Law Commons^™

Towards Meaningful Research And Engagement: Indigenous Knowledge Systems And Great Lakes Governance, Deborah Mcgregor, Nicole Latulippe, Rod Whitlow, Kristi Leora Gansworth, Lorrilee Mcgregor, Stephanie Allen

Articles & Book Chapters

For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples governed their relations in the Great Lakes region, guided by distinct political, legal, governance, and knowledge systems. Despite historic and ongoing exclusion of Indigenous peoples from Great Lakes governance in the Canadian context and other assaults on Indigenous sovereignty, authority, jurisdiction and responsibilities, Indigenous peoples have maintained their relationships with the Great Lakes. In recent years, Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) have made inroads in Great Lakes governance, thanks primarily to First Nation political advocacy. However, it remains a challenge to include Indigenous knowledge and implement approaches that bridge Indigenous and Western ways of knowing. …

Emotions And Precedent, Emily Kidd White

All Papers

The philosophy of emotion raises complications for theories of precedent. This chapter argues that it is productive to think of the effect of some precedents as facets of legal reasoning that are related to the use and understanding of legal concepts as thick concepts. In legal reasoning, precedents are routinely invoked to explicate, and/or clarify the content of legal concepts that are at issue in a case. This chapter develops an argument by Bernard Williams, i.e., that one must avoid the risk of over-generalizing the relationship of emotions to thick concepts, by placing it in the context of legal reasoning. …

Resetting Normal: Women, Decent Work And Canada's Fractured Care Economy, The Canadian Women's Foundation, Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives, Ontario Nonprofit Network, Fay Faraday

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

Women in Canada have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to an extent that threatens to roll back equality gains. Economic losses have fallen heavily on women and most dramatically on women living on low incomes who experience intersecting inequalities based on race, class, disability, education, and migration and immigration status. The pandemic crisis has highlighted the fragility of response systems and the urgent need for structural rethinking and systemic change.

On Emotions And The Politics Of Attention In Judicial Reasoning, Emily Kidd White

Articles & Book Chapters

Legal doctrine regularly requires judges to both understand and use emotions in different ways. This chapter explores the role of emotions in fixing and sustaining judicial attention on the impact of a law on the constitutional rights of an individual or group. That certain forms of wrong or harm, including forms of political and social exclusion, are difficult to detect in the absence of focused attention is, I think, what Elizabeth Bishop’s poem ‘Man-Moth’, excerpted here in epigraph, intends to express. This chapter explores the role of emotions in setting up the serious, sustained inquiry into the impact of a …

Cripping The Ethics Of Disability Arts Research, Roxanne Mykitiuk, Andrea Lamarre, Carla Rice

Articles & Book Chapters

The use of multimedia story making and drama based narrative in disability health research raises conventional ethical issues of informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality. In this chapter we explore unique ethical issues that arise when working with non-normatively embodied research participants in a highly collaborative way, using arts based mediums that transgress boundaries of anonymity and privacy, and call for difference-tailored processes of consent. People with disabilities have long been the object of medical and health research and the subjects of biomedical ethical transgressions, giving rise to the need for stricter human subject protocols about consent, confidentiality and anonymity. However, …

Heinonline’S World Constitutions Illustrated In Top 5 Fcil Sources, Yemisi Dina

Articles & Book Chapters

World Constitutions Illustrated provides access to constitutions of various jurisdictions. There is a current constitution in the original language, one English language translation for each country, and amending laws for each constitution.

The database provides access to constitutional development documents, which is very important and critical, especially when researching smaller economies and jurisdictions. It serves as a one-stop shop for materials that may not necessarily be easily available anywhere else.

Book Review: Americanah By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Yemisi Dina

Articles & Book Chapters

Americanah is based on a love story that revolved around 3 continents - Africa, North America, and Europe. The themes of race, gender, and identity feature prominently in this award winning novel. Adichie’s story gives a vivid description of the lives of young teenagers of various ethnic and class structures in military-ruled Nigeria from the late 1970s to the 1990s and the beginning of a democratic government. It subtly describes the different ramifications of corruption and highlights a very degenerative period and the beginning of professional brain drain in the country.

Registered Savings Plans And The Making Of Middle Class Canada: Toward A Performative Theory Of Tax Policy, Lisa Philipps

Articles & Book Chapters

Politicians across Canada’s political spectrum strive to position themselves as defenders of the middle class, and tax policy is a prime vehicle for making this pitch. Any tax reform proposal can be examined critically to evaluate its likely distributional impacts and how well these map onto specific definitions of the middle class. This article attempts, however, a different project. Drawing on the ideas of Judith Butler, it analyzes instead how tax policy produces middle-class identity through the very process of claiming to advance middle-class interests. The case study for this purpose is the rise of tax incentives for saving as …

Foreign Investor Protection And Climate Action: A New Price Tag For Urgent Policies, Gus Van Harten

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

From a climate perspective, not all investment is equal. Desirable investment in clean energy needs encouragement and protection, while undesirable investment in fossil fuels needs clear policy signals to avoid further investment in destructive activities and stranding more assets. In this paper, evidence is presented on how foreign investor protection provisions in trade and investment agreements tilt the playing field in favor of entrenched incumbents and against urgent action on climate; on the potential for a massive expansion of investor-state litigation and risks to climate policy in proposed trade deals; and on key flaws in recent European Commission proposals to …

Experiences With Digitization Of Customary Court Cases In South Western Nigeria, Yemisi Dina

Articles & Book Chapters

This article describes my experiences on the digitization project of customary court cases in South Western Nigeria. I made a presentation to the African Section of the FCIL-SIS at the 106th Annual Meeting of the AALL on July 15, 2013.

Customary law is based on the tradition, customs and values of the people, and it varies in different ways. The terminology “customary law”, according to Park, is just a blanket description, as there are so many ethnic groups. Customary law covers various legal systems depicting each tribe’s customs and values. These are the two forms of customary law that are …

Law Via The Internet: Report On The Conference, Yemisi Dina

Articles & Book Chapters

Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York hosted the LVI (Law via the Internet) 2012. The conference also marked the twentieth anniversary of the LIIs (Legal Information Institutes) of the world, which have grown exponentially. The anniversary was not a cake-eating celebration but a two-day deliberation with members of an open access society who have been striving to make legal information freely available on the Internet. Many of the speakers at the sessions shared their experiences from the different projects they have been working on over the past twenty years or more, and the LIIs continue to improve. It was …

Regulating Social Media Use In The Workplace, Yemisi Dina

Editorials and Commentaries

The advent of social networking sites (SNS) has become a reality of the digital age. These sites are highly interactive, creative and addictive for individuals to exchange personal, professional and social ideas but its use has also been the subject of litigation in the courts lately just like any man made invention. People using these sites have sparked a number of legal challenges that have dramatically changed the world. This raises a number of questions as to whether there are clear guidelines on the use of these tools by employers and employees.

This paper is a case commentary of one …

Access To Digital Legal Information: Focus On The English-Speaking Caribbean Countries, Yemisi Dina

Articles & Book Chapters

The Internet and various digitization initiatives have opened up immediate access to legal materials such as statutes, bills, law reports etc. through government websites and the Legal Information Institutes. There is a dearth in the legal information that is free and openly accessible for countries in the English-speaking Caribbean even though there has been relative progress in the last ten years. A number of these countries have Freedom of Information or Access to Information legislation which requires that government must make information openly accessible to its citizens. This paper reviews developments and government efforts in providing free and accessible legal …

The Intelligibility Of Extralegal State Action: A General Lesson For Debates On Public Emergencies And Legality, François Tanguay-Renaud

Articles & Book Chapters

Some legal theorists deny that states can conceivably act extralegally in the sense of acting contrary to domestic law. This position finds its most robust articulation in the writings of Hans Kelsen and has more recently been taken up by David Dyzenhaus in the context of his work on emergencies and legality. This paper seeks to demystify their arguments and ultimately contend that we can intelligibly speak of the state as a legal wrongdoer or a legally unauthorized actor.

Kf Modified And The Classification Of Canadian Common Law, F. Tim Knight

Librarian Publications & Presentations

This article was inspired by a previous article written by Vincent DeCaen in an earlier issue of CLLR. It explores classification, the different approaches taken by KF Modified and LC Class KE, and the role KF Modified has had in organizing collections in Canadian law libraries. It argues that there is no right or wrong way to classify legal resources and suggests that KF Modified can benefit cataloguing workflow and is well suited to both the Canadian and common law library environments.

The Canadian Legal Information Institute - Ten Years On, Yemisi Dina, Louise Hamel

Articles & Book Chapters

CanLII, the free virtual law library for Canada, has its roots in three separate developments. The first was the launch of the Legal Information Institute movement, with Cornell and Australia as the first models of these efforts. Second, in Canada, LexUM (Centre for Research at the Universit6 de Montreal's Faculty of Law) had a long history of supporting open access to law since it started publishing the case law of the Supreme Court of Canada. Third, the Director of the Law Society of Upper Canada at the time was advocating to the National Virtual Library Group of the Federation of …

Irrigating The Famished Fields: The Impact Of Labour-Led Struggles On Policy And Action In Nigeria (1999-2007), Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Articles & Book Chapters

Between 1999 and 2007, a broad-based labour-led movement which focused most of its energies on its struggle against unpopular fuel price hikes in Nigeria was able to exert considerable, though limited, influence on an Obasanjo-led executive arm of government that was at best quasidemocratic in its orientation. This article argues that, despite the very important roles played by other factors (notably the presence of more democratic space in Nigeria post-1999), the movement's adoption of a mass social movement approach facilitated its ability to exert such influence.

Cyberlaws And Cybercafés: Analysis Of Operational Legislation In Some Commonwealth Jurisdictions And The United States, Yemisi Dina

Librarian Publications & Presentations

This chapter will discuss the existing cyber laws in some commonwealth countries and the United States. It compares the various definitions accorded to cyber crimes in these countries. It examines and discusses when cyber crime occurs in the various jurisdictions regardless of where it originates, the laws that apply to pornographv, the significance of jurisdiction for Internet criminals in all these countries, as well as when cybercafe operators are liable in cyber related crimes.

Legal Information Institutes (Llls) - Free Legal Stuff, Yemisi Dina

Librarian Publications & Presentations

Multi-disciplinary and comparative approach to legal studies implies that research should go outside the conventional research sources and consult a variety of options. Open access to legal information is made possible by legal information institutes worldwide. In the early 1990s, the Australian Legal Information Institute (AustiLII) initiated this unique medium of disseminating free legal information.

Use Of The Elizabeth Moys Classification Scheme For Legal Materials In The Caribbean, Janice A. Modeste, Yemisi Dina

Librarian Publications & Presentations

This chapter will give an historical background and account of the use of the Elizabeth Moys Classification Scheme in law libraries in the Caribbean. A questionnaire was administered to librarians and library staff of law libraries. Twenty-four questionnaire responses were received from participants. One of the results of the study is the suggestion that a separate number should be assigned for the entire Caribbean in the Moys Classification scheme because of the problems being encountered by librarians in assigning numbers.

Assessing Baxi’S Thesis On The Emergence Of A Trade-Related Market-Friendly Human Rights Paradigm: Recent Evidence From Nigerian Labour-Led Struggles, Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Articles & Book Chapters

The objective of the article is to assess some of the sub-claims that emerge from Baxi’s thesis on an emergent trade-related market-friendly human rights paradigm in the light of the available evidence regarding the intense contestations and confrontations that have occurred between Nigeria’s politically and economically transitional Obasanjo regime and a local labour-led coalition. The piece sets out to ascertain the contextual and localised validity of these ‘Baxian’ sub-claims, within the wider context of the government vs. labour confrontations in Nigeria during the neo-liberal socio-economic reforms undertaken in that country between 1999 and 2005.

The Civilised Self And The Barbaric Other: Imperial Delusions Of Order And The Challenges Of Human Security, Ikechi Mgbeoji

Articles & Book Chapters

In the aftermath of the military conflicts of 1936 - 45, there seemed to be a global renunciation of war as an instrument of state policy. Shortly thereafter, however, decades of ideological attrition between the major powers and the inherent perversion of postcolonial states reduced the solemn declarations of 1945 to ineffectual rhetoric. Underpinning the decline and demise of a human-centred approach to global peace and security is the enduring notion of the civilised self and the barbaric other. The polarisation of humanity between camps of the savage and the civilised has continued to animate international policy making despite denials. …

Poverty, Agency And Resistance In The Future Of International Law: An African Perspective, Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Articles & Book Chapters

This article enquires into the likely posture of future international law with respect to African peoples. It does so by focusing on three of the most important issues that have defined, and are likely to continue to define, international law’s engagement with Africans. These are: the grinding poverty in which most Africans live, the question of agency in their historical search for dignity, and the extent to which these African peoples can effectively resist externally imposed frameworks and measures that have negative effects on their social, economic and political experience. International law’s future posture in these respects is considered through …

Prolegomenon To A Pedestrian Cartography Of Mixed Legal Jurisdictions: The Case Of Israel/Palestine, Susan G. Drummond

Articles & Book Chapters

The relationship between cartography and law provides a unique focus through which to examine mixed legal jurisdictions. Through an exploration of the various uses of law, cartography, and nation building, the author postulates that mixed legal jurisdictions are created through the subtle incorporation of the originally unfamiliar “Other”. In Canada, European settlers asserted sovereignty through the mapping and naming of territory in ways that did not accord with traditional Aboriginal patterns of usage or conceptualizations of space. The eventual creation of a legal middle ground between these peoples, as articulated by Richard White, is the basis of the author’s analysis …

The African System On Human And Peoples' Rights, Quasi-Constructivism, And The Possibility Of Peacebuilding Within African States, Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Articles & Book Chapters

This article examines the influence that IHIs (such as the African System on Human and Peoples' Rights) can exert within states, with the facilitative work of local popular forces, and relates that to the possibility of valuable IHI contributions to peacebuilding within deeply fragmented African states. Of all the existing approaches to the study of IHIs, constructivism comes the closest to accounting for the highly significant incidences of IHIjostered (and popular forces-facilitated) 'correspondence' that occurs outside the 'compliance radar'. In this sense the article is a contribution to the growing constructivist human rights and institutional literature sets. In particular the …

The Process Geography Of Law (As Approached Through Andalucian Gitano Family Law), Susan G. Drummond

Articles & Book Chapters

Comparative law and legal anthropology have for long theorized on the basis of a traditional geography which saw states, regions, locales and social fields as having durable boundaries containing stable and homogenous cultures. This idea of place is now undergoing a massive transformation in response to the effects of and theories about globalization. The emerging ‘process geography’ rejects these traditional ideas, arguing that they are not, and indeed have never been aspects of reality, which is better represented by an imagery of processes. However, it is argued here that globalization is not a synonym for homogenization, nor has place suddenly …

International Law And International Relations Theory: A New Generation Of Interdisciplinary Scholarship, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Andrew S. Tulumello, Stepan Wood

Articles & Book Chapters

Nine years ago, Kenneth Abbott published an article exhorting international lawyers to read and master regime theory, arguing that it had multiple uses for the study of international law.1 He went as far as to call for a 'joint discipline" that would bridge the gap between international relations theory (IR) and international law (IL). Several years later, one of us followed suit with an article mapping the history of the two fields and setting forth an agenda for joint research. 2 Since then, political scientists and international lawyers have been reading and drawing on one another's work with increasing frequency …

The Great Repression: Criminal Punishment In The Nineteen-Eighties, Michael Mandel

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.