Law Commons^™

Analytic Jurisprudence In Time, Dan Priel

Articles & Book Chapters

Friedrich Nietzsche had this to say about philosophers:

"You ask me which of the philosophers’ traits are really idiosyncrasies? For example, their lack of historical sense, their hatred of the very idea of becoming, their Egypticism. They think that they show their respect for a subject when they de-historicize it, sub specie aeterni – when they turn it into a mummy. All that philosophers have handled for thousands of years have been concept-mummies; nothing real escaped their grasp alive. When these honorable idolators of concept worship something, they kill it and stuff it; they threaten the life of everything they …

Ethical Testing In The Real World: Evaluating Physical Testing Of Adversarial Machine Learning, Kendra Albert, Maggie Delano, Jonathon W. Penney, Afsaneh Rigot, Ram Shankar Siva Kumar

Articles & Book Chapters

This paper critically assesses the adequacy and representativeness of physical domain testing for various adversarial machine learning (ML) attacks against computer vision systems involving human subjects. Many papers that deploy such attacks characterize themselves as “real world.” Despite this framing, however, we found the physical or real-world testing conducted was minimal, provided few details about testing subjects and was often conducted as an afterthought or demonstration. Adversarial ML research without representative trials or testing is an ethical, scientific, and health/safety issue that can cause real harms. We introduce the problem and our methodology, and then critique the physical domain testing …

4 Questions For: Professor Dayna Scott On Environmental Racism In Canada, Osgoode Hall Law School Of York University

"4 Questions For" the Osgoode podcast

Dayna Scott, Associate Professor at Osgoode and York Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice in the Green Economy, talks with Priyanka Vittal, counsel at Greenpeace and an adjunct professor at Osgoode, about the impacts of environmental racism in Canada and what can be done about it. Run time: 19:50

My Covid Pause, Jennifer Nedelsky

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Concluding Remarks: Miyo-Wîcêhtowin, R V Stanley, And Our Future As Lawyers, Signa A. Daum Shanks

Articles & Book Chapters

Miyo-wîcêhtowin. It is a term I have learned to express the idea of good behaviour; responsibility to others; and not forgetting those who are the most forgotten, the most in need of help, those whose ways we most benefit from. It is Cree, but its nature and scope is not necessarily unique to Cree circles. It is reinforced by religious references, standards for professional certification and volunteer groups, and personal choices. It is also woven into Canada’s legal system, whether in judicial decisions or in academic or professional discussions. So while we can see it when appreciating cultural tenets or …

Supporting Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Research Partnerships, Rosalind Edwards, Helen Moewaka Barnes, Deborah Mcgregor, Tula Brannelly

Articles & Book Chapters

This commentary discusses the framing of the production of a series of online text-based and visual resources aimed at researchers embarking on Indigenous and non-Indigenous research partnerships, and in particular supporting non-Indigenous researchers to think about our/their methods, assumptions and behaviour. We identify the tension in mainstream funding for such partnerships, and discuss the implications of Northern epistemological claims to agendas and universality as against Southern epistemologies acknowledging diversity and challenging oppressions. We note the distinct bases for Indigenous methodologies. Our commentary outlines and illustrates the online downloadable resources produced by our own Indigenous and non-Indigenous research partnership, including a …

Let’S Pick Up Where We Left Off 25 Years Ago To Expand Access To Civil Justice In Canada, Ab Currie

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

The 2020 World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index ranks Canada 9th overall out of 128 countries on a composite rule of law index made up of 8 factors. In this latest version of the WJP Rule of Law Index Canada ranks 9th on constraints on government powers, 9th on absence of corruption, 9th on open government, 9th on respect for fundamental rights, 9th on order and security, 11th on regulatory enforcement, 10th on criminal justice and, much lower than the other rule of law indicators, 19th globally on civil justice. Canada’s overall score is 0.81 out of 1.00. …

What We Owe Workers As A Matter Of Common Humanity: Sickness And Caregiving Leaves And Pay In The Age Of Pandemics, Eric Tucker, Leah F. Vosko, Sarah Marsden

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Shared Indigenous And Crown Sovereignty: Modifying The State Model, Kent Mcneil

Articles & Book Chapters

When European nations colonized North America, their dealings with one another were based on the state model of territorial sovereignty. At the same time, they acknowledged the independence of the Indigenous nations and entered into nation-to-nation treaties with them, whereby sovereignty was to be shared. Consequently, the Westphalian concept of absolute state sovereignty has never applied in North America. While the European nations acquired sovereignty vis-à-vis one another in the international law system that they created, the Indigenous nations retained internal sovereignty and the right to continue governing themselves. This modified concept of state sovereignty has been acknowledged by the …

Extractivism: Socio-Legal Approaches To Relations With Lands And Resources, Dayna Nadine Scott

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Never Letting A Good Crisis Go To Waste: Canadian Interdiction Of Asylum Seekers, Sean Rehaag, Janet Song, Alexander Toope

Articles & Book Chapters

This article examines two moments of crisis at Canada’s border with the United States: the aftermath of September 11th, 2001 (“9/11”) and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canadian government leveraged both crises to offshore responsibilities for asylum seekers onto the United States. In the first case, Canada took advantage of U.S. preoccupations with border security shortly after 9/11 to persuade the United States to sign the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement (“STCA”)—an agreement that allows Canada to direct back asylum seekers who present themselves at land ports of entry on the Canada-U.S. border. In the second case, Canada used heightened anxieties …

Reimagining Disability: The Screening Of Donor Gametes And Embryos In Ivf, Isabel Karpin, Roxanne Mykitiuk

Articles & Book Chapters

In this article,we examine how disability is figured in the imaginaries that are given shape by the reproductive projects and parental desires facilitated by the bio-medical techniques and practices of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) that involve selection and screening for disability. We investigate how some users of ARTs understand and deploy these imaginaries in ways that are both concordant with and resistant to the understanding of disability embedded within the broader sociotechnical and social imaginaries. It is through users’ deliberations, choices, responses, and expectations that we come to understand how these imaginaries are perpetuated and resisted, and how maintaining them …

Exposing The Myths Of Household Water Insecurity In The Global North: A Critical Review, Katie Meehan, Wendy Jepson, Leila M. Harris, Amber Wutich, Melissa Beresford, Amanda Fencl, Jonathan London, Gregory Pierce, Lucero Radonic, Christian Wells, Nicole J. Wilson, Ellis Adjei Adams, Rachel Arsenault, Alexandra Brewis, Victoria Harrington, Yanna Lambrinidou, Deborah Mcgregor

Articles & Book Chapters

Safe and secure water is a cornerstone of modern life in the global North. This article critically examines a set of prevalent myths about household water in high-income countries, with a focus on Canada and the United States. Taking a relational approach, we argue that household water insecurity is a product of institutionalized structures and power, manifests unevenly through space and time, and is reproduced in places we tend to assume are the most water-secure in the world. We first briefly introduce “modern water” and the modern infrastructural ideal, a highly influential set of ideas that have shaped household water …

Good Faith In Canadian Trademark Applications, David Vaver

Articles & Book Chapters

On June 17, 2019, a new ground of trademark invalidation and opposition took effect in Canada: that “an application [for registration] was filed in bad faith.” This cryptic provision was enacted in 2018 to modify the package of 2014 amendments to the Trademarks Act that, when proclaimed into effect in 2019, radically changed Canada’s trademark system by allowing for the first time the registration of trademarks without evidence of use.

This Comment explores why the bar on bad faith applications was enacted and how it may work in practice.

A Colonial Castle: Defence Of Property In R V Stanley, Alexandra Flynn, Estair Van Wagner

Articles & Book Chapters

In 2016, Gerald Stanley shot 22-year-old Colten Boushie in the back of the head after Boushie and his friends entered Stanley’s farm. Boushie died instantly. Stanley relied on a hangfire defence, rooted in the defence of accident, and was found not guilty by an all-white jury. Throughout the trial, Stanley invoked concerns about trespass and rural crime (particularly property crime) that raised much evidence of limited relevance to whether or not the shooting was an accident. We argue that the assertions of trespass, without formerly raising the defence of property or trespass, shaped the trial by providing a racist, anti-Indigenous-tinged …

Backgrounder To The Accompanying Report ‘’’Troubling Incrementalism’: Is The Canadian Pension Plan Fund Doing Enough To Advance The Transition To A Low-Carbon Economy?”, Cynthia Williams

Canada Climate Law Initiative

No abstract provided.

Social Disclosure And Share Value: Empirical Data On (Non-) Disclosure Of Information Related To Violence And Lack Of Indigenous Consent, Shin Imai, Sarah-Grace Ross

Articles & Book Chapters

The Justice and Corporate Accountability Project has filed a number of complaints to the Ontario Securities Commission, the British Columbia Securities Commission and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the failure of Canadian mining companies to disclose information on community conflict, violence and Indigenous consent. We have also studied violence associated with 28 Canadian mining companies in Latin America and recorded company disclosure of violence.

‘Troubling Incrementalism’: Is The Canadian Pension Plan Fund Doing Enough To Advance The Transition To A Low-Carbon Economy?, Cynthia Williams

Canada Climate Law Initiative

The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is one of the world’s largest public pension funds, with $409.5 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2020. The mandate of the CPP Investment Board (CPPIB) is to manage the funds of the CPP in the best interests of Canadian Pension Plan contributors and beneficiaries, and to maximize investment returns without undue risk of loss. As CPP Investments CEO and President Mark Machin has recently observed, “our investment mandate and professional governance insulate our decision-making from short term distortions and gives us license to help shape the long-term future.” (In 2020, CPPIB …

The Costs Of Justice In Domestic Violence Cases : Mapping Canadian Law And Policy, Jennifer Koshan, Janet Mosher, Wanda Wiegers

Articles & Book Chapters

Domestic violence cases in Canada present unique access to justice challenges due to complex power dynamics, structural inequality, and the fact that victims, offenders, and children must often navigate multiple legal systems to resolve the many issues in this context. The complexity of these cases has both personal and systemic impacts. Different legal systems – for example, criminal, family, child protection, social welfare, and immigration – have differing objectives and personnel with varying levels of expertise in domestic violence. Conflicting decisions by different courts and tribunals with overlapping jurisdiction may impair the safety of victims and children, and may require …

Truth, Reconciliation, And The Cost Of Adversarial Justice, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Articles & Book Chapters

That Indigenous people in Canada were victimized for well over a century by the residential schools system for Aboriginal children is not in question. The system, which amounted to an “assault on child and culture,” was designed to “kill the Indian in the child.” Whether the legal system – purporting to provide some form of compensation in the context of claims by survivors and their families – has provided justice is a much more open question. The costs – financial, social, health, time, and so on – associated with pursuing the resolution of residential schools claims through the justice system …

Indigenous Constitutionalism And Dispute Resolution Outside The Courts: An Invitation, Karen Drake

Articles & Book Chapters

The Supreme Court of Canada's jurisprudence on constitutionally protected Aboriginal rights filters Indigenous laws through the lens of liberal constitutionalism, resulting in distortions of Indigenous law. To overcome this constitutional capture, this article advocates for an institution that facilitates dispute resolution between Canadian governments and Indigenous peoples grounded in Indigenous constitutionalism. To avoid a pan-Indigenous approach, this article focuses on Anishinaabe constitutionalism as one example of Indigenous constitutionalism. It highlights points of contrast between Anishinaabe constitutionalism's and liberalism's foundational norms and dispute resolution procedures. This article argues that a hybrid institution—combining features of both liberalism and Indigenous constitutionalism—would merely reproduce …

The Community Being Helped Is The Resource That Is Needed, Ab Currie

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

There is a widespread recognition of the importance of not-for-profit organizations for meeting the access to justice needs of disadvantaged people. Centered within that growing body of literature, this paper points to the importance of community service agencies and voluntary organizations as resources that enable community legal clinics to identify and meet the legal needs and to provide social justice outcomes that would otherwise be beyond their capacity if limited to resources from conventional sources. The resources available from the community are not monetary. They include entrée into hard-to-reach and -serve populations, special knowledge of about the problems experienced by …

The Ecb And € E-Banknotes, Corinne Zellweger-Gutknecht, Benjamin Geva, Seraina Neva Grünewald

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Practising Law For Rich And Poor People: Towards A More Progressive Approach, Allan C. Hutchinson

Articles & Book Chapters

It is 50 years since Stephen Wexler’s essay, Practicing Law for Poor People, was published. By any reasonable measure, this has become and remains an iconic piece. Whether he is agreed with or disagreed with, Wexler arguments continue to define the terms of the debate about the proper role and responsibilities of those who practice law for poor people. Critics and jurists can be for or against Wexler’s account, but they cannot make serious headway without it. As such, Wexler’s essay deserve to be celebrated and showcased as it reaches its half-century milestone. However, his ideas and their informing assumptions …

Taxation Of Intangibles, Jinyan Li, Angelo Nikolakakis

Articles & Book Chapters

This paper examines the tax treatment of intangibles in Canada and recent developments internationally. It suggests that the special features of intangibles and the rapid rise of intangibles as value-drivers in the global economy may render existing tax rules inadequate in defining Canada’s tax base and/or competing for investment in research and development in Canada. Recent developments at the international level (such as the BEPS Project) and national level (such as US 2018 tax reform and changes in Japan, UK and China to implement BEPS recommendations) may point to some directions for Canada to consider.

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.

Bankruptcy For Cannabis Companies: Canada's Newest Export?, Stephanie Ben-Ishai

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Digitalization And International Tax Dispute Resolution: A Window Of Opportunity For Britacom, Jinyan Li, Nathan Jin Bao, Shanghua Hu, Wei Hu, Matias Zerbino

Articles & Book Chapters

Digitisation technologies are facilitating and transforming tax administration and dispute resolution in various ways. This paper presents some existing and emerging best practices in digitalized tax administration and smart dispute resolution. Inspired by the objectives of the Belt & Road Initiative and BRITACOM and these best practices, this paper suggests that BRITACOM take advantage of digitisation and seize upon the unprecedented opportunity to create a digitalized mechanism for resolving cross-border tax disputes among Belt & Road jurisdictions.

Book Review: Angela Fernandez, Pierson V. Post, The Hunt For The Fox: Law And Professionalization In American Legal Culture, Jennifer Nadler

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Experimenting With Credibility In Refugee Adjudication: Gaydar, Sean Rehaag, Hilary Evans Cameron

Articles & Book Chapters

Canada offers refugee protection to sexual minorities facing persecution abroad. While success rates for sexual minority refugee claims have generally been higher than the overall average at Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, hundreds of such claims are nonetheless turned down each year. The most common reason for denying these claims is that assertions about the claimants’ sexual orientations are determined not to be credible. Scholars have raised concerns about how such credibility determinations are made. This article contributes to the critical literature in this area by exploring sexual minority refugee claim credibility assessments through an experimental study involving simulated refugee …