Law Commons^™

Culture And The Canadian Constitution, Patrick J. Monahan

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article examines the current division of powers over cultural matters in the Canadian Constitution and the manner in which the 1992 Charlottetown Accord would have altered that distribution. During the debate over the Charlottetown Accord, it was argued by the federal government and the provinces that the Constitution allocates primary legislative responsibility over cultural matters to the provinces. Therefore, the cultural amendments in the Accord which would have recognized the provinces' exclusive jurisdiction to make laws in relation to culture were justified on the basis that they merely codified the status quo. This paper challenges the belief that the …

Legislative Process And Commercial Law: Lessons From The Copyright Act Of 1976 And The Uniform Commercial Code, Harold R. Weinberg, William J. Woodward Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Overlap and conflict are inevitable in any legal system in which a federal government and state governments both have authority to enact laws. In our federal system, the Constitution's Supremacy Clause identifies federal law as preeminent in case of conflict. When conflict develops and litigation is required to determine whether state or federal law controls the issue at hand, our system analyzes the problem using the term preemption as a basis for analysis.

This Article explores the federal legislative process that precedes judicial preemption decisions. By studying the legislative process for its sensitivity to preemption issues, possible ways to modify …