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Articles 1 - 15 of 15

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Criminal Defence Lawyer's Role, David Layton Oct 2004

The Criminal Defence Lawyer's Role, David Layton

Dalhousie Law Journal

Defence lawyers often fight to prevent the conviction of people who have committed serious crimes. How can this role be justified? In providing his answer the author generally accepts the traditional view of criminal lawyering according to which defence counsel "does good" by ensuring that the state does not obtain a conviction in the absence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt based on admissible and reliable evidence Ethical advocacy in the criminal context is thus heavily influenced by a conception of justice that includes not only the search for truth but also due process rights for accused persons. The author …


An Unashamed Majoritarian, James Allan Oct 2004

An Unashamed Majoritarian, James Allan

Dalhousie Law Journal

The author a Canadian teaching in Australia, challenges what he regards as the prevailing Canadian orthodoxy, one that he thinks gives the unelected judiciary too much power. He challenges the perception that rights, however understood and though fully supported, necessitate the construction of anti-majoritarian protections such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Knowing that the Charter is here to stay he concludes by urging judges to adopt methods of interpretation that build in a much greater degree of deference to the legislature.


Nickled And Dimed: The Dispute Over Intellectual Property Rights In The Bluenose Ii, Teresa Scassa Oct 2004

Nickled And Dimed: The Dispute Over Intellectual Property Rights In The Bluenose Ii, Teresa Scassa

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Bluenose Schooner forms part of the folk history of Nova Scotia, and is a Canadian icon. Popular assumptions that Its name and image formed part of the public domain were put to the test in 2003 when the Bluenose II Preservation Trust Society brought suit against a Halifax business for Infringement of its official marks, trademarks and copyrights relating to the ship and its name. The litigation garnered local and national media attention, and the provincial government soon became involved in the dispute In this article, the author provides some background to the dispute before moving on to consider …


I Do' Kiss And Tell: The Subversive Potential Of Non-Normative Socialsexual Expression From Within Cultural Paradigms, Elaine Craig Oct 2004

I Do' Kiss And Tell: The Subversive Potential Of Non-Normative Socialsexual Expression From Within Cultural Paradigms, Elaine Craig

Dalhousie Law Journal

Using a comparative analysis of the equality movements of sexual minorities in Canada and India the author identifies a symbiosis between the subversive benefits of a deconstructionist approach to equality and the practical achievements to be gained by a rights-based model of social justice. The analysis is conducted through an examination of the role that the expression of same-sex desire plays in the legal and social positions of sexual minorities in Canada and India The author argues that the acquisition of rights can provide sexual minorities with greater access to dominant cultural rituals and that such access provides opportunities to …


Critique, Culture And Commitment: The Dangerous And Counterproductive Paths Of International Legal Discourse, Geoffrey Hoffman Oct 2004

Critique, Culture And Commitment: The Dangerous And Counterproductive Paths Of International Legal Discourse, Geoffrey Hoffman

Dalhousie Law Journal

In this article, international law is viewed as a social and self-constituting phenomenon As the product of international society's actualization, it contains many biases and prejudices. Given the inherent subjectivity of any system designed to regulate relations between people - and peoples - it is of utmost importance to subject international law to a searching scrutiny of its tendencies to emphasise certain interests, to exalt particular groups and to order society in preconceived ways. This article uncovers the insidious structural biases of international law including those just beneath the surface as well as those that are firmly embedded within the …


The Nile Basin: From Confrontation To Cooperation, Yehenew Tsegaye Walilegne Oct 2004

The Nile Basin: From Confrontation To Cooperation, Yehenew Tsegaye Walilegne

Dalhousie Law Journal

Water is one of the scarcest natural resources on our planet. Yet, it is one of humans' most vital needs This gift of nature has been a cause of tension and confrontation in many parts of the world due to the lack of a shared vision for its optimal and rational use Among the great water bodies, the Nile basin has been cited as one of the major trouble spots Recently, the Nile basin states have started to cooperate under the auspices of the Nile Basin Initiative for sustainable and equitable approach to Nile water use. This article discusses some …


The Kyoto Protocol: Reflections On Its Significance On The Occasion Of Its Entry Into Force, Meinhard Doelle Oct 2004

The Kyoto Protocol: Reflections On Its Significance On The Occasion Of Its Entry Into Force, Meinhard Doelle

Dalhousie Law Journal

When the Kyoto Protocol was signed in December 1997, there were high hopes in some quarters that it marked the beginning of a global commitment to climate change mitigation. In the past seven years, however, the Protocol has languished while many of the kev, States have done little to implement it. Until the fall of 2004 it was uncertain whether the Protocol would ever enter into force. To the surprise of many, with ratification by Russia, it came into effect on February 16, 2005, only three years before the start of the first period of commitments to reduce greenhouse gas …


Ghosts In The Court: Jonathan Belcher And The Proclamation Of 1762, Eric Adams Oct 2004

Ghosts In The Court: Jonathan Belcher And The Proclamation Of 1762, Eric Adams

Dalhousie Law Journal

History occupies a central place in aboriginal rights litigation. As a result, the circumstances and characters of the distant past play crucial roles in the adjudication of aboriginal treaty, rights and title claims. One such character is Jonathan Belcher. the first chief justice and former lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia. In 1762, Belcher issued a Proclamation reserving the north-eastern coast of Nova Scotia (and what Is now the eastern coast of New Brunswick) for the Mi'kmaq. In R. v Bernard, the accused pleaded a right to log timber on Crown land on the basis of Belcher's Proclamation. This article argues …


Slow On The Trigger: The Department Of Fisheries And Oceans, The Fisheries Act And The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, Arlene Kwasniak Oct 2004

Slow On The Trigger: The Department Of Fisheries And Oceans, The Fisheries Act And The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, Arlene Kwasniak

Dalhousie Law Journal

The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans plays an Important role in protecting fish and fish habitat in Canada, primarily under the Fisheries Act. Section 5 of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act requires an environmental assessment when the Department takes certain actions under the Fisheries Act. In the past few years environmental interests have taken the Department to task claiming that it has circumvented assessment. The alleged circumvention occurs when proponents of projects that will harm fish habitat, in consultation with the Department, revamp the project to avoid harm, and the Department issues a letter of advice to the proponent …


Canadian Law Teachers In The 1930s: "When The World Was Turned Upside Down", Richard Risk Apr 2004

Canadian Law Teachers In The 1930s: "When The World Was Turned Upside Down", Richard Risk

Dalhousie Law Journal

During the 1930s. scholars in the Canadian common law schools introduced fundamental changes in ways of thinking about law, changes that made one of them. John Willis, say 'the world was turned upside down." These scholars rejected the past, especially the English legal thought of the late nineteenth century Instead, they were influenced by changes in the United States, which began early in the century, and by the emerging regulatory and welfare state. In private law subjects, Caesar Wright was central, using American ideas to challenge the dominant English authority, especially in his writing about torts. In public law subjects, …


Same-Sex Partners And Family Class Immigration: Still Not Equal With Opposite-Sex Partners, Donald G. Caswell Apr 2004

Same-Sex Partners And Family Class Immigration: Still Not Equal With Opposite-Sex Partners, Donald G. Caswell

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which came into force in 2002, and the Regulations under it, expanded family class immigration to include commonlaw partners and conjugal partners in addition to spouses A common-law partner or a conjugal partner may be either an opposite-sex or same-sex partner-as can a spouse, depending upon the currently evolving law with respect to samesex marriage. Under the former Immigration Act, same-sex partners had been admitted pursuant to the discretion to admit immigrants on the basis of compassionate or humanitarian considerations. After examining the admission of same-sex partners under both the former and the current …


Collective Insecurity: The Liberian Crisis, Unilateralism, & Global Order, Chidi Oguamanam Apr 2004

Collective Insecurity: The Liberian Crisis, Unilateralism, & Global Order, Chidi Oguamanam

Dalhousie Law Journal

Recently, a democratically elected president issued an order requiring another President, also in office with, as it were, a democratic mandate, to vacate office. The latter complied and no dissenting voice was raised from anywhere in the rest of the world. The one is George W. Bush of the United States; the other is Charles Taylor of Liberia. This arrangement raises several questions: How is this state of affairs possible in 21st century Africa? How is it that Charles Taylor. a power hungry and known felon, became an elected president of Liberia in the first place, one that left in …


Charterwithout Borders? The Supreme Court Of Canada, Transnational Crime And Constitutional Rights And Freedoms, Robert J. Currie Apr 2004

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 …


Canadian Graduate Legal Education: Past, Present And Future, Sanjeev S. Anand Apr 2004

Canadian Graduate Legal Education: Past, Present And Future, Sanjeev S. Anand

Dalhousie Law Journal

Canadian graduate legal education has seldom been the subject of scholarly inquiry This article seeks to fill the vacuum by describing and evaluating various features associated with master s and doctoral programs offered by the nation s /ao schools. A number of criteria are used in this analysis, some of which have been garnered from the broader literature on higher education The article concludes with a series of specific programmatic and policy reform proposals aimed at strengthening the state of graduate legal education in this country


Designating The Dean Of Law: Legal Education At Mcgill University And The Montreal Corporate And Professional Elite, 1946-1950., A J. Hobbins Apr 2004

Designating The Dean Of Law: Legal Education At Mcgill University And The Montreal Corporate And Professional Elite, 1946-1950., A J. Hobbins

Dalhousie Law Journal

The nature of legal education has been the subject of an ongoing debate in all Canadian jurisdictions. A central theme of this debate for much of the twentieth century was whether legal education should be restricted to training for the local Bar as opposed to studying law as an academic discipline in addition to such professional training A decanal vacancy at McGill University brought this question to the fore in 1946 when the anglophone members of the Montreal Bar exerted a great deal of influence on the selection process. The matter was complicated by the opposition of the corporate elite …