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Full-Text Articles in Law
More Than Words: Enhancing The Proposed Canadian Victims Bill Of Rights (Bill C-32), Benjamin Perrin
More Than Words: Enhancing The Proposed Canadian Victims Bill Of Rights (Bill C-32), Benjamin Perrin
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This brief Commentary provides an evaluation of the proposed Canadian Victims Bill of Rights (a key part of Bill C-32), and recommendations aimed at ensuring that it meets the objective of meaningfully enhancing the rights of victims within the criminal justice system. Part 2 provides a synopsis of victimization in Canada, including both self-reported crime and police-reported crime. Groups of victims suffering disproportionately high levels of violent victimization are highlighted and reasons for under-reported crime related to the justice system are identified. Part 3 summarizes the key components of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights. Part 4 evaluates this proposed …
The Turn To Corporate Criminal Liability For International Crimes: Transcending The Alien Tort Statute, James G. Stewart
The Turn To Corporate Criminal Liability For International Crimes: Transcending The Alien Tort Statute, James G. Stewart
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In November 2013, Swiss authorities announced a criminal investigation into one of the world’s largest gold refineries on the basis that the company committed a war crime. The Swiss investigation comes a matter of months after the US Supreme Court decided in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. that allegations like these could not give rise to civil liability under the aegis of the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”). Intriguingly, however, the Swiss case is founded on a much earlier American precedent. In 1909, the U.S. Supreme Court approved the novel practice of prosecuting companies. Unlike the Court’s position in Kiobel …
The Punishment Agenda In The Courts, Debra Parkes
The Punishment Agenda In The Courts, Debra Parkes
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This paper critically examines the potential of prisoner litigation in Canada to shed light on what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has called “the hidden world of punishment.” It considers whether prisoner’s rights litigation can act as a meaningful legal check on the growing punishment agenda in Canada. The paper begins with a brief description of some aspects of the punishment agenda before moving on to consider case law under the section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which speaks directly to punishment and its limits, the section 12 right to be free from “cruel and unusual …
Sexual Assault And The Meaning Of Power And Authority For Women With Mental Disabilities, Janine Benedet, Isabel Grant
Sexual Assault And The Meaning Of Power And Authority For Women With Mental Disabilities, Janine Benedet, Isabel Grant
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The sexual assault of persons with mental disabilities (also described as cognitive, intellectual and developmental disabilities) occurs at alarmingly high rates worldwide. These assaults are a form of gender-based violence intersecting with discrimination based on disability. Our research on the treatment of such cases in the Canadian criminal justice system demonstrates the systemic barriers these victims face at the level of both substantive legal doctrine and trial procedure. Relying on feminist legal theory and disability theory, we argue in this paper that abuses of trust and power underlie most sexual assaults of women with mental disabilities. We argue that existing …
Juries, Lay Judges, And Trials, Toby S. Goldbach, Valerie P. Hans
Juries, Lay Judges, And Trials, Toby S. Goldbach, Valerie P. Hans
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“Juries, Lay Judges, and Trials” describes the widespread practice of including ordinary citizens as legal decision makers in the criminal trial. In some countries, lay persons serve as jurors and determine the guilt and occasionally the punishment of the accused. In others, citizens decide cases together with professional judges in mixed decision-making bodies. What is more, a number of countries have introduced or reintroduced systems employing juries or lay judges, often as part of comprehensive reform in emerging democracies. Becoming familiar with the job of the juror or lay citizen in a criminal trial is thus essential for understanding contemporary …