Law Commons^™

Philosophical Counselling And Mediation Theory And Practice: Exploring A Pathway To Justice, Nayha Acharya

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper will demonstrate how philosophical counselling would invaluably contribute to the arena of conflict resolution via mediation and civil justice generally. Mediation is a conflict resolution process that involves a third party who facilitates disputants in arriving at a self-determined resolution. This process is being incorporated into civil justice systems globally, but how mediation should be conducted to achieve truly just outcomes needs immediate and thoughtful attention. At its best, mediation empowers parties to co-create a just and fair resolution to their conflict through a dialogical exploration of their interests, needs, and relevant norms and values. This is dramatically …

Feminist Relational Theory, Christine M. Koggel, Ami Harbin, Jennifer Llewellyn

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Accounts of human beings as essentially social have had a long history in philosophy as reflected in the Ancient Greeks; in African and Asian philosophy; in Modern European thinkers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx; in continental philosophy; in pragmatism; in Indigenous thought, and in contemporary communitarian theories. It can be said, then, that the language of relational theory has taken a variety of forms. That relational theory is broad and captures various threads in the history of philosophy is captured in the main title of this special issue, Relational Theory. That this special …

Animals As Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders, By Maneesha Deckha, Jodi Lazare

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Scholarship on animal rights has long been dominated by the widely held idea that justice for nonhuman animals will not be achieved until they are granted legal personhood. In Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders, Maneesha Deckha provides an alternative legal classification for nonhuman animals. “Beingness,” rooted in relational feminism, post-colonial theory, and critical animal studies, recognizes nonhuman animals’ inherent value, while avoiding some of the downsides to legal personhood, namely, its embeddedness in the imperialist liberal individualism that characterizes western legal systems. Given its anthropocentric nature, personhood must be displaced as the aspirational classification for animals. …

J. Krishnamurti And The Contemporary World Crises: Scholars’ Panel Two Session Four, Ashwani Kumar, Nayha Acharya

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this presentation, I describe my journey with Krishnamurti’s existential inquiry at a personal level and in the context of my academic life. I was introduced to Krishnamurti’s work during my Bachelor of Education program in India in 2004. While Krishnamurti was quite peripheral to the curriculum, he became a central focus of study for me during the Bachelor of Education, Masters of Education, and during my PhD. His insights have had a deep impact on how I view personal, educational, and social problems and how I approach teaching and research. His work is central to the four pedagogical and …

Transforming Restorative Justice, Jennifer Llewellyn

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

From the global pandemic to the Black Lives Matter, the Me Too/Times Up and Indigenous reconciliation and decolonisation movements, the systemic and structural failures of current social institutions around the world have all been brought to our collective consciousness in poignant, painful and urgent ways. The need for fundamental social and systemic transformation is clear. This challenge is central to the work of dealing with the past in countries undergoing transition and in established democracies confronting deep structural inequalities and injustices. Rooted in lessons from the application of restorative justice across these contexts, this article suggests that grounding restorative justice …

J. Krishnamurti And The Contemporary World Crises: Introduction To The Conference Proceedings, Ashwani Kumar, Nayha Acharya

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

We, Ashwani Kumar and Nayha Acharya, are excited and honoured to share the conference proceedings of the J. Krishnamurti and the Contemporary World Crises International Online Conference. The conference took place at the end of February 2021. It was free for anyone to attend. In our introduction we share how the conference was conceptualized, why J. Krishnamurti is a relevant focus in today’s world, how the conference unfolded, and how attendees responded to this conference.

I, Ashwani Kumar, have spent much of my academic journey studying, applying, teaching, and engaging in dialogues about J. Krishnamurti’s insights into human consciousness and …

Metaphysics & Morals In Canadian Criminal Justice: A Pragmatic Analysis Of The Conflict Between Neuroscience And Retributive Folk Psychology, Sarah Greenwood

LLM Theses

The retributive justification of Canadian criminal law contains several assumptions about human nature that conflicts with what neuroscience has established regarding human behavior and the function of rationality. Interdisciplinary discourse on this conflict between law and neuroscience has unnecessarily implicated the free will debate and is further stagnated by epistemic cultural differences between the two disciplines. To avoid these roadblocks, this thesis applies the methodological principles of pragmatic philosophy. Rather than asking which description of human nature is true, pragmatic inquiry focuses on the difference either would make in practice. This analysis reveals that retributive folk psychology in practice causes …

Lest Law Forget: Locke's Toleration And Religious Freedom, Stephen Holt

LLM Theses

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees every person in Canada freedom of conscience and religion. I contend that the concept of religious freedom was born out of a history of religious suffering and originally took the form of John Locke’s toleration of religious differences. In Big M, the first Supreme Court of Canada case that interpreted s. 2(a), Chief Justice Dickson recognized the historical context of religious freedom but also tied it to human autonomy, equality, and dignity. An examination of the cases since Big M suggests that when courts think in terms of tolerance, they accord greater …

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.

Modernizing Pakistan's Blasphemy Law As Hate Speech, Farhan Raouf

LLM Theses

It is difficult to define blasphemy. What is regarded as blasphemous will depend on the values prevalent in a given society. In general, it includes denigrating and insulting expressions targeted toward God and other aspects of religion. My thesis is that blasphemy, to the extent it should be dealt with by the law, should be regarded a sub-category of hate speech. The law should concern itself only with those aspects of blasphemy which incite hatred against a group which is identifiable on the basis of religion. More specifically, I argue that Pakistan should repeal its blasphemy law (s. 295-c Penal …

Feeling Relational: The Use Of Buddhist Meditation In Restorative Practices, Gordon Shotwell

Dalhousie Law Journal

Some theorists have argued that restorative justice can be defined as a theory of justice based on the. relationality of self-the idea that the self exists in and through its relationships with others. This account of self, while analytically compelling, conflicts with our intuitions of individuality I argue that Buddhist metaphysics provides an explanation of this conflict, and that meditation practice can help restorative justice practitioners develop an intuitive understanding of the relationality of self.

Sex And The Supremes: Towards A Legal Theory Of Sexuality, Elaine Craig

PhD Dissertations

This thesis examines how the Supreme Court of Canada, across legal contexts, has tended to conceptualize sexuality. It focuses primarily on areas of public law including sexual assault law, equality for sexual minorities, sexual harassment and obscenity and indecency laws. There were a number of trends revealed upon reviewing the jurisprudence in this area. First, the Court’s decisions across legal contexts reveal a tendency to conceptualize sexuality as innate, as a pre-social naturally occurring phenomenon and as an essential element of who we are as individuals. This is true whether one is speaking of the approach to gay and lesbian …

Relational Theory And Health Law And Policy, Jennifer Llewellyn, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Relational theory starts from an understanding of human selves as relational. This theory informs some significant current developments in the areas of philosophy, ethics and legal theory that re-envision key concepts including autonomy, equality, rights, justice, memory, trust, judgment and identity. In this paper we introduce relational theory and begin to explore some of its implications for health law and policy. In doing so, we hope to show the relevance of each field to the other and to persuade those interested in health law and policy to take up the challenge to pursue the transformative potential of relational theory through …

Counting Outsiders: A Critical Exploration Of Outsider Course Enrollment In Canadian Legal Education, Kim Brooks, Natasha Bahkt, Gillian Calder, Jennifer Koshan, Sonia Lawrence, Carissima Mathen, Debra L. Parkes

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In response to anecdotal concerns that student enrollment in "outsider" courses, and in particular feminist courses, is on the decline in Canadian law schools, the authors explore patterns of course enrollment at seven Canadian law schools. Articulating a definition of "outsider" that describes those who are members of groups historically lacking power in society, or traditionally outside the realms of fashioning, teaching, and adjudicating the law, the authors document the results of quantitative and qualitative surveys conducted at their respective schools to argue that outsider pedagogy remains a critical component of legal education. The article situates the numerical survey results …

The Rhetoric Of Innovation, Matthew Herder

LLM Theses

Innovation has been lauded over centuries but the emergence of an "innovation policy paradigm" is a new phenomenon, producing profound changes in the realm of scientific research. Whether these changes stand to benefit 'all' Canadians remains to be seen. Therein lies a problem: The present "innovation policy paradigm" trades on society's deeply entrenched view of innovation (however it occurs) as a public good, while simultaneously encoding for specific a 'brand' of innovation that privileges capital over all other interests. This thesis (1) demonstrates that this paradigm is the product of historically complex contests of power; (2) argues that the paradigm …

Feminists, Angels, Poets, And Revolutionaries: What I'Ve Learned From Ruthann Robson And Nicole Brossard On What It Means To Be A Law Teacher, Kim Brooks

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This short piece was written as a tribute to the contributions Ruthann Robson has made to legal pedagogy, and was presented at a Symposium in her honor held at CUNY.

Finding A Sense Of Self In The World: A Process For Overcoming Personal And Collective Alienation After Institutional Abuse, Seetal Kaur Sunga

LLM Theses

The author examines three aspects of dispute resolution involving cases of physical and sexual abuse in institutions and other environments. She focuses on judicial and alternative processes that deal with identity formation, empowerment and monetary compensation. She argues that sexual abuse and physical abuse create specific harms to the identity and power of abused persons. These harms should be addressed through a process that can allow for identity-formation and re-configuration of the power relationship between the parties. The author concludes that judicial processes recognize identity formation that occurs outside the legal arena, and are capable of recognizing the power of …

International Law And The Maritime Carriage Of Radioactive Materials: Prospects For The Non-Anthropocentric Greening Of International Law, A. Suzette V. Suarez

LLM Theses

A review of the legal regime governing the shipments of radioactive materials reveals an array of preventive and emergency measures as well as liability and compensation measures. The legal regime, however, does not provide any voice to all potentially affected entities, particularly developing Coastal States and the marine environment. The legal regime must be transformed in order to take the above interests into consideration. Any reform in the legal system must start with an evaluation of the ethics and philosophy underlying the system. Understanding the ethical and philosophical basis of the legal regime contributes to the formulation of recommendations for …

The First Cut Is (Not) The Deepest: Deconstructing "Female Genital Mutilation" And The Criminalization Of The Other, David Fraser

Dalhousie Law Journal

Deconstruction, as a 'philosophy'andas a strategy for the reading of texts, offers us the ability to engage in a politics and ethics of justice which seeks to recognize our responsibility to the Other. By 'reading' 'female genital mutilation' with this obligation in mind, this article attempts to deal with the prejudices and barriers to justice which present themselves to those of us in the West who seek an engagement with the Other. The article offers a warning and a reading of the 'text' of 'female genital mutilation' informed by our obligation to justice.

Law, Postmodernism And Resistance: Rethinking The Significance Of The Irish Hunger Strike, Part Ii, Richard F. Devlin Frsc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In recent years legal scholars have drawn upon the insights of postmodernism and deconstruction as methods for the interpretation of legal texts. In this article the author attempts to assess the work of Baudrillard, Derrida and Lyotard not merely as interpretative strategies but as potential socio-legal theories. In order to ground the analysis, the author locates the assessment in the context of the hunger strike by Irish prisoners in 1981. Drawing on the insights of postmodernism and deconstruction the author proposes that the fast can be understood as the erruption of a pre-colonial juridical consciousness by means of which the …

Mapping Legal Theory, Richard F. Devlin Frsc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this essay, the author briefly outlines recent trends in Canadian jurisprudence. Beginning with a brief overview of the classical jurisprudential debate between natural lawyers, legal positivists, and legal realists, the author then provides an introduction to a new theoretical tradition which he terms "Artifactualism", as well as a survey of contemporary ''Artifactualist Jurisprudence". He argues that there has been a significant theoretical shift away from the classical conceptualization of law as morality (as embodied in natural law, and challenged by legal posltlvism and legal realism), toward the conceptualization of law as politics (as promulgated by artifactualism). This new conceptualization …

Law, Postmodernism And Resistance: Rethinking The Significance Of The Irish Hunger Strike, Part I, Richard F. Devlin Frsc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In recent years legal scholars have drawn upon the insights of postmodernism and deconstruction as methods for the interpretation of legal texts. In this article the author attempts to assess the work of Baudrillard, Derrida and Lyotard not merely as interpretative strategies but as potential socio-legal theories. In order to ground the analysis, the author locates the assessment in the context of the hunger strike by Irish prisoners in 1981. Drawing on the insights of postmodernism and deconstruction the author proposes that the fast can be understood as the erruption of a pre-colonial juridical consciousness by means of which the …

Doubting Donald: A Reply To Professor Donald Galloway's 'Critical Mistakes', Richard F. Devlin Fsrc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In a recent article Professor Galloway has argued that supporters of the Critical Legal Studies perspective make five fundamental errors in their analyses of liberal theory and as a result have failed in their deconstructive agenda. In this essay Professor Devlin replies to these criticisms and posits that Galloway's essay in retrieval is itself subject to the very same errors of which he accuses the "crits". Moreover, it is argued that the nature of Galloway 's partial defence of liberalism confirms rather than denies the accuracy of critical assessments.

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

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

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 …

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

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

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 …

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

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The essay is to be published in two parts. Part A, "The Killing Fields .. . ", is a criticai inquiry into the way in which the "disciplines" of law and legal theory rationalize violence. I begin my discussion with a Celtic triptych - a series of three narratives - that is designed to provide the reader with some background information in order that he or she may acquire a sense of the perspective and experiential context from which this essay emerges.

Next, I briefly outline the central role which violence has played in structuring our received tradition of jurisprudential …

Thoughts In Prison, William Dodd

Thompson Rare Book Collection

The following work, as the dates of the respective parts evince, was begun by its unhappy Author in his apartments at Newgate, on the evening of the day subsequent to his trial and conviction at Justice Hall; and was finished, amidst various necessary interruptions, in little more than the space of two months.

The few little pieces subjoined to the Thoughts, and the Author’s Last Prayer, were found amongst his papers. Their evident connection with the Poem was the inducement for adding them to the volume.

Written by the Rev. William Dodd, during his time in prison prior to …