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Indigenous Lawyers In Canada: Identity, Professionalization, Law, Sonia Lawrence, Signa Daum Shanks Oct 2015

Indigenous Lawyers In Canada: Identity, Professionalization, Law, Sonia Lawrence, Signa Daum Shanks

Dalhousie Law Journal

For Indigenous communities and individuals in Canada, "Canadian" law has been a mechanism of assimilation, colonial governance and dispossession, a basis for the assertion of rights, and a method of resistance. How do Indigenous lawyers in Canada make sense of these contradictory threads and their roles and responsibilities? This paper urges attention to the lives and experiences of Indigenous lawyers, noting that the number of self-identified Indigenous lawyers has been rapidly growing since the 1990s. At the same time, Indigenous scholars are focusing on the work of revitalizing Indigenous law and legal orders. Under these conditions, Indigenous lawyers occupy a …


Slipping Between Danger, Pleasure And The Law: Thoughts On Three Recent Books Addressing Sexuality., Ummni Khan Apr 2014

Slipping Between Danger, Pleasure And The Law: Thoughts On Three Recent Books Addressing Sexuality., Ummni Khan

Dalhousie Law Journal

Sexuality is slippery. It slips, for example, between pleasure and danger, between surrender and repression, and between force (the kind that turns some of us on) and violence (the kind that terrorizes us). It can be a site of intense oppression and unwanted objectification, and also ofempowerment and affirming desirability. In this review, I address three recent books that reckon with the ambivalence of sexuality in relation to the law and regulatory practices.


Trauma-Informed Approaches To Law: Why Restorative Justice Must Understand Trauma And Psychological Coping, Melanie Randall, Lori Haskell Oct 2013

Trauma-Informed Approaches To Law: Why Restorative Justice Must Understand Trauma And Psychological Coping, Melanie Randall, Lori Haskell

Dalhousie Law Journal

Becoming trauma informed entails becoming more astutely aware of the ways in which people who are traumatized have their life trajectories shaped by the experience and its effects, and developing policies and practices which reflect this understanding. The idea that lawand, in particular the criminaljustice system, should be trauma informed is novel, and, as a result, quite underdeveloped. In this paper we advance the general argument that more effective, fair, intelligent, and just legal responses must work from a perspective which is trauma informed. We specifically apply this argument to legal work being carried out and developed under the rubric …


A Match Made On Earth: Getting Real About Science And The Law, Susan Haack Apr 2013

A Match Made On Earth: Getting Real About Science And The Law, Susan Haack

Dalhousie Law Journal

Modern legal systems increasingly depend on scientific testimony; but they also need somehow to ensure, so far as possible, that fact-finders aren't misled by highly speculative, poorly-conducted, or dishonestly-presented science. The Critical Common-sensist understanding of science that the author has developed in Defending Science and elsewhere sheds some light on why these interactions between law and science have proven so problematic. But Ms. Acharya's approach to these difficult issues rests on a flawed conception of the supposed "scientificmethod,"and an idea of legal "legitimacy" too weak to bear the weight she places on it; and her claim that the author "idealizes" …


Response To Haack And Edmond/Roach Articles, Nayha Acharya Apr 2013

Response To Haack And Edmond/Roach Articles, Nayha Acharya

Dalhousie Law Journal

I am grateful to Professors Edmond and Roach' and Professor Haack2 for their thoughtful replies to my paper, Law 's Treatment of Science: From Idealizationto Understanding.Much like my experience after reading "A Contextual Approach to the Admissibility of the State's Forensic Science and Medical Evidence,"' and Haack's contributions, 4 I have come away from reviewing Edmond and Roach and Haack's replies with a heightened awareness that the admissibility of scientific evidence is significant and complicated. Both replies have raised important concerns that have demanded further attention from me, which I turn to here. My response to Edmond and Roach's Reply …


"Uncivil By Too Much Civility"?: Critiquing Five More Years Of Civility Regulation In Canada, Alice Woolley Apr 2013

"Uncivil By Too Much Civility"?: Critiquing Five More Years Of Civility Regulation In Canada, Alice Woolley

Dalhousie Law Journal

The author revisits criticisms of the civility movement made in an earlier paper ("Does Civility Matter?" (2008) 46 Osgoode Hall LJ 175). She argues that Canadian law societies remain concerned with lawyer incivility, despite bringing surprisingly few formal prosecutions against lawyers for incivility. In a few cases the law societies' concern can be justified insofar as lawyer incivility in those cases appears to correlate with serious professional dysfunction. Generally however, the focus on incivility is counter-productive. First, in several cases the focus on lawyer incivility elides the complex and difficult ethical issues raised by the behaviour of the lawyers in …


Law's Treatment Of Science: From Idealization To Understanding, Nayha Acharya Apr 2013

Law's Treatment Of Science: From Idealization To Understanding, Nayha Acharya

Dalhousie Law Journal

Increasing reliance on scientific evidence in litigation has created a demand for discussions directed at enabling a legitimate interaction between science and law The article develops the notion ofprocedural legitimacy-that adherence to legal procedure maintains the legitimacy of the adjudicative system and its outcomes -and applies it to determining how best to admit and use scientific evidence. The problem of undervaluing procedural legitimacy is illustrated through a commentary on contributions to the science and law discussion of Edmond and Roach, and Haack. The author's thesis is that maintaining adjudicative legitimacy depends on procedural rules being applied as vigilantly to science …


Searching And Seizing After 9/11: Developing And Applying Empirical Methodology To Measure Judicial Output Inthe Supreme Court's Section 8 Jurisprudence, Richard Jochelson, Michael Weinrath, Melaine Janelle Murchison Apr 2012

Searching And Seizing After 9/11: Developing And Applying Empirical Methodology To Measure Judicial Output Inthe Supreme Court's Section 8 Jurisprudence, Richard Jochelson, Michael Weinrath, Melaine Janelle Murchison

Dalhousie Law Journal

In 2005, Margit Cohn and Mordechai Kremnitzer created a multidimensional model to measure judicial discourse inherent in the decision making of constitutional courts. Their model set out multiple indicia bywhich to measure whether the court acted within proper constitutional constraints in order to determine the extent to which a court rendered a decision that was activist or restrained. This study attempts to operationalize that model. We use this model to analyze changes in interpretation of search and seizure law under section 8 after the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at the Supreme Court of Canada. The …


Law And Mental Health: A Relationship In Crisis?, Sheila Wildeman Oct 2010

Law And Mental Health: A Relationship In Crisis?, Sheila Wildeman

Dalhousie Law Journal

What is the significance of the rule of law to the area of professional knowledge and practice that is "mental health"-or to the interaction of those two aspirational, one might say euphemistically-named social systems: the mental health and justice systems? This question centres upon the rule of law-specifically, I suggest (as I relate further in closing), a thick conception of the rule of law grounded in an ideal of state-subject reciprocity-and not, or not directly, upon the individual and social good ofhealth. It is this overarching question that I wish to pursue in setting the stage for the two lectures …


Medicine And The Law: The Challenges Of Mental Illness, Beverley Mclachlin Oct 2010

Medicine And The Law: The Challenges Of Mental Illness, Beverley Mclachlin

Dalhousie Law Journal

In this lecture, I offer some thoughts on a medical/legal issue that is old, yet perennially pertinent; that is common, yet extraordinary; that is wellknown, yet all too often swept under the carpet. I refer to the issue-or more accurately the plethora of issues-that surround mental health and the law.


Canadian State Trials, Vol. 1, Michael Boudreau Apr 1997

Canadian State Trials, Vol. 1, Michael Boudreau

Dalhousie Law Journal

In a letter to Deputy Judge Advocate Charles Gould, dated 10 April 1762, General Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America, wrote with regard to the proceedings of the general courts martial in Montreal that "it is a Maxim held by all Civilians That no government can subsist without Law." Over half a century later in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, William Elenes filed an affidavit with the Harbour Grace Sessions Court alleging that a group of men stole some potatoes from his house. "Late in March of [ 1817]," the statement read, "John McGrath with a gun and two …


Family Violence-Investigating Child Abuse And Learning From British Mistakes, Alastair Bissett-Johnson Apr 1993

Family Violence-Investigating Child Abuse And Learning From British Mistakes, Alastair Bissett-Johnson

Dalhousie Law Journal

It seems appropriate at the onset to set out something of what the disciplines of law, medicine and social work know about family violence and when, during recent years, this knowledge came to the attention of professionals, the public and legislature. We can then, perhaps, judge whether our existing laws, rules of evidence and procedure take this information adequately into account in dealing with cases of violence within the family. Whilst solving these problems takes time, and law often lags behind the behavioural sciences, the question arises whether the lag is too long and whether differences between experts in the …


The Hidden Gender Of Law, Christine Boyle May 1992

The Hidden Gender Of Law, Christine Boyle

Dalhousie Law Journal

Two legal academics who set out to produce a book of materials with such a title could weave many components into it. They could explore feminist methodology, and show how much feminist legal scholarship has in common with feminist scholarship generally. They could illustrate the influence of feminist academic work on actual legal decisions and legislation. They could discuss feminist scholarship and legal education, including the dramatic developments over the last twenty years. Questions about fundamental values - equality, liberty, security, fairness - could be addressed. Materials could be included from the field of law often called Women and the …


Sanctions And Rewards In The Legal System: A Multidisciplinary Approach, A Wr Carrothers Oct 1990

Sanctions And Rewards In The Legal System: A Multidisciplinary Approach, A Wr Carrothers

Dalhousie Law Journal

This book consists of ten essays on the general theme of effective techniques for controlling and regulating social behaviour. The authors draw on the disciplines of management studies, history and criminology, public policy studies and economics, psychology, anthropology, law, sociology, and political science. They are, collectively, a modern manifestation of Roscoe Pound's concept of law in action as "social engineering".


Law As A Social Science, R. Lynn Campbell Jun 1985

Law As A Social Science, R. Lynn Campbell

Dalhousie Law Journal

Law is offered as an undergraduate social science discipline at Carleton University. Students may take programmes leading to both Major and Honours B.A. degrees in law or may also undertake the study of law in a combined Major or Honours programme in conjunction with another discipline. Successful completion of any programme does not qualify the graduate for admission to any bar admission programme nor is any credit given towards a law degree for courses taken at Carleton.' The purpose of the programme is to promote an awareness of the place of rules respecting human conduct in political, social and economic …


An Attorney General Of Nova Scotia, J.S.D. Thompson, 1878-1882: Disparate Aspects Of Law And Society In Provincial Canada, P. B. Waite Oct 1984

An Attorney General Of Nova Scotia, J.S.D. Thompson, 1878-1882: Disparate Aspects Of Law And Society In Provincial Canada, P. B. Waite

Dalhousie Law Journal

Historians are apt to be omnivorous animals, and they can be nourished by all kinds of research. This cheerful eclecticism has the disadvantage of being dangerously subject to naivet6, a disposition which greets as discovery what to others is obvious. Lack of legal training might further lead to some crashing legal solecism; certainly the temerity of this adventure resembles that of a celebrated premier of Alberta who, in 1937, took on the portfolio of attorney general-not only without being a lawyer, but without one iota of legal education whatever. Perhaps, since he had once been head of the Calgary Prophetic …


Law Schools And Other Reformatories, Norval Morris Nov 1980

Law Schools And Other Reformatories, Norval Morris

Dalhousie Law Journal

It is, of course, a great and undeserved honor for me to be offering this year's Horace E. Read Memorial Lecture. The slightest acquaintance with Dean Read's career reveals the range and quality of his contributions to the law, to the institutions of society and to legal education. It is a great pleasure to be playing a role in these annual memorial celebrations. His life is a model of service and scholarship to all who wish to live the life of the law at its higher levels and refutes those who see our profession as narrow or intellectually confined. Nevertheless, …


Psychiatry, The Inmate And The Law, A. W. Cragg Oct 1976

Psychiatry, The Inmate And The Law, A. W. Cragg

Dalhousie Law Journal

In August of 1971, the Solicitor General of Canada appointed a committee of psychiatrists to advise him on the treatment of mentally ill inmates. The committee completed its work and reported in May 1972. The report, entitled The General Program for the Development of Psychiatric Services in Federal Correctional Services in Canada1 developed in the space of sixty pages, including appendices, a general program for expanding psychiatric services and facilities in the field of corrections in Canada. In his forward to the Report, the Solicitor General, Warren Allmand, announces that he is "profoundly impressed by the recommendations made by this …


Psychiatry, The Inmate And The Law, A. W. Cragg Oct 1976

Psychiatry, The Inmate And The Law, A. W. Cragg

Dalhousie Law Journal

In August of 1971, the Solicitor General of Canada appointed a committee of psychiatrists to advise him on the treatment of mentally ill inmates. The committee completed its work and reported in May 1972. The report, entitled The General Program for the Development of Psychiatric Services in Federal Correctional Services in Canada1 developed in the space of sixty pages, including appendices, a general program for expanding psychiatric services and facilities in the field of corrections in Canada. In his forward to the Report, the Solicitor General, Warren Allmand, announces that he is "profoundly impressed by the recommendations made by this …


Psychiatry, The Inmate And The Law, A. W. Cragg Oct 1976

Psychiatry, The Inmate And The Law, A. W. Cragg

Dalhousie Law Journal

In August of 1971, the Solicitor General of Canada appointed a committee of psychiatrists to advise him on the treatment of mentally ill inmates. The committee completed its work and reported in May 1972. The report, entitled The General Program for the Development of Psychiatric Services in Federal Correctional Services in Canada1 developed in the space of sixty pages, including appendices, a general program for expanding psychiatric services and facilities in the field of corrections in Canada. In his forward to the Report, the Solicitor General, Warren Allmand, announces that he is "profoundly impressed by the recommendations made by this …


The Legal Point Of View, L. C. Green Sep 1975

The Legal Point Of View, L. C. Green

Dalhousie Law Journal

What is Law? By what criteria do we recognize valid law? These questions have exercised the minds of distinguished jurisprudential thinkers of the past. Every solution that has been propounded, whether in terms of natural law theory, command models, norm or rule models, seems to have been defective in one way or another. The main thesis of this book is that every attempt to find some "essence of law" - whether in terms of commands, rules or whatever - is bound to fail. The reason given is that there is not one and only one "true" conception of law. There …


The Legal Point Of View, L. C. Green Sep 1975

The Legal Point Of View, L. C. Green

Dalhousie Law Journal

What is Law? By what criteria do we recognize valid law? These questions have exercised the minds of distinguished jurisprudential thinkers of the past. Every solution that has been propounded, whether in terms of natural law theory, command models, norm or rule models, seems to have been defective in one way or another. The main thesis of this book is that every attempt to find some "essence of law" - whether in terms of commands, rules or whatever - is bound to fail. The reason given is that there is not one and only one "true" conception of law. There …