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Full-Text Articles in Law
Anchoring Lifeline Criminal Jurisprudence: Making The Leap From Theory To Critical Race-Inspired Jurisprudence, Danardo S. Jones
Anchoring Lifeline Criminal Jurisprudence: Making The Leap From Theory To Critical Race-Inspired Jurisprudence, Danardo S. Jones
Dalhousie Law Journal
This article takes as a starting point the claim that anti-Black racism permeates Canadian society and finds expression in our institutions, most notably the criminal justice system. Indeed, anti-Black racism in criminal justice and its impact on Black lives are not credibly in dispute. Thus, what should concern legal scholars is the staying power or permanence of racism. In other words, should Canadian legal scholars ‘get real’ about the intractability of race? Or can anti-Black racism be effectively confronted by developing legal and evidentiary tools designed to fix, rather than dismantle, the current system? Put another way, this article aims …
African Nova Scotian Restorative Justice: A Change Has Gotta Come, Michelle Y. Williams
African Nova Scotian Restorative Justice: A Change Has Gotta Come, Michelle Y. Williams
Dalhousie Law Journal
Anti-Black racism in the criminal justice system is a concern for people ofAfrican descent throughout the diaspora, including Nova Scotia-a province shaped by slavery and segregation. A relational theory of restorative justice suggests that a restorative approach to criminal harms could yield transformational results within and beyond the criminal justice system. Using a critical race analysis, this paper demonstrates that despite the theoretical promise, restorative justice practice in Nova Scotia has not met the needs of African Nova Scotians nor fundamentally transformed structural racism within the system. The author concludes that a culturally specific, community-led African Nova Scotian justice strategy …
Getting Past The Gatekeepers: The Reception Of Restorative Justice Inthe Nova Scotian Criminal Justice System, Don Clairmont, Ethan Kim
Getting Past The Gatekeepers: The Reception Of Restorative Justice Inthe Nova Scotian Criminal Justice System, Don Clairmont, Ethan Kim
Dalhousie Law Journal
This paper draws upon twelve years of multi-dimensional research and focuses on the reception of restorative justice in the criminal justice system in Nova Scotia. The paper traces the evolution of the restorative justice social movement, examining the launching and take-off phases, the impact on the police gatekeeping role, the receptivity and use of restorative justice by other criminal justice system professionals, its current level of institutionalization in the criminal justice system, and its future prospects.
Trauma-Informed Approaches To Law: Why Restorative Justice Must Understand Trauma And Psychological Coping, Melanie Randall, Lori Haskell
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 …
Proportionality As A Guiding Principle In Young Offender Dispositions, Paul Riley
Proportionality As A Guiding Principle In Young Offender Dispositions, Paul Riley
Dalhousie Law Journal
Sentencing is traditionally regarded as one of the most difficult and challenging functions of the criminal justice system. In arriving at the appropriate sanction to be imposed upon an offender, a court must reconcile the principles and objectives of the criminal law with the criminal act committed, the circumstances surrounding its commission, and the character of the offender who committed it. The court must, with the guidance of a few abstract, broadly philosophical, and often contradictory principles of sentencing, decide upon a sanction which is appropriate in the very concrete and factually specific case within which it is presented. This …
The Aftermath Of The Marshall Commission: A Preliminary Opinion, H Archibald Kaiser
The Aftermath Of The Marshall Commission: A Preliminary Opinion, H Archibald Kaiser
Dalhousie Law Journal
Prolegomena to the Cure or the Beginning of the Epitaph: "Look, Doctor, try to see things my way. All the diagnoses have been made and the treatment has been prescribed, but somehow ... I just don't feel quite right. Sometimes I think I'll never get well. Is there something you haven't told me? The Doctor's skeptical but still deferential patient echoes the sentiments of many who have keenly observed the unfolding of the Donald Marshall, Jr. saga. A monstrous injustice was perpetrated and then sustained over a period of fifteen years in the conviction and ongoing persecution of an innocent …
"Sentencing And Visible Minorities: Equality And Affirmative Action In The Criminal Justice System", Bruce P. Archibald
"Sentencing And Visible Minorities: Equality And Affirmative Action In The Criminal Justice System", Bruce P. Archibald
Dalhousie Law Journal
The Canadian criminal justice system is facing serious criticism for being racist. Certain Canadian laws and judicial decisions in the past have made the legal system an easy target for such charges. Canadian governments have acknowledged the problems of racism in Canadian society, and provincial and federal human rights legislation exemplify efforts to eradicate racial discrimination. However, racial discrimination persists in Canadian society and the criminal justice system occupies a particularly sensitive place in controversies over the role of the state in these problems. Moreover, the equality provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms have quite properly raised …