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Full-Text Articles in Law
A Canadian Lens On Third Party Litigation Funding In The American Bankruptcy Context, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Emily Uza
A Canadian Lens On Third Party Litigation Funding In The American Bankruptcy Context, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Emily Uza
Chicago-Kent Law Review
This Article offers two major recommendations to expand the use of third party litigation funding (“TPLF”) into the U.S. insolvency context. As seen in the Canadian context, courts have accepted the use of litigation funding agreements fitting within certain parameters. If U.S. courts follow suit, friction against the implementation of TPLF can be mitigated. Alternatively, regulation may occur through legislative and regulatory models to govern and set out precisely what types of arrangements are permitted. Involving entities such as the SEC may expedite the acceptance of TPLF, but special attention is necessary not to intermingle notions of fiduciaries into the …
Material Contribution To Risk In The Canadian Law Of Toxic Torts, Lynda M. Collins
Material Contribution To Risk In The Canadian Law Of Toxic Torts, Lynda M. Collins
Chicago-Kent Law Review
Causation is acknowledged as the single biggest hurdle to recovery for plaintiffs in toxic tort actions in Canada (and elsewhere). Scientific uncertainty involving questions of both generic and specific causation has frequently precluded recovery for plaintiffs even where defendants have negligently exposed them to toxic risk. Three types of uncertainty have been identified: plaintiff indeterminacy (where we know that the defendant has harmed some proportion of a particular population but no individual can prove causation); defendant indeterminacy (where we know that a group of defendants has harmed a particular plaintiff or plaintiffs but each can escape liability by pointing the …
Reforming The Regulation Of Political Advocacy By Charities: From Charity Under Siege To Charity Under Rescue?, Adam Parachin
Reforming The Regulation Of Political Advocacy By Charities: From Charity Under Siege To Charity Under Rescue?, Adam Parachin
Chicago-Kent Law Review
A newly elected liberal federal government in Canada has pledged to reform the legal distinction between charity and politics. This paper provides context to this reform initiative, linking it to a controversial political activities audit program funded by the former conservative federal government. It identifies three distorting ideas about charity—that charity can be understood as a tax expenditure, economic or neutral concept—that should be eschewed in the reform process. It also identifies three characteristics of charity—the capacity of charities for thought leadership, the pervasiveness of messaging in charitable programming and the distinctiveness of charity and government—that should guide reformers.
A Tale Of Two Countries' Engagement With The Fair Cross Section Right: Aboriginal Underrepresentation On Ontario Juries And The Boston Marathon Bomber's Jury Wheel Challenge, Marie Comiskey
Chicago-Kent Law Review
In both Canada and the United States, the constitutional right to a jury trial includes the right to select a jury from a representative cross-section of the jury-eligible population. This article compares and contrasts how this right has been interpreted in the two countries through the lens of recent controversies. In Part I, the article examines how the Supreme Court of Canada and the United States Supreme Court have defined the representative cross-section component of the right to a jury trial in the two respective countries. In Part II, the article focuses on the crisis of Aboriginal underrepresentation on coroner …
Juror Bias, Voir Dire, And The Judge-Jury Relationship, Nancy S. Marder
Juror Bias, Voir Dire, And The Judge-Jury Relationship, Nancy S. Marder
Chicago-Kent Law Review
In the United States, voir dire is viewed as essential to selecting an impartial jury. Judges, lawyers, and the public fervently believe that a fair trial depends on distinguishing between prospective jurors who are impartial and those who are not. However, in England, Australia, and Canada, there are impartial jury trials without voir dire. This article challenges the assumption that prospective jurors enter the courtroom as either impartial or partial and that voir dire will reveal the impartial ones. Though voir dire fails as an “impartiality detector,” this article explores how voir dire contributes to the trial process in two …
A Comparative Law Analysis Of Private Securities Litigation In The Wake Of Morrison V. National Australia Bank, Grant Swanson
A Comparative Law Analysis Of Private Securities Litigation In The Wake Of Morrison V. National Australia Bank, Grant Swanson
Chicago-Kent Law Review
This article examines the recent Supreme Court decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank and its broad implications for private securities litigants going forward. Morrison overturned forty years of jurisprudence when it rejected the conduct and effects tests used in some form by every Circuit Court when determining the extraterritorial reach of Section 10(b) of the Securities Act. The Court instead adopted a transactional test requiring that the security be traded in the United States or otherwise domestic, substantially cutting back the reach of Section 10(b). As a result, many securities litigants will be forced to bring claims in the …
Canadian Medical Malpractice Law In 2011: Missing The Mark On Patient Safety, Colleen M. Flood, Bryan Thomas
Canadian Medical Malpractice Law In 2011: Missing The Mark On Patient Safety, Colleen M. Flood, Bryan Thomas
Chicago-Kent Law Review
This paper surveys the current state of medical malpractice law in Canada, along with current evidence on adverse events in Canadian hospitals, medical clinics, and long-term care facilities. Though there is currently no "burning platform" to reform Canadian medical malpractice law, the authors raise concerns about the law's failure to deter medical malpractice, as well as concerns about access to justice issues facing victims of medical malpractice. Federal and provincial governments have tried to promote patient safety through various prevention strategies—for example, through the creation of Health Quality Councils, the dissemination of information on best practices, and tighter regulation of …
The Canadian Criminal Jury, Regina Schuller, Neil Vidmar
The Canadian Criminal Jury, Regina Schuller, Neil Vidmar
Chicago-Kent Law Review
The Canadian criminal jury system has some unique characteristics. In contrast to American law, that gives precedent to free speech over fair trial, and English law, that favors fair trial over free speech, Canadian law occupies a middle ground balancing these competing values. Jury selection procedure in most trials is similar to that of England: jurors are assumed to be "impartial between the Queen and the accused" and are selected without voir dire. However, in cases involving exceptional pretrial publicity or involving accused persons from racial or ethnic minority groups, jurors are vetted by a "challenge for cause" process in …
The Effectiveness Of International Legislative Responses To The Helms-Burton Act, Bernadette Atuahene
The Effectiveness Of International Legislative Responses To The Helms-Burton Act, Bernadette Atuahene
All Faculty Scholarship
The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act (Helms-Burton Act) is the latest appendage to the Cuban embargo. Title III has caused an international uproar because it gives U.S. victims of Cuban expropriation a right of action within U.S. courts against third parties who traffic in confiscated property. For example, a U.S. citizen can sue a Canadian Mining company doing business in Cuba if they are operating on or using expropriated property. The Helms-Burton Act (HBA) targets U.S. allies who continue to trade and invest in Cuba regardless of pending U.S. claims of expropriation. In response to the HBA, Cuba, …