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Full-Text Articles in Law
Call For Action: Provinces And Territories Must Protect Our Genetic Information, Leah Hutt, Elaine Gibson, Erin Kennedy
Call For Action: Provinces And Territories Must Protect Our Genetic Information, Leah Hutt, Elaine Gibson, Erin Kennedy
Dalhousie Law Journal
The Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (GNDA), passed by Parliament in 2017, seeks to protect Canadians’ genetic information. The GNDA establishes certain criminal prohibitions to the use of genetic information and also amends federal employment and human rights legislation to protect against genetic discrimination. However, we argue that the GNDA alone is insufficient to protect Canadians given constitutional limitations on the powers of the federal government. Areas of profound importance relating to genetic discrimination are governed by the provinces and territories. We identify three key areas of provincial/territorial jurisdiction relevant to protection against genetic discrimination and outline the applicable legislative environments. We …
Legalizing Assisted Dying: Cross Purposes And Unintended Consequences, Emily Jackson
Legalizing Assisted Dying: Cross Purposes And Unintended Consequences, Emily Jackson
Dalhousie Law Journal
In the UK, assisted dying continues to be unlawful, and pro-legalization campaigners have made use of human rights based applications for judicial review and Private Members Bills in order to try to change the law. Interestingly, however, the proposed statute would not offer an assisted death to many of the litigants who have sought to force Parliament's hand. This article considers whether this a one-off peculiarity, or whether there might be other mismatches between what the law can achieve and what matters most to people who are seeking an assisted death for themselves. It also explores what seems to be …
A Goal-Oriented Understanding Of The Right To Health Care And Its Implications For Future Health Rights Litigation, Michael Da Silva
A Goal-Oriented Understanding Of The Right To Health Care And Its Implications For Future Health Rights Litigation, Michael Da Silva
Dalhousie Law Journal
International human rights law recognizes a right to health. A majority of domestic constitutions recognize health-related rights. Many citizens believe that they have a moral right to health care. Some theorists agree. Yet the idea of a right to health care remains controversial. Specifying the nature of such a right invites more controversy. Indeed, most models of the right face persistent problems that threaten to undermine the conceptual coherence of a right to health care. This article accordingly sketches preliminary arguments for a new, goal-oriented model of the right to health care. It explains that the model avoids most of …
Legal Barriers To Age Discrimination In Hiring Complaints, Pnina Alon-Shenker
Legal Barriers To Age Discrimination In Hiring Complaints, Pnina Alon-Shenker
Dalhousie Law Journal
Studies have shown that senior workers endure longer spells of unemployment than their younger counterparts. Age discrimination has been identified as one of the main obstacles to reemployment. This article critically examines how Canadian anti-age discrimination law has responded to the contemporary challenges experienced by senior job seekers. It articulates several difficulties in our existing age discrimination legal framework by analyzing and contrasting social science literature on the present labour market experience of senior job applicants with human rights tribunal and court decisions in hiring complaints. It concludes by sketching a preliminary set of workable proposals for change that derives …
Labour Rights As Human Rights: Turning Slogans Into Legal Claims, Judy Fudge
Labour Rights As Human Rights: Turning Slogans Into Legal Claims, Judy Fudge
Dalhousie Law Journal
What does it mean to say that labour rights are human rights? What is the role of the courts in transforming a political manifesto into a legal claim? The answers to these questions are developed in three parts. The first places the rights to organize, to bargain collectively, and to strike in the social and political context in which they are claimed, contested, and recognized. The second part examines what it means to say that labour rights are human rights with an eye to teasing out the significance ofthis characterization. Third, the role of the courts when it comes to …
Wrongful Termination Claims In The Supreme Court Of Canada: Coming Up Short, Dianne Pothier
Wrongful Termination Claims In The Supreme Court Of Canada: Coming Up Short, Dianne Pothier
Dalhousie Law Journal
The author concludes that the Supreme Court of Canada's narrow interpretations in Wal-Mart and Honda undermine the purposes of collective bargaining and human rights legislation, respectively Wal-Mart involves an unfair labour practice complaint following the closing of a store in Jonquibre, Quebec. The author contests the analysis of the Supreme Court of Canada, as being far removed from the context of the real difficulties in dealing with determined anti-union employers, instead facilitating statutory evasion. Honda involves a claim for wrongful dismissal, where the issue at the Supreme Court of Canada level is one of remedy, premised on the dismissal amounting …
"We Shall Not Cease From Exploration": Narratives From The Hyde Inquiry About Mental Health And Criminal Justice, Anne Derrick
"We Shall Not Cease From Exploration": Narratives From The Hyde Inquiry About Mental Health And Criminal Justice, Anne Derrick
Dalhousie Law Journal
When I embarked on my journey at the Hyde Inquiry I really felt I knew nothing. The place I came to know for the first time, at the end, was a place I had really not known before. I was taken there by the narratives that made up the threads of the Inquiry and it is some of these narratives I am going to discuss here.
Application Of Non-Implemented International Law By The Federal Court Of Appeal: Towards A Symbolic Effect Of S. 3(3)(F) Of The Irpa?, France Houle, Noura Karazivan
Application Of Non-Implemented International Law By The Federal Court Of Appeal: Towards A Symbolic Effect Of S. 3(3)(F) Of The Irpa?, France Houle, Noura Karazivan
Dalhousie Law Journal
Since 1999, the Supreme Court has explored the linkages between domestic statutes and international norms and values and has slowly developed the basic principles underlying a new mechanism of relevancy that the authors call harmonization of domestic law with international law The authors analyze this development in PartI of the present article. In Part II, they study the application of this harmonization mechanism in the field of Canadian immigration law Of, particular importance in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is s. 3(3)(f), for it directs judges to construe and apply the IRPA in a manner that "complies with international …
Courts And Constitutional Usurpers Some Lessons From Fiji, Venkat Iyer
Courts And Constitutional Usurpers Some Lessons From Fiji, Venkat Iyer
Dalhousie Law Journal
Much concern and disappointment has been expressed by jurists and human rights campaigners over the inaction ofnational judiciaries in reversing the effects of coups d'etat and other acts which result in the unconstitutional overthrow of democratically constituted governments Against this backdrop, the decisive steps taken b) the superior courts of Fiji to nullify the attempted destabilisation of that country's elected government in May 2000 was a trail-blazing development The author analyses the jurisprudence in this area and explains the implications of the Fijian judgments.
Charterwithout Borders? The Supreme Court Of Canada, Transnational Crime And Constitutional Rights And Freedoms, Robert J. Currie
Charterwithout Borders? The Supreme Court Of Canada, Transnational Crime And Constitutional Rights And Freedoms, Robert J. Currie
Dalhousie Law Journal
The first decades of the Supreme Court of Canada's Charter jurisprudence have coincided roughly with an increase in the extent to which Canada is affected by transnational crime and the nation s consequential participation in inter-state efforts to combat it. The Court itself has remarked on its discrete "jurisprudence on matters involving Canada's international co-operation in criminal investigations and prosecutions." This article examines the Court s adoption of a different approach to Charter analysis in cases involving transnational elements and surveys where the Court has "drawn the line" in terms of Charter application. By way of analyzing jurisprudence on exclusion …
Walking The Centre Line: Balancing An Employee's Right To Privacy In Drug And Alcohol Policies In The Atlantic Offshore Oil Industry, Harold Smith, Joseph Anthony
Walking The Centre Line: Balancing An Employee's Right To Privacy In Drug And Alcohol Policies In The Atlantic Offshore Oil Industry, Harold Smith, Joseph Anthony
Dalhousie Law Journal
Should the principles applied to drug and alcohol testing on land be imported into the Atlantic offshore oil and gas industry? The authors take the position that there is room for the notion that the application of principles derived from safety sensitive land based industry ought not to be applied in a perfunctory or rote manner to the Atlantic offshore environment. The case law, since Entrop, shows a judicial tendency to apply the requirements established by the obiter dictum of Entrop. (Etrop dealt with safety sensitive but land-based industry.) The danger is that the principles, as developed by and since …
A Comment On The Complementary Jurisdiction Of The International Criminal Court: Adding Insult To Injury In Transitional Contexts?, Jennifer J. Llewellyn
A Comment On The Complementary Jurisdiction Of The International Criminal Court: Adding Insult To Injury In Transitional Contexts?, Jennifer J. Llewellyn
Dalhousie Law Journal
The author examines the principle of complementarity on which the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based. Unlike its predecessors, the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the ICC can only take jurisdiction over a case when a state is unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute. The Court is thus designed to complement the work of national criminal courts. This article assesses whether this admissibility standard will allow the ICC to complement the work of truth commissions like that of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It concludes that the prospect of an …
States Of Emergency - Moderating Their Effects On Human Rights, Venkat Iyer
States Of Emergency - Moderating Their Effects On Human Rights, Venkat Iyer
Dalhousie Law Journal
There has been a runaway proliferation of emergency regimes worldwide in recent decades. This, coupled with the high incidence of human rights abuses which accompany them, has made states of emergency a matter of increasing concern among human rights policymakers and monitors. The author evaluates the various measures that have been taken by the international community to moderate the effects of emergencies, and outlines possible future strategies to increase the effectiveness of such measures.
Beyond The Right To Offend: Academic Freedom, Rights And Responsibilities In The Canadian University Classroom, Judith Macfarlane
Beyond The Right To Offend: Academic Freedom, Rights And Responsibilities In The Canadian University Classroom, Judith Macfarlane
Dalhousie Law Journal
The principle of academic freedom accords a wide latitude to professorial speech in the classroom setting. This article argues that there are principles and sources of law which are imported into the professorial employment contract and which place limits on the exercise of that speech. These include contractual obligations of competence and non-discriminatory behaviour, as well as terms drawn from human rights legislation. Drawing on an examination of case law and labour arbitral awards, the author outlines ways in which the right of academic free speech might be balanced against these limiting considerations.
The Hidden Gender Of Law, Christine Boyle
The Hidden Gender Of Law, Christine Boyle
Dalhousie Law Journal
Two legal academics who set out to produce a book of materials with such a title could weave many components into it. They could explore feminist methodology, and show how much feminist legal scholarship has in common with feminist scholarship generally. They could illustrate the influence of feminist academic work on actual legal decisions and legislation. They could discuss feminist scholarship and legal education, including the dramatic developments over the last twenty years. Questions about fundamental values - equality, liberty, security, fairness - could be addressed. Materials could be included from the field of law often called Women and the …
International Law In Asia: An Initial Review, Jeremy Thomas
International Law In Asia: An Initial Review, Jeremy Thomas
Dalhousie Law Journal
It is now a little over half a century since the first of the states of Asia to be granted their independence in the aftermath of the Second World War became sovereign and independent of their former colonial masters. In that period there have been very substantial changes in international law. The number of the family of nations has more than tripled and international organisations and even individuals are now subject to the application of international law. Space law, human rights and the law of the environment have appeared, the law of the sea has been transformed, disarmament has reappeared …
Le Rôle Organisations Internationales Dans La Protection Du Droit À La Vie., Paul Gormley
Le Rôle Organisations Internationales Dans La Protection Du Droit À La Vie., Paul Gormley
Dalhousie Law Journal
The emerging role of international and regional organizations toward the realistic protection of the right to life (along with closely related guarantees) constitutes the scope of the scholarly treatise, which is an outgrowth of the author's participation at the Research Center of the Hague Academy of International Law. Precisely Johannes van Aggelen of the Center for Human Rights, United Nations Office at Geneva, is one of the rising scholars of the coming generation of human rights lawyers. Indeed, his work in such closely related fields as humanitarian law, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the right to an adequate food supply and supporting …
Rule Of Law In A State Of Emergency, John P. Humphrey
Rule Of Law In A State Of Emergency, John P. Humphrey
Dalhousie Law Journal
Is there any such thing as an absolute human right? Part of the answer to this question will be found in article 4 of the United Nations' Convenant on Civil and Political Rights. The article says in part that "in time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation ... the States Parties to the present Covenant may take measures derogating from their obligation under the present Covenant to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation ... " Similar provisions will be found in regional conventions on the human rights.
Second Class Rights? Principles And Compromise In The Charter, Denise G. Réaume, Leslie J. M Green
Second Class Rights? Principles And Compromise In The Charter, Denise G. Réaume, Leslie J. M Green
Dalhousie Law Journal
Minority language rights are both historically and politically central to the Canadian constitution. It is also commonly supposed that they are fundamental rights, rooted in principle, and deserving generous interpretation by the courts. For a time, it seemed that the Supreme Court of Canada shared this view. In the Manitoba Language Reference, for example, they said that "The importance of language rights is grounded in the essential role that language plays in human existence, development and dignity." In Mercure v. A.G. of Saskatchewan they reiterated: "It can hardly be gainsaid that language is profoundly anchored in the human condition. Not …
The Human Rights Committee And Articles 7 And 10(1) Of The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights, 1966, P R. Ghandhi
The Human Rights Committee And Articles 7 And 10(1) Of The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights, 1966, P R. Ghandhi
Dalhousie Law Journal
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol thereto, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in Resolution 2200A (XXI) t of 16 December 1966, entered into force on 23 March 1976 in accordance with Articles 49 of the Covenant and 9 of the Protocol respectively. As at 28 July 1989, there were eighty-seven States Parties to the Covenant and forty-five States Parties to the Protocol.
The Treatment Of Prisoners Under International Law, L C. Green
The Treatment Of Prisoners Under International Law, L C. Green
Dalhousie Law Journal
As Legal Adviser to Amnesty International, Mr. Rodley is well aware of the numerous occasions on which prisoners and detainees in a variety of countries suffer inhumane treatment, often involving torture or even death. As a contribution to the UNESCO series New Challenges in International Law he has produced this study of The Treatment of Prisoners under International Law seeking to show the extent to which international legal regulation attempts to protect such persons, either by way of the general rules concerning human rights or by way of specific regulations and studies carried out under the auspices of international organizations.
"Sentencing And Visible Minorities: Equality And Affirmative Action In The Criminal Justice System", Bruce P. Archibald
"Sentencing And Visible Minorities: Equality And Affirmative Action In The Criminal Justice System", Bruce P. Archibald
Dalhousie Law Journal
The Canadian criminal justice system is facing serious criticism for being racist. Certain Canadian laws and judicial decisions in the past have made the legal system an easy target for such charges. Canadian governments have acknowledged the problems of racism in Canadian society, and provincial and federal human rights legislation exemplify efforts to eradicate racial discrimination. However, racial discrimination persists in Canadian society and the criminal justice system occupies a particularly sensitive place in controversies over the role of the state in these problems. Moreover, the equality provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms have quite properly raised …
The Politics Of The Imagination: A Life Of F.R. Scott, J King Gordon
The Politics Of The Imagination: A Life Of F.R. Scott, J King Gordon
Dalhousie Law Journal
The task of a biographer is a challenging one at best. And when the subject is one who has achieved distinction in many fields the difficulties are magnified many times. Better, perhaps, to settle for a Festschift where colleagues and friends in fields in which the subject has excelled join together to pay their separate tributes. So in the case of Frank Scott and his biographer, Sandra Djwa. She is a professor of literature and has achieved recognition for the work she has done on the writings and life of E.J. Pratt. It was undoubtedly Frank Scott, the distinguished Canadian …
The Concept And Present Status Of The International Protection Of Human Rights: Forty Years After The Universal Declaration, Annemieke Holthius
The Concept And Present Status Of The International Protection Of Human Rights: Forty Years After The Universal Declaration, Annemieke Holthius
Dalhousie Law Journal
John P. Humphrey, the first Director of the Human Rights Division of the United Nations, in his preface to The Concept and Present Status of the International Protection of Human Rights - Forty Years after the Universal Declaration, observes that the question of the international protection of human rights "has received far too little attention from scholars, statesmen, diplomats and human rights activists". There "has so far been no attempt ... to provide a comprehensive account" of the concept of "protection" within the international law of human rights. In his new book, Dr. B.G. Ramcharan, the distinguished lawyer-adviser in the …
International Humanitarian Assistance The Right To Life In International Law The Right To Food, L C. Green
International Humanitarian Assistance The Right To Life In International Law The Right To Food, L C. Green
Dalhousie Law Journal
When the international community first became interested in the problem of human rights during the second world war and then enunciated those rights in a series of international instruments, there was a tendency among writers to deal with the issue as a comprehensive whole. Now, however, it has become increasingly popular for authors to deal with a specific right to the exclusion of all others.
Sexual Orientation As A Human Rights Issue Incanada 1969-1985, Philip Girard
Sexual Orientation As A Human Rights Issue Incanada 1969-1985, Philip Girard
Dalhousie Law Journal
Equality is a protean concept. Even if one has taken a position on the equality of opportunity versus equality of outcomes debate, there remains the problem of deciding what equality means in particular contexts: racial equality, equality between the sexes, between those with and without mental or physical disability, and so on. Finally, there is the issue of which groups in society are entitled to "equality", whatever it may mean. Given the open-ended nature of the equality guarantees contained in section 15 of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it is clear that groups other than those specifically mentioned therein …
Science, Technology And Human Rights, Yoram Dinstein
Science, Technology And Human Rights, Yoram Dinstein
Dalhousie Law Journal
The rapid development of science and technology, particularly in the last generation, has had a tremendous impact on human rights. Many, perhaps most, human rights are adversely affected - in actuality or potentiality - by modern machines.' The subject has been discussed at great length by scientists and statesmen, lawyers and laymen, preachers and futurologists. But, to understand it in its proper perspective, it is believed that a typological approach is called for. It is necessary to distinguish between four different types of cases, in accordance with the nature of the relationship between science and technology, on the one hand, …
Human Rights In Canadian Society: Mechanisms For Raising The Issues And Providing Redress, A. Wayne Mackay
Human Rights In Canadian Society: Mechanisms For Raising The Issues And Providing Redress, A. Wayne Mackay
Dalhousie Law Journal
To the great body of the people, the whole mass of right is without remedy. Selling justice to the favoured few, denying it to the many, the system gives the rights in outward show; takes them away in effect; gives rights by what it says, takes them away by what it does. 1 Society has changed since Jeremy Bentham made the above observation. However, the problem he identified has not been eliminated. The gap between what governments say about human rights and what they do about violations of human rights is wide. In spite of occasional verbal protests from other …
The Credibility Gap In Human Rights, Niall Macdermot
The Credibility Gap In Human Rights, Niall Macdermot
Dalhousie Law Journal
The credibility gap in human rights is a term coined by my predecessor, Mr. Sean MacBride. He used it to refer to the gap between the standards with governments proclaim, or accept, or at least pay lip-service to, and the reality of their practice in enforcing or suppressing these rights. The questions I would like to consider with you are the extent of this gap, the reasons for it, and what, if anything, ordinary citizens who care about human rights can do about it.
The Credibility Gap In Human Rights, Niall Macdermot
The Credibility Gap In Human Rights, Niall Macdermot
Dalhousie Law Journal
The credibility gap in human rights is a term coined by my predecessor, Mr. Sean MacBride. He used it to refer to the gap between the standards with governments proclaim, or accept, or at least pay lip-service to, and the reality of their practice in enforcing or suppressing these rights. The questions I would like to consider with you are the extent of this gap, the reasons for it, and what, if anything, ordinary citizens who care about human rights can do about it.