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Articles 1 - 26 of 26
Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence
Language's Empire: A Counter-Telling Of Administrative Law In Canada, Nicholas Hooper
Language's Empire: A Counter-Telling Of Administrative Law In Canada, Nicholas Hooper
LLM Theses
This thesis renders the unstated assumptions that animate statutory interpretation in the administrative state. It argues that the current approach is a disingenuous rhetorical overlay that masks the politics of definitional meaning. After rejecting the possibility of structuring principles in our (post)modern oversaturation of signs, the thesis concludes with an aspirational account of interpretive pragmatism in the face of uncertainty.
On The "Poverty Of Responsibility": A Study Of The History Of Child Protection Law And Jurisprudence In Nova Scotia, Ilana Luther
On The "Poverty Of Responsibility": A Study Of The History Of Child Protection Law And Jurisprudence In Nova Scotia, Ilana Luther
PhD Dissertations
This thesis presents a history of child protection law and jurisprudence in Nova Scotia. The thesis begins by examining the development of the first child protection statute in Canada, the Nova Scotia Prevention and Punishment of Wrongs to Children Act in 1882. The Act was developed amidst a climate of reform in late-19th century Halifax, at the urging of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Act, along with a number of other pieces of “domestic relations” legislation at the time, was focused on protecting children in poverty. With the passing of the Act, the legislature not …
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
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
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 …
Access To Justice And The Evolution Of Class Action Litigation In Australia, Camille Cameron, Bernard Murphy
Access To Justice And The Evolution Of Class Action Litigation In Australia, Camille Cameron, Bernard Murphy
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The federal and Victorian class action regimes are intended to facilitate aggregation of multiple claims. Aggregation can improve efficiency by combining similar claims and can enhance access to justice by providing a mechanism to litigate small claims. This article considers whether these efficiency and access aims are being achieved. The authors argue that whilst some developments in class action jurisprudence have been consistent with these legislative aims, other have not. Several features of Australian class action jurisprudence and practice have hampered the healthy development of the legislative regimes, including adverse costs orders, unclear threshold requirements, evasive posturing and unresolved class …
Law's Ambition And The Reconstruction Of Role Morality In Canada, David M. Tanovich
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
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
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
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 Democratic Intellect: The State In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Philip L. Bryden
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 …
Approaching Aliens: A Plea For Jurisprudential Recovery As A Theoretical Introduction To (Ex)Socialist Legal Systems, Ivan L. Padjen
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 …
Of Persons And Property: The Politics Of Legal Taxonomy, David Cohen, Allan C. Hutchinson
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
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.
Nomos And Thanatos (Part B). Feminism As Jurisgenerative Transformation, Or Resistance Through Partial Incorporation?, Richard F. Devlin
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 …
Mandates, Legal Foundations, Powers And Conduct Of Commissions Of Inquiry, A Wayne Mackay
Mandates, Legal Foundations, Powers And Conduct Of Commissions 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 …
Nomos And Thanatos (Part A). The Killing Fields: Modern Law And Legal Theory, Richard F. Devlin
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 …
Critical Legal Theory And The Politics Of Pragmatism, Peter D. Swan
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 …
Social And Racial Tolerance And Freedom Of Expression In A Democratic Society: Friends Or Foes? Regina V. Zundel, Stefan Braun
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
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
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
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 …
Cook, Oliphant, And Yntema: The Scientific Wing Of American Legal Realism (Part Ii), S. N. Verdun-Jones
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
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
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
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 …
The Jurisprudence Of Karl Llewellyn, Simon N. Verdun-Jones
The Jurisprudence Of Karl Llewellyn, Simon N. Verdun-Jones
Dalhousie Law Journal
Jurisprudence means to me: any careful and sustained thinking about any phase of things legal, if the thinking seeks to reach beyond the practical solution of an immediate problem in hand. Jurisprudence thus includes any type at all of honest and thoughtful generalization in the field of the legal.' Alongside Roscoe Pound, Karl Llewellyn dominated the American jurisprudential stage for more than thirty years. Indeed, his diverse interests, broadly-based achievements and colorful personality compel the attention of any serious student of modern jurisprudence. Furthermore, the very profusion of roles played by Llewellyn render him one of the most remarkable legal …
Necessity As A Justification: A Critique Of Perka, Donald Galloway
Necessity As A Justification: A Critique Of Perka, Donald Galloway
Dalhousie Law Journal
In his characteristically trenchant and influential investigation, "A Plea for Excuses",' J. L. Austin reminded us that we can and do use different strategies of defending a person when it is claimed that he has done wrong. He drew attention to two distinct tactics: One way of going about this (defending a person) is to admit that he, X, did that very thing, A, but to argue that it was a good thing, or the right or sensible thing, or a permissible thing to do . . . To take this line is to justify the action, to give reasons …