what you'll be reading.