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Full-Text Articles in Law

Transitional Justice, Peace And Everyday Reality: Somalilands Experience With Justice And Security-Sector Reform, Siham Rayale Nov 2021

Transitional Justice, Peace And Everyday Reality: Somalilands Experience With Justice And Security-Sector Reform, Siham Rayale

LLM Theses

This paper looks at Somalilands transitional justice process and the role that legal pluralism has played in shaping its attempts at justice and security-sector reform. By utilizing concepts like hybridity and the everyday, this paper frames these processes with an understanding that while legal pluralism has established Somalilands peace and security infrastructure, it has created opportunities and challenges for marginalized and vulnerable groups. Such challenges include accessing and participating in legal reform initiatives that support social transformation. This paper concludes with the need to frame transitional justice, from the onset, in a way that recognizes the importance of communities as …


Aandaakonan Inaakonigewin: Considering An Anishinaabe Meaning To The Canadian Law On Consultation And Accommodation, Veronica Ann Guido Nov 2021

Aandaakonan Inaakonigewin: Considering An Anishinaabe Meaning To The Canadian Law On Consultation And Accommodation, Veronica Ann Guido

LLM Theses

Indigenous laws are resurging throughout Turtle Island and have vital roles to play in the creation and application of laws, governance structures, and decision-making. However, for this to happen, the understanding of the law which is predominant and dictates legal processes must change, specifically when such laws apply to Indigenous land and peoples. This will allow Indigenous legal orders – including Anishinaabe legal norms such as mutual aid, kinship, giftedness and doodem – to flourish. This thesis explores Anishinaabe law resurgence by asking: how can decision-making about land, natural resources, and Aboriginal rights through the duty to consult and accommodate …


Finding A Governing Law To Resolve Conflicts Of Tax Laws, Catharine Marie Mcmillan Nov 2021

Finding A Governing Law To Resolve Conflicts Of Tax Laws, Catharine Marie Mcmillan

LLM Theses

This thesis explores how tax treaty articles providing foreign tax recognition, distributive rules, meanings for undefined terms, and anti-treaty shopping rules implicitly employ conflict of laws "choice of law" ("COL/col") principles to derive the governing law in situations where more than one tax law and therefore more than one legal system applies to characterize a person or income. COL/col principles are implicitly acknowledged and specifically operate in tax treaties to reconcile contending tax laws and therefore legal systems. Considering tax treaty articles implore countries to ascertain the governing law through reconciliation, supranational approaches that advocate harmonization to ascertain governing law …


Health Insurance, A False Dichotomy And A Negative Right To Abortion In Canada's Maritime Provinces, Clare Joanne Shrybman Nov 2021

Health Insurance, A False Dichotomy And A Negative Right To Abortion In Canada's Maritime Provinces, Clare Joanne Shrybman

LLM Theses

This thesis examines the jurisdictional movement of abortion regulation resulting from R v Morgentaler and the barriers to abortion which emerged as a result of the transition in the Maritime provinces. Following decriminalization, the Maritime provinces responded by implementing health insurance barriers to clinic abortions, restricting access. While contemporary scholarship has predominantly examined the issue through a health law and positive rights lens, this thesis asserts that these barriers can most successfully be challenged as a negative rights violation of the Charters section 7 guarantee of security of the person. This is because, although the dichotomy between positive and negative …


Doomed To Fail: Ag-Gag Laws And The Canadian Charter, Samantha Lynne Skinner Nov 2021

Doomed To Fail: Ag-Gag Laws And The Canadian Charter, Samantha Lynne Skinner

LLM Theses

In late 2019, ag-gag laws began being introduced in Canada. Ag-gag laws are named for their intended effect of gagging activists from exposing the realities of the animal agriculture industry. Animal activists seek to gather and publicly disseminate information using means of bearing witness, undercover investigations, and civil disobedience. Ag-gag laws originated in the US in the 1990s, but saw a revival in the 2010s. In the US, animal law organizations such as the Animal Legal Defense Fund have been successfully challenging the constitutionality of ag-gag laws, with courts in six states finding ag-gag laws to violate the First Amendment …


To Set Aside Or To Not Set Aside The Agreement Pursuant To Section 56(4) Of The Family Law Act: Applying Relational Theory To Domestic Contracts Involving Spousal Support Releases And Waivers, Sara Kun Nov 2021

To Set Aside Or To Not Set Aside The Agreement Pursuant To Section 56(4) Of The Family Law Act: Applying Relational Theory To Domestic Contracts Involving Spousal Support Releases And Waivers, Sara Kun

LLM Theses

This work applies the lens of relational theory to five Ontario Superior Court of Justice cases where a party previously executed a spousal support agreement, but subsequently sought to have it set aside pursuant to section 56(4) of the Family Law Act. While the outcomes in the five cases differed as to whether section 56(4) of the Family Law Act was successfully engaged and, if so, whether the judge in turn exercised his discretion to set aside the agreement, it is argued that the cases are united by a common theme that is resonant with relational theory. The distinct relational …


Fiscal Decolonization-Indigenous Fiscal Autonomy And Tax Jurisdiction, Riad Kherallah Oct 2021

Fiscal Decolonization-Indigenous Fiscal Autonomy And Tax Jurisdiction, Riad Kherallah

LLM Theses

This thesis focuses on the relationship between Indigenous fiscal autonomy and self-determination. Indigenous nations’ ability to achieve self-determination is dependent upon their ability to autonomously finance self-government. Unfortunately, Canada’s colonial policies have weakened Indigenous economies and rendered them dependent upon the Crown. Due to Indigenous nations’ lack of fiscal autonomy, Crown policies designed to promote Indigenous self-government have proven inadequate. This thesis argues for using the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a blueprint for developing more equitable economic relations. While there are various elements to Crown-Indigenous economic relations, this thesis focuses on the distribution of …


Pushing The First Domino: Freeing The Whales In Canada, Luc Paul Bourgeois Oct 2021

Pushing The First Domino: Freeing The Whales In Canada, Luc Paul Bourgeois

LLM Theses

In 2019, the Canadian Parliament adopted Bill S-203, titled the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act [Whales Act], to phase-out the captivity of cetaceans – that is, whales, dolphins, and porpoises – mainly for entertainment purposes. This new law reflected scientific knowledge and signaled a shift in public attitudes relating to cetacean captivity. Undeniably, this piece of legislation raises many legal and normative questions. Drawing on the capabilities approach, espoused by Martha C. Nussbaum, this paper will explore the nature and impact of the Whales Act in the Canadian political and legal landscape, as well as the newly …


Putting The Constitutional Horse Before The Cart: Federal Jurisdiction Over Next Generation Environmental Assessment, Anna Johnston May 2021

Putting The Constitutional Horse Before The Cart: Federal Jurisdiction Over Next Generation Environmental Assessment, Anna Johnston

LLM Theses

This thesis explores the extent of federal jurisdiction over a next generation environmental assessment (EA) model proposed by Sinclair, Doelle and Gibson. Examining the jurisprudence and literature, it analyses the scope of federal constitutional authority during the triggering, information-gathering and analysis and decision-making stages of project, strategic and regional assessment. A federal next generation EA law focused on impacts on areas of federal authority could be upheld under various federal constitutional heads of power. Federal jurisdiction is most important at decision-making, and authority to trigger an assessment should be based on the low jurisdictional threshold of reasonable probability of federal …


Responsible Business Conduct In The Extractive Industries: Prospect Of Respecting Women's Human Rights In Ghana, Veronica Dossah May 2021

Responsible Business Conduct In The Extractive Industries: Prospect Of Respecting Women's Human Rights In Ghana, Veronica Dossah

LLM Theses

Business operations in the extractive industries (EI) continue to violate women’s human rights and the environment in the communities in which they operate. In Ghana, existing laws and regulations do not preclude businesses from such violations. This makes it important to reflect on innovative means including soft laws which could encourage companies operating in the EI in Ghana to respect women’s human rights and the environment over and above compliance with national laws and regulations. This thesis examines the problem of land grabbing by EI companies operating in Ghana, the unique negative impacts women in mining communities face as a …


Self-Determination As Resistance To Legal Violence: Jurisdiction, Property, And The Geographies Of Conflict In Unistoten And Xolobeni, Daniel Luke Huizenga Mar 2021

Self-Determination As Resistance To Legal Violence: Jurisdiction, Property, And The Geographies Of Conflict In Unistoten And Xolobeni, Daniel Luke Huizenga

LLM Theses

Indigenous peoples struggles of the right to self-determination are often framed as claims against a unified state. However, explanation of the forces inhibiting the expression of Indigenous self-determination should not settle with an understanding of the imposing power of the state. As I show, the realization of self-determination is undermined by the cumulative effects of legal practices and knowledges that contribute to the division of collective autonomies and disruption of their governance practices. In this transnational and comparative work on the emerging right to consent to resource extraction in South Africa and Canada, I argue that we might understand these …


Fighting Climate Change With The Charter: An Inquiry Into The Effects Of Litigating The Right To A Healthy Environment, Kevin Patrick Berk Mar 2021

Fighting Climate Change With The Charter: An Inquiry Into The Effects Of Litigating The Right To A Healthy Environment, Kevin Patrick Berk

LLM Theses

This thesis examines whether the litigation of the legal right to a healthy environment can adequately advance the values of its supporters. This question is answered through examining scholarly arguments in favour of the right, promotional material from Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) litigating the right, court documents, as well as the results of a select number of interviews with senior members of Canadian ENGOs. It is ultimately argued that the intervention of lawyers and the interpretation of judges will narrow the intended scope of the right. Additionally, it is argued that the act of choosing to litigate implicitly affirms the …


Access To Environmental Justice: Ngo Environmental Advocacy On Mining-Related Environmental Issues In Mongolia, Ulziilkham Enkhbaatar Mar 2021

Access To Environmental Justice: Ngo Environmental Advocacy On Mining-Related Environmental Issues In Mongolia, Ulziilkham Enkhbaatar

LLM Theses

In this thesis, I apply the theory of environmental justice to determine how NGOs use substantive and procedural environmental rights to advocate for mining-affected nomadic communities in Mongolia. Environmental NGOs often possess legal and scientific expertise pertinent to resolving and mitigating environmental risks and demanding justice for environmental damages on behalf of the mining-affected local communities. Based on the environmental justice theories, I have constructed a theoretical framework to examine how NGOs access and implement environmental justice tools, both domestically and internationally. Using a multi-methods research approach, including documentary analysis and qualitative interviews with NGO experts and lawyers, I was …