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Full-Text Articles in Law

Judging By The Numbers: Judicial Analytics, The Justice System And Its Stakeholders, Jena Mcgill, Amy Salyzyn Jun 2021

Judging By The Numbers: Judicial Analytics, The Justice System And Its Stakeholders, Jena Mcgill, Amy Salyzyn

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article considers the future of judicial analytics, its possible effects for the public, the judiciary and the legal profession, and potential responses to the rise of judicial analytics in Canada. Judicial analytics involves the use of advanced technologies, like machine learning and natural language processing, to quickly analyze publicly-available data about judges and judicial decision-making. While, in Canada, judicial analytics tools are as yet at the early stages of development and use, such tools are likely to become more powerful, more accurate and more accessible in the near-to-medium future, resulting in unprecedented public insight into judges and the work …


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" …


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 …


Trial By Theory: A Response To Acharya's "Law's Treatment Of Science: From Idealization To Understanding", Gary Edmond, Kent Roach Apr 2013

Trial By Theory: A Response To Acharya's "Law's Treatment Of Science: From Idealization To Understanding", Gary Edmond, Kent Roach

Dalhousie Law Journal

Adopting a pragmatic and empirically sensitive approach to the use of forensic science and medicine, this essay defends Edmond and Roach's "AContextual Approach to the Admissibility of the State's Forensic Science and Medical Evidence." The authors reiterate their concerns about idealized approaches to science and expertise and question the utility of philosophically-driven and essentialist models of science for legal practice. In detail the essay explains why privileging process over outcomes in the criminal process (andeven perpetuating the dichotomy) is misguided. The authors affirm the importance of factual accuracy and the socio-institutional illegitimacy generated by wrongful convictions. Drawing upon recent inquiries …


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 …


Ifit's Reusable Why Not Reuse It? The Reuse Of Single Use Medical Devices, Brian Wilson Apr 2011

Ifit's Reusable Why Not Reuse It? The Reuse Of Single Use Medical Devices, Brian Wilson

Dalhousie Law Journal

The reprocessing and subsequent reuse of medical devices labelled by the manufacturer as 'single-use only' is a cost cutting strategy employed by many healthcare centres. However, attempting to extend the life of a device labelled as 'single-use only' raises a number of unique concerns surrounding the issue of legal liability specifically who should bear responsibility if someone suffers harm as a result of a reprocessed single-use device. Following an overview of the current regulatory environment, the potential tortious liability attaching to those who may be implicated in the reprocessing chain is discussed. Specifically, this paper examines the duty and standard …


Reading The Judicial Mind: Predicting The Courts' Reaction To The Use Of Neuroscientific Evidence For Lie Detection, Jennifer Chandler Apr 2010

Reading The Judicial Mind: Predicting The Courts' Reaction To The Use Of Neuroscientific Evidence For Lie Detection, Jennifer Chandler

Dalhousie Law Journal

How will the courts react to the emerging technology ofdetecting deception using neuroscientific methods such as neuro-imaging? The sociological theory of the autonomy of technology suggests that if neuroscientific techniques come to be seen as reliable for this purpose, other objections will soon be abandoned. The history of the judicial reaction to DNA evidence illustrates this pattern. As DNA evidence came to be seen as highlyreliable, the courts rapidly abandoned their concerns that juries would be overwhelmed by the "mystique of science" and that the justice system would be "dehumanized." The legaljustifications for rejecting polygraph evidence are explored in order …


Spirits In A Material World: Intelligent Agents As Intermediaries In Electronic Commerce, Ian R. Kerr Oct 1999

Spirits In A Material World: Intelligent Agents As Intermediaries In Electronic Commerce, Ian R. Kerr

Dalhousie Law Journal

The article provides an in-depth analysis of the contract issues peculiar to automated electronic commerce. The aim of the study is to provide a critical evaluation of the various solutions that might be adopted by a legislature seeking to cure formal defects in agreements that are negotiated and entered into by software programs, independent of human review. The author begins with an examination of the current state of the technology that automates electronic commerce, offering some speculation as to its future development. He then outlines the barriers to automated electronic commerce inherent in traditional contract doctrine. He argues against the …


Framing The Issues For Cameras In The Courtrooms: Redefining Judicial Dignity And Decorum, A Wayne Mackay Apr 1996

Framing The Issues For Cameras In The Courtrooms: Redefining Judicial Dignity And Decorum, A Wayne Mackay

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article examines the role of s. 2(b) of the Charter of Rights in determining the role of cameras in Canadian courtrooms. The discussions reveal that arguments in opposition to cameras are largely unfounded and in contradiction to the freedom of expression guarantee. The denial of the right is in reality based on judges' and lawyers' fear of loss of control of the courtroom environment. Cameras should only be banned from courtrooms as part of a total publication ban, and then only after a careful s. 1 analysis


Is Care Enough? Proceed With Care: Final Report Of The Royal Commission On New Reproductive Technologies, Diana Majury Apr 1994

Is Care Enough? Proceed With Care: Final Report Of The Royal Commission On New Reproductive Technologies, Diana Majury

Dalhousie Law Journal

Having just finished reading Proceed with Care: Final Report of the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies, I find that the questions I am left with pertain less to the technologies themselves, although I certainly do have those, and more to the role and effectiveness of royal commissions generally, and this Royal Commission specifically. I am left wondering, Was it worth it? What really was the point of it all? How could we expect any group of seven-or was it nine? well, ultimately five people-to respond with depth and substance to a mandate that required them to "inquire into and …


La Preuve, Les Techniques Modernes Et Le Respect Des Valeurs Fondamentales, Wafe Maclauchlan May 1991

La Preuve, Les Techniques Modernes Et Le Respect Des Valeurs Fondamentales, Wafe Maclauchlan

Dalhousie Law Journal

In La preuve, les techniques modernes et le respect des valeurs fondamentales, Professor Pierre Patenaude has produced a scholarly and practical inquiry into the question of how law responds to science. This book raises questions of the gathering, the admissibility and the reliability of evidence through modem techniques such as electronic surveillance, breathalyzer tests, lie detectors, radar, the administration of truthinducing drugs, and hypnosis. It combines a thoughtful examination of values underlying the law of evidence with an introduction to the complexities and the frailities of scientific investigative techniques.


"Electronic Shock": The Impact Of Computer Technology On The Practice Of Law, B. B. Lockwood Oct 1983

"Electronic Shock": The Impact Of Computer Technology On The Practice Of Law, B. B. Lockwood

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article was written on a computer by a practitioner of law of thirty years' standing. In all that time I have rarely used a typewriter, and then only in an emergency during the dark reaches of a late night. What has changed? Why not dictate this? Wouldn't a secretary do it faster? . . . and better? The answers are: a home computer now sits on the desk in my study; for me, it's much easier and surer to edit text I can see; and, even with a good secretary, it is easier and faster to review and edit …