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Full-Text Articles in Law
The German Abortion Decisions And The Protective Function In German And Canadian Constitutional Law, Vanessa Macdonnell, Jula Hughes
The German Abortion Decisions And The Protective Function In German And Canadian Constitutional Law, Vanessa Macdonnell, Jula Hughes
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In the First and Second Abortion decisions, the German Constitutional Court drew on earlier jurisprudence to hold that the state was under a constitutional duty to protect the fetus from deprivations of its interest in life by the pregnant woman. In this article, we suggest that Canadian constitutional law scholars and reproductive rights advocates would benefit from examining the German abortion decisions despite their highly controversial nature. In our view, the benefits are twofold. First, the German cases demonstrate that recognizing the protective function can help clarify constitutional doctrine by revealing the tensions that underlie many difficult constitutional cases. Second, …
Addressing The Tension Between Directors' Duties And Shareholder Rights - A Tale Of Two Regimes, Sean Vanderpol, Edward J. Waitzer
Addressing The Tension Between Directors' Duties And Shareholder Rights - A Tale Of Two Regimes, Sean Vanderpol, Edward J. Waitzer
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
There is a basic tension inherent in the regulation of corporations between the role to be played by boards and that to be played by shareholders. Boards have the statutory responsibility to manage the business and affairs of the corporation, and owe an express duty to act in the best interests of the corporation. Shareholders, however, are the ultimate ‘owners’ of the corporation, and have the ability to elect and remove directors. Canadian courts and securities regulators have long struggled with this tension in determining the roles to be played by each in transactions that pose the potential for conflicts …
Undoing Historical Wrongs: Law And Indigeneity In India, Pooja Parmar
Undoing Historical Wrongs: Law And Indigeneity In India, Pooja Parmar
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Beginning with a close look at a recent call by the Supreme Court of India to undo the historical injustices done to the "original inhabitants" of the country, this paper examines similar calls for justice made by Jaipal Singh Munda, the most vocal representative of Adivasis in the Constituent Assembly of India between December 1946 and January 1950, when both the possibilities and limitations of addressing past injustices were being written into the Constitution of India. While drawing attention to debates and disagreements over righting certain past wrongs that remain largely absent from historical accounts of the Constitution's drafting, this …
The Role Of Counsel In Canada's Refugee Determinations System: An Empirical Assessment, Sean Rehaag
The Role Of Counsel In Canada's Refugee Determinations System: An Empirical Assessment, Sean Rehaag
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article examines the role of counsel in Canada's refugee determination process through an investigation of over 70,000 refugee decisions from 2005 to 2009. The article demonstrates that counsel is a key factor driving successful outcomes. The article also shows that legal aid programs are increasingly restrictive in funding legal representation for refugee claimants. The author argues that these restrictions put the lives of refugees at risk. The article also demonstrates that claimants represented by immigration consultants are less likely to succeed than claimants represented by lawyers. This, combined with evidence that the immigration consulting industry has not established adequate …
Assessing The Regulation Of Temporary Foreign Workers In Canada, Sarah Marsden
Assessing The Regulation Of Temporary Foreign Workers In Canada, Sarah Marsden
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
There has been an increase in the number of incoming temporary migrant workers to Canada over the past decade. In this article, I critically assess recent changes in the law governing temporary migration to Canada by using theoretical tools from the fields of sociology, geography, and legal geography. A multidisciplinary framework to understand Canada's labour migration policies is provided. Within the socio-historical context of migrant labour regulation in Canada, I argue that political and regulatory developments function to further entrench segregation and exclusion of foreign workers by maintaining a subclass of flexible labour. Specifically, I show that Canada's current temporary …
Mediating Rights And Responsibilities In Control Transactions, Sean Vanderpol, Edward J. Waitzer
Mediating Rights And Responsibilities In Control Transactions, Sean Vanderpol, Edward J. Waitzer
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
There is a growing debate as to the relative merits and consequences of a shift to a more shareholder-centric corporate governance framework. How much "direct democracy" makes sense in corporate decision making? If power is to be transferred to shareholders, should responsibilities be imposed (and, if so, how)? These issues have long been addressed by courts and regulators in the context of unsolicited control transactions. In its recent Air Products & Chemicals v. Airgas decision, the Delaware Chancery Court canvassed the evolution of its law on this point and concluded that implicit in the power (and responsibility) of the board …
Whose Best Interests?: Custody And Access Law And Procedure, Noel Semple
Whose Best Interests?: Custody And Access Law And Procedure, Noel Semple
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article compares the law of custody and access disputes with the procedure used to resolve them. The author argues that there is a fundamental contradiction between the two. The former focuses on the interests of the children involved to the exclusion of everything else. The latter, however, is controlled by and designed to protect the rights and interests of the adult parties to the dispute. Despite their doctrinal centrality in custody and access law, children are usually silent and invisible in custody and access procedure. To resolve this contradiction, the author proposes a focus on the costs and benefits …
Reconceptualizing Vagrancy And Reconstructing The Vagrant: A Socio-Legal Analysis Of Criminal Law Reform In Canada, 1953-1972, Prashan Ranasinhe
Reconceptualizing Vagrancy And Reconstructing The Vagrant: A Socio-Legal Analysis Of Criminal Law Reform In Canada, 1953-1972, Prashan Ranasinhe
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article explores significant reforms to the vagrancy section of the Criminal Code during the mid-to-late twentieth century. By locating the reforms within their unique social, political, and economic climates, I examine how they reconceptualized the offence of vagrancy and concomitantly reconstructed the vagrant as a social problem. The reforms played a seminal role in reducing the number of vagrancy offences, eventually leading to the demise of vagrancy in the criminal law. Yet, while the "vagrant" ceased to exist in the law, the law still continues to preserve vestiges of the vagrant in a highly gendered manner.
From Judging Culture To Taxing "Indians": Tracing The Legal Discourse Of The "Indian Mode Of Life", Constance Macintosh
From Judging Culture To Taxing "Indians": Tracing The Legal Discourse Of The "Indian Mode Of Life", Constance Macintosh
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In this article I consider how judicial decision making characterizes Indigenous peoples' culture outside the context of determinations under section 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982. I am concerned with how contemporary jurisprudence sometimes subjects Indigenous people to stereotyped tests of Aboriginality when they seek to exercise legislated rights. These common law tests of Aboriginality tend to turn on troubling oppositional logics, such as whether or not the Indigenous person engages in waged labour or commercial activities. These tests arose in historic legislation and policy that were premised on social evolutionary theory and were directed at determining whether an Indigenous …
Peoples, Bce, And The Good Corporate "Citizen", Edward J. Waitzer, Johnny Jaswal
Peoples, Bce, And The Good Corporate "Citizen", Edward J. Waitzer, Johnny Jaswal
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article considers the use of various legal instruments to advance a more expansive but well-defined view of directors' duties and discretion--a view which focuses on the longer-term interests of the corporation. We begin with an attempt to clarify the nature of directors' statutory duties under Canadian corporate law. We then consider the recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada in Peoples Department Stores Inc. (Trustee of) v. Wise and BCE v. 1976 Debentureholders, in which the Court took a broad view of corporate purpose, but failed to provide clear logic or operational guidance as to consequential directorial responsibilities. …