Jurisprudence Commons^™

Caesar’S Gambit: Coherence, Justification Of Legal Rules, And The Duty Test: Towards An Interactional Theory Of Government Liability For Negligence In Disaster Management, Irehobhude O. Iyioha

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article examines barriers posed by the duty of care test for government liability for negligence in disaster management. It argues that various aspects of the test raise concerns about coherence, legitimacy of judicial decision-making, and ultimately how we justify liability in tort law. In examining the coherence of the duty test through multiple prisms, including through theoretical justifications for tort principles, this article contends that the duty test, in its framing and interpretations, fails to meet the formal and substantive demands of coherence, correctness and legitimacy. Arguing that justificatory theories offer necessary theoretical lenses through which to understand, critique, …

Beneficial Interests Under The Chattels Real Act, Gregory French

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper examines the Chattels Real Act of Newfoundland and Labrador and the strict treatment of property interests thereunder. Historical treatment of property interests under the Act had been pragmatic and flexible, however later jurisprudence took a stricter interpretation and restricted the interpretation of beneficial interest under the Act. The author suggests that a review of first principles and jurisprudence supports a broader interpretation of property interests under the Act, which should be followed for the better administration of justice and practical expectations of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Cet article examine la Chattels Real Act de Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador et …

The Next Revolution? Negligence Law For The 21st Century, Allan C. Hutchinson

Dalhousie Law Journal

Donoghue’s neighbour is still the defining concept of Canadian tort law. Indeed, the whole history of modern negligence law can be reasonably understood as a concerted judicial effort to adapt and accommodate that principle to changing social, commercial and legal conditions. Now, 90 years later, it is perhaps time to recommend another revolution in negligence law. The Donoghue-inspired doctrine has done sterling work, but it is now weighed down with a bewildering range of conditions, clarifications and complications. When the duty analysis is complemented by other related requirements of causation and remoteness, the law of negligence has become something of …

Turning The Tables On Rds: Racially Revealing Questions Asked By White Judges, Constance Backhouse

Dalhousie Law Journal

In the 1997 RDS case, the Supreme Court of Canada deliberated on the concept of judicial race bias. The decision subjected the oral ruling of a lower court trial judge in a busy Youth Court to close scrutiny. The majority of the nine-person, all-white bench reprimanded Canada’s first Black female judge, whose words about police officers who “overreact” in dealing with racialized youth they found “troubling” and “worrisome.” This article places the same close scrutiny on the words of the white judges who were most critical of the trial judge. It examines their informal interjections and comments at the Supreme …

The Phenomenology Of Medico-Legal Causation, Nicholas Hooper

Dalhousie Law Journal

The language of counterfactual causation employed from the bench obscures the analytical vacuity of the "butfor" test. This paper takes issue with the consistent recourse to "common sense" as a methodological tool for determining the deeply complex issue of causality. Despite manifestly empty gestures to, e.g., robust pragmatism, the current approach imposes the dominant values of the judiciary in a manner that perpetuates the current distribution of power. Whatever the merits of counterfactual inquiry, its legal iteration requires judges to construct a hypothetical narrative about "how things generally happen." This, in turn, impels a uniquely comprehensive brand ofjudicialcreativity. The results …

Reforming Testamentary Undue Influence In Canadian And English Law, Fiona R. Burns

Dalhousie Law Journal

The traditional doctrine of testamentary undue influence developed in nineteenth century England. Its utility, however, is limited since the doctrine requires the person alleging undue influence to provide direct proof of coercion according to a high standard. In England the doctrine has remained static and there have been calls for reform. In Canada, some courts have ceased to apply the traditional doctrine so that today there is no one consistent and coherent doctrine of testamentary undue influence. This article explores two possible reforms of the doctrine both of which are evident in recent Canadian case law: a presumption of testamentary …

Law's Ambition And The Reconstruction Of Role Morality In Canada, David M. Tanovich

Dalhousie Law Journal

There is a growing disconnect and alienation between lawyers and the legal profession in Canada. One cause, which is the focus ofthe article, is philosophical in nature. There appears to be a disconnect between the role lawyers want to pursue (i.e., a facilitator of justice) and the role that they perceive the profession demands they play (i.e., a hired gun). The article argues that this perception is a mistaken one. Over the last fifteen years, we have been engaged in a process of role morality reconstruction. Under this reconstructed institutional role, an ethic of client-centred zealous advocacy has slowly begun …

Contextualism: The Supreme Court's New Standard Of Judicial Analysis And Accountability, Shalin Sugunasiri

Dalhousie Law Journal

Over the past few years, the "contextual approach" to law has acquired considerable cachet in juridical discourses across the country. In the Supreme Court of Canada, contextualism is now the new standard of judicial analysis and accountability This article analyzes a decade of Supreme court jurisprudence on Charter interpretation, statutory interpretation and the common law in order to fully explicate what contextualism in law is, where it came from, and how it has achieved its current pre-eminent status. The future promise of the contextual approach is also here canvassed through a dialectical engagement with postmodernist concerns respecting inherent legal indeterminacies.

A History And Evaluation Of Dworkin's Theory Of Law, Rudy V. Buller

Dalhousie Law Journal

If we consider Ronald Dworkin's essay, "The Model of Rules" ', to be the first expression of his theory of law, then we have reached the 25th anniversary of that theory. And there can be little doubt that, for the most part of the last quarter century, Professor Dworkin has been the most influential legal philosopher in the English-speaking world.

Consideration And Estoppel: Problem And Panacea, Bruce Macdougall

Dalhousie Law Journal

In his book, The History of the Common Law of Contract, A.W.B. Simpson demonstrates that consideration originally seems to have meant the "matter of inducement" - the "why" of entering a promise.' He writes: "The essence of the doctrine of consideration, then, is the adoption by the common law of the idea that the legal effect of a promise should depend upon the factor or factors which motivated the promise. To decide whether a promise to do X is binding, you need to know why the promise was made."2 In modem terms, according to Simpson, a promise which lacks any …

The "Family" In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Mary Jane Mossman

Dalhousie Law Journal

Susan Moller Okin's assertion about the need for justice in families offers a challenging starting point for an assessment of the family in the work of Justice Wilson. Her assertion challenges us for a number of reasons. First, in claiming that justice in the family is a prerequisite to a just society, Okin compels us to focus careful attention on our family relationships if we aspire to a just resolution of our public and political debates. For her, a satisfactory theory of justice can be developed only if it takes account of the structures and power in family relationships, and …

The Democratic Intellect: The State In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Philip L. Bryden

Dalhousie Law Journal

It is a great honour to have been asked to provide an essay for this volume of reflections on the contribution Madame Justice Bertha Wilson has made to the development of law in Canada. To a certain extent, this is a matter of pride in finding my own name associated with that of the very learned and respected individuals who have set out their thoughts in this collection of articles. In the main, however, the honour comes from the opportunity to make a public statement of my own respect and admiration for Madame Justice Wilson and the significant role that …

The Constituents Of Democracy: The Individual In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Danielle Pinard

Dalhousie Law Journal

I shall attempt to share with you the impression I have of Judge Wilson's conception of the individual. I will try to present a general view of what occurred to me as I went through the opinions she wrote while at the Supreme Court of Canada, alone or with the assent of her colleagues, dissenting or in agreement with the majority.' I shall try to put together, as honestly as possible, what she explicitly said on the subject in question.

Approaching Aliens: A Plea For Jurisprudential Recovery As A Theoretical Introduction To (Ex)Socialist Legal Systems, Ivan L. Padjen

Dalhousie Law Journal

It might be wise to stop here. Even a reader who is sympathetic to jurisprudential imagination must regard the communicable part of my title with considerable misgiving. For he or she can hardly be unaware of the double jeopardy in which the general theorist of law places himself when dealing with socialist legal systems. The first has been aptly described by Alasdair MacIntyre in his parable of a man who aspired to be the author of the general theory of holes.' The moral of the story, that the concept of a hole is a poor foundation for a general theory …

Nomos And Thanatos (Part B). Feminism As Jurisgenerative Transformation, Or Resistance Through Partial Incorporation?, Richard F. Devlin

Dalhousie Law Journal

In Part A of this essay, "The Killing Fields", I developed a critique of the disciplinary impulses that underlie modern law and legal theory. Invoking a number of perspectives and a plurality of analyses, I proposed that male-stream legal theory and contemporary law both assume as inevitable, and legitimize as appropriate, the funnelling of violence through law. The problem with a funnel, however, is that it does not curtail or reduce that which is channelled through it. On the contrary, to funnel is to condense and to intensify. Viewed from this perspective, interpreted from the bottom up, law and legal …

Of Persons And Property: The Politics Of Legal Taxonomy, David Cohen, Allan C. Hutchinson

Dalhousie Law Journal

To talk of law without politics or history is nonsensical. All lawyers must concede that what they do takes place in historical circumstances and has political consequences. Every piece of law-making and law-application is a governmental act; it relies on political authority and claims binding force. Moreover, all legal activity occurs within a particular historical context; it is intended to respond to or influence a past, existing or anticipated state of affairs. This means that the study of law must concern itself with politics and history generally: it must not confine itself to only the politics and history of law. …

Retrieving Positivism: Law As Bibliolatry, Frederick C. Decoste

Dalhousie Law Journal

Legal positivism is a curious phenomenon in both its theoretical and sociological parts. It is curious as theory because its very existence, as theory, is often questioned, and because, even when its existence is admitted, the nature of the theory, and who does and does not qualify as an adherent most often remains in dispute. It is curious sociologically because rare is the legal theoretician who forthrightly endorses positivism: positivists, it would appear, are as scarce as the formalists among whom they used to be numbered.

Mandates, Legal Foundations, Powers And Conduct Ofcommissions Of Inquiry, A. Wayne Mackay

Dalhousie Law Journal

Indeed, it may be just as difficult to disentangle law and politics as it is to separate religious and sexual passions. While law has traditionally been presented as more value-neutral than politics, in either its academic or applied form, the inaccuracy of this view of law is becoming widely recognized. Value choices have always been a vital aspect of legal adjudication and the arrival of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 has forced judges to be more overt about this aspect of their job.' The separation of law and politics is more a matter of mythology than …

Critical Legal Theory And The Politics Of Pragmatism, Peter D. Swan

Dalhousie Law Journal

In this century mainstream legal scholarship in the United States has been subjected to various "crises of confidence" over the nature of the adjudication process. One of the key features of more traditional legal scholarship has been a belief in legal texts such as the constitution, statutes and precedents which are said to possess discrete and objective meaning capable of being discovered by objective detached observers. This belief in the authority of the text has been most clearly expressed in American constitutional law scholarship which has been dominated until recently by the quest to reveal the public moral values that …

Nomos And Thanatos (Part A). The Killing Fields: Modern Law And Legal Theory, Richard F. Devlin

Dalhousie Law Journal

Law, is so far as it sanctions the coercive power of the state, enables people to do frightening - even deadly - things to each other. Contemporary jurisprudence, the explanatory and justificatory voice of legal practice, fails to interrogate law's interconnection with violence and death and therefore, by a sin of omission, legitimizes humankind's mutual inhumanity. The end result is jurisprudential tolerance of, and acquiescence in, societies underpinned by violence. By identifying the nexus between community (nomos) and death (thanatos), this, admittedly speculative, essay attempts to raise the possibility of a discourse, practice and society that can encourage, reflect and …

Social And Racial Tolerance And Freedom Of Expression In A Democratic Society: Friends Or Foes? Regina V. Zundel, Stefan Braun

Dalhousie Law Journal

In Regina v. Zundel the Ontario Court of Appeal held that s. 177 of the Canadian Criminal Code, entitled "Spreading false news," did not contravene the guarantee of freedom of expression under s. 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms3 and that even if it did, it constituted a permissible regulation under s. 1 of the Charter. Section 177 of the Code punishes "everyone who wilfully publishes a statement, tale, or news that he knows is false and that causes or is likely to cause injury or mischief to a public interest." The defendant was charged under the section …

The Strange Cases Of Alberta's Guarantees Acknowledgement Act A Study Of Choice-Of-Law Method, Vaughan Black

Dalhousie Law Journal

Fifty years ago John Willis wrote Two Approaches to the Conflict of Laws: A Comparative Study of the English Law and the Restatement of the American Law Institute. There he described two different - perhaps even opposed - conceptions of the problem posed by cases involving geographically complex facts. It is a goal of this article to assess the status and the vices and virtues of those two approaches in Canada today. Such a task is not a mere updating of Willis' piece, though that alone might be a useful exercise. In the first place, Willis' analysis takes place largely …

Twisting The Tourniquet Around The Pulse Of Conventional Legal Wisdom: Jurisprudence And Law Reform In The Work Of Robert A. Samek, Richard F. Devlin

Dalhousie Law Journal

The name Robert Samek first came to my attention in the summer of 1985 as part of a research project carried out under the auspices of the Law Reform Commission of Canada. I was struck by what at the time seemed to be a complete contrast in two of his publications; his book, The Legal Point of View and an article, "A Case for Social Law Reform". Although only a few years apart, it seemed impossible that the two works could have come from the pen of the same author: the former was traditional, opaque, dull, pedantic and repetitive; the …

The Idea Of The "Private": A Discussion Of Stateaction Doctrine And Separate Sphere Ideology, Hester Lessard

Dalhousie Law Journal

This essay is a discussion of the formalization in law of a dichotomy between a natural, private order on the one hand, and a public sphere of state action and citizenship on the other. The discussion takes place in the context of equality rights and of the philosophical tensions that underlie the delineation of rights in general. Two legal phenomena are examined: state action doctrine as it has developed in American equal protection jurisprudence under the Fourteenth Amendment and separate sphere ideology as a rationalization for sexual discrimination. Under each doctrine, judicial denial of relief is predicated on a pre-ordained …

In Defense Of Fundamental Rights, W. J. Fenrick

Dalhousie Law Journal

The central question dealt with by William E. Conklin inIn Defense of Fundamental Rights is "Why are fundamental rights considered fundamental?" (p. 2). In Part I he looks at traditional juridical answers to this question (all of which he finds unacceptable). In Part II he turns to the answers of philophers, in particular John Stuart Mill and John Rawls, and then goes on to formulate his own view as to what is, in his words, "the ultimate norm in a democratic society" (p.6). Lastly he makes use of this norm to determine which rights are fundamental and when they may …

Cook, Oliphant, And Yntema: The Scientific Wing Of American Legal Realism (Part Ii), S. N. Verdun-Jones

Dalhousie Law Journal

Following the lead of John Dewey, Cook, Oliphant, and Yntema pointedly eschewed discussion of ultimate values in terms of their intrinsic "goodness". Their own course of action was to press for the application of scientific method - or Dewey's "method of intelligence" - to the field of ethics. The clear message imparted by their approach was the compelling need for the proponents of particular values to consider the means available for the achievement of their ideals; such consideration, it was argued, would both heighten commitment to goals which were proved to be capable of attainment within a given social context …

Jurisprudence Washed With Cynical Acid: Thurman Arnold And The Psychological Bases Of Scientific Jurisprudence, Simon N. Verdun-Jones

Dalhousie Law Journal

... the most important social values in the world are the things that make no sense. Thurman Arnold (1957). Like Jerome Frank, Thurman Arnold gained a large audience for his psychological realism. Indeed, his two best-selling works, The Symbols of Government (1935) and The Folklore of Capitalism (1937), were the subject of prolonged and spirited public debate. Delighting in his special brand of corrosive satire, Thurman Arnold employed the tools of psychology in a superbly witty-albeit merciless--debunking of traditional Jurisprudence. Significantly, Arnold was no mere academic commentator but an extraordinarily enthusiastic participant in public life; in the course of his …

Jurisprudence Washed With Cynical Acid: Thurman Arnold And The Psychological Bases Of Scientific Jurisprudence, Simon N. Verdun-Jones

Dalhousie Law Journal

... the most important social values in the world are the things that make no sense. Thurman Arnold (1957). Like Jerome Frank, Thurman Arnold gained a large audience for his psychological realism. Indeed, his two best-selling works, The Symbols of Government (1935) and The Folklore of Capitalism (1937), were the subject of prolonged and spirited public debate. Delighting in his special brand of corrosive satire, Thurman Arnold employed the tools of psychology in a superbly witty-albeit merciless--debunking of traditional Jurisprudence. Significantly, Arnold was no mere academic commentator but an extraordinarily enthusiastic participant in public life; in the course of his …

Jurisprudence Washed With Cynical Acid: Thurman Arnold And The Psychological Bases Of Scientific Jurisprudence, Simon N. Verdun-Jones

Dalhousie Law Journal

... the most important social values in the world are the things that make no sense. Thurman Arnold (1957). Like Jerome Frank, Thurman Arnold gained a large audience for his psychological realism. Indeed, his two best-selling works, The Symbols of Government (1935) and The Folklore of Capitalism (1937), were the subject of prolonged and spirited public debate. Delighting in his special brand of corrosive satire, Thurman Arnold employed the tools of psychology in a superbly witty-albeit merciless--debunking of traditional Jurisprudence. Significantly, Arnold was no mere academic commentator but an extraordinarily enthusiastic participant in public life; in the course of his …

Discretion To Disobey: A Study Of Lawful Departures From Legal Rules, Bernard Adell

Dalhousie Law Journal

The authors' purpose in this important and intriguing book is to contribute to what they call "the jurisprudence of departures from rules" [p. 5]. They try to establish that non-compliance with rules of law may sometimes be justified not only on moral grounds but also on legal grounds - that is, that the legal system itself has considerable built-in tolerance of non-compliance with its own rules, and that an official or an ordinary citizen who contravenes a legal rule may well be able to make out a claim that he is acting "legally" after all. It is central to the …