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Full-Text Articles in Law

Restoring Accountability In Freedom Of Expression Theory: Public Libel Law And Radical Whig Ideology, Randall Stephenson Sep 2019

Restoring Accountability In Freedom Of Expression Theory: Public Libel Law And Radical Whig Ideology, Randall Stephenson

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

As leading common law jurisdictions grapple with the Internet’s impact on defamation law, comparative legal scholarship has revealed long-standing problems with its underlying theoretical justifications. Specifically, public libel doctrine is commonly supported by appeals to democratic theory in the abstract. Accountability concerns most relevant to adjudicating public libel cases are thus routinely overlooked. This article aims to diagnose the causes of these theoretical inaccuracies, describe their impact on public libel law, and translate their significance for law reform. Through exploring eighteenth-century libertarian thought, we highlight the foundational importance of accountability and the checking function rationale to democratic theory and governance. …


Are Jurisprudential Debates Conceptual?: Some Lessons From Democratic Theory, Dan Priel Oct 2012

Are Jurisprudential Debates Conceptual?: Some Lessons From Democratic Theory, Dan Priel

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The dominant view among legal philosophers is that jurisprudential debates about the nature of law are conceptual. In this article I challenge this view. I do so by comparing these debates to debates about the justification of democracy and showing that the arguments found in both are often very similar. I demonstrate that in both domains, there are arguments on one side that explain an institution (either law or democracy) in terms of its ability to help people lead a better life, and there are arguments on the other side that highlight the value of these institutions in promoting political …


In The Park: A Jurisprudential Primer, Allan C. Hutchinson Apr 2010

In The Park: A Jurisprudential Primer, Allan C. Hutchinson

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

No abstract provided.


The Constitutionalization Of Quebec Libel Law, 1848-2004, Joseph Kary Apr 2004

The Constitutionalization Of Quebec Libel Law, 1848-2004, Joseph Kary

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In 1848, a Quebec judge changed the law of defamation to accord with the newly-applicable constitutional right to freedom of speech. His decision and those that followed seem strange now that the Supreme Court of Canada has held that Charter rights do not apply to private law. These decisions show that the constitutionalization of libel law was not an American innovation, but rather one that emerged in Canada over a century earlier. This article analyzes the Quebec cases in detail, and suggests that they were grounded in liberal ideas about the British Constitution that were prevalent in Lower Canada at …


The Idea Of A Public Basis Of Justification For Contract, Peter Benson Apr 1995

The Idea Of A Public Basis Of Justification For Contract, Peter Benson

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The essay has two main objects. The first is to take up and to develop certain of the difficulties that Professor Trebilcock finds with autonomy and welfare-based theories of contract law. The essay reaches the conclusion that efficiency, autonomy, and welfare approaches suffer from fundamental and yet qualitatively different kinds of defects. Moreover, in the course of its critical examination of these theories, the essay introduces and makes explicit an ideal of justification which The Limits of Freedom of Contract only implicitly assumes-an ideal of justification which the essay, following the recent work of Rawls, calls a "public basis of …


The Dilemma Of Choice: A Feminist Perspective On The Limits Of Freedom Of Contract, Gillian K. Hadfield Apr 1995

The Dilemma Of Choice: A Feminist Perspective On The Limits Of Freedom Of Contract, Gillian K. Hadfield

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In this essay I explore what Michael Trebilcock's work in The Limits of Freedom of Contract offers feminists in terms of a resolution or transcendance of the dilemma of choice. Trebilcock's work does not address the deepest feminist concerns about conflicts between autonomy and welfare, but it does shed light on narrower versions of the dilemma, providing an analytical framework for the feminist dilemma of choice and emphasizing the pervasiveness of this problem in contract law. Trebilcock's recommendation that society simultaneously use different institutions to promote different values also has salience for the feminist dilemma of choice.


Critiques Of The Limits Of Freedom Of Contract: A Rejoinder, Michael J. Trebilcock Apr 1995

Critiques Of The Limits Of Freedom Of Contract: A Rejoinder, Michael J. Trebilcock

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This rejoinder to the foregoing critiques of the author's book, The Limits of Freedom of Contract, focuses on several themes: a) what range of contractually-related issues do courts possess the requisite institutional competence to address? b) whether problematic normative issues in contract law are amenable to rational analysis and at least provisional resolution, or are inherently indeterminate, contingent, and political? c) what the value of individual autonomy implies in terms of the type of transactions parties should be permitted to engage in? d) whether an "internal" rather than consequentialist theory of contract law is conceivable? and e) whether autonomy values …


Criminal Fault As Per The Lamer Court And The Ghost Of William Mcintyre, Michael J. Bryant Jan 1995

Criminal Fault As Per The Lamer Court And The Ghost Of William Mcintyre, Michael J. Bryant

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Contrary to recent criticisms to the effect that the Supreme Court of Canada favours the rights of criminal defendants and shuns the interests of the community, the Lamer Court has in fact championed the moral requisites of the community in its constitutional jurisprudence on criminal fault. By viewing rights and responsibilities as inextricably linked, the Lamer Court implicitly borrows from natural law traditions espoused by the Dickson Court's most conspicuous dissenter on criminal fault issues-Mr. Justice William McIntyre. This article argues that the tradition or philosophy underlying criminal fault as per the Lamer Court contrasts with the individualist, rights-oriented tendency …


Les Représentations De «Société Libre Et Démocratique» A La Cour Dickson : La Rhétorique Dans Le Discours Judiciaire Canadien, Andree Lajoie, Regine Robin, Sebastien Grammond, Henry Quillinan, Louise Rolland, Stéphane Perrault, Armelle Chitrit Apr 1994

Les Représentations De «Société Libre Et Démocratique» A La Cour Dickson : La Rhétorique Dans Le Discours Judiciaire Canadien, Andree Lajoie, Regine Robin, Sebastien Grammond, Henry Quillinan, Louise Rolland, Stéphane Perrault, Armelle Chitrit

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The expression "free and democratic society" is the focus of our research, which sheds light on the contribution of the Supreme Court to the constitutionalization of this concept. Leaving aside the institutional and psycho-social factors, the study confirms the hypothesis that the interpretation of this expression will vary (1) according to the conceptions formerly held by the individual judges and (2) with respect to the factors favoured by a rhetorical Perelman-like analysis, which considers the factual and judicial context and the expectations of both the universal and specific audiences. At the Supreme Court level, the expectations of the latter should …


Fiduciary Obligation Under Intellectual Siege: Contemporary Challenges To The Duty To Be Loyal, Deborah A. Demott Apr 1992

Fiduciary Obligation Under Intellectual Siege: Contemporary Challenges To The Duty To Be Loyal, Deborah A. Demott

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This essay argues that fiduciary obligation is a distinctive type of obligation. Its central rationale, nurturing and enforcing commitments to act loyally toward the interests of others, furnishes limits on the reach of fiduciary obligations. Attempts to characterize fiduciary obligation as solely a type of contractual obligation or as a concept best rationalized by the law of torts are unpersuasive, as are attempts to capture fiduciary obligation within definitions of altruistic behaviour. The author elaborates these arguments using examples drawn from partnership and corporate law.


Feminist Jurisprudence In A Conventional Context: Is There Room For Feminism In Dworkin's Theory Of Interpretive Concepts?, Lynne Hanson Apr 1992

Feminist Jurisprudence In A Conventional Context: Is There Room For Feminism In Dworkin's Theory Of Interpretive Concepts?, Lynne Hanson

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This paper examines Dworkin's interpretive theory of law from a feminist perspective, and asks whether his attempts to accommodate competing political opinions within an interpretive community can successfully encompass feminist concerns as well. It is argued that Dworkin repeatedly underestimates the extent of disagreement regarding the practice of law as a whole, while his requirements of fit, coherence and integrity impose a political agenda on the interpreter. As a consequence, Dworkin's theory is ultimately unable to adequately respond to a feminist critique of law, so that feminist jurisprudence must be seen as falling outside the scope of his interpretive community.


Charter Challenges: A Test Case For Theories Of Law, W. J. Waluchow Jan 1991

Charter Challenges: A Test Case For Theories Of Law, W. J. Waluchow

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The author's primary objective is to show that versions of legal positivism, according to which legal validity sometimes depends on moral validity (Inclusive Legal Positivism), are theoretically preferable to those forms of positivism (Exclusive Legal Positivism) which deny this possibility. The author attempts to substantiate this conclusion by demonstrating that Inclusive Legal Positivism provides a better theoretical account of challenges to legal validity based on a document like the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. His secondary aim is to show that the choice between Inclusive and Exclusive Legal Positivism can have important consequences for legal practice.


The Obligation To Obey Law: A New Theory And An Old Problem, Tamar L. Smith Oct 1990

The Obligation To Obey Law: A New Theory And An Old Problem, Tamar L. Smith

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Numerous theories have been developed to explain the basis, beyond a legal one, upon which the citizen's obligation to obey the law rests. In The Authority of the State, Leslie Green has contributed a new theory of obedience, one which explores the bases of civility and tolerance as foundations for obedience rendered to the legal system. This new theory is discussed within the context of a real world problem, one that has distressed the world community for years - the treatment of blacks in South Africa. Does this theory have any significance for citizens caught up in a fundamental and …


On The Road To Radical Reform: A Critical Review Of Unger's Politics, Richard F. Devlin Jul 1990

On The Road To Radical Reform: A Critical Review Of Unger's Politics, Richard F. Devlin

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Two aims drive this essay. The first is to provide the reader with an accessible, yet relatively comprehensive, introduction to Roberto Mangabeira Unger's social and legal theory. The second aim is to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Unger's most recent scholarship and to make some suggestions as to where he goes awry. In particular, the author draws several parallels between the Ungerian enterprise and that of some feminists. The central motivation of the essay is to keep the critical conversation between male radicals and feminists open. To this end, the author posits the possibility of mutually beneficial contributions.


The Politics Of Common Law In Theory And History, Ian Duncanson Jul 1989

The Politics Of Common Law In Theory And History, Ian Duncanson

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This paper is concerned with the theme of law as an outsider, in theory and practice, and with its appearance as the cohesive force which intervenes to make social order possible. In the first part of the paper I look at two legal theories and at two examples of what I take to be liberal historiography. In the second part I discuss the English common law, and the implications of its close association with agrarian capitalism and City of London finance.