Law Commons^™

Accommodating Equality In The Unionized Workplace, Katherine Swinton

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article explores the appropriate relationship between human rights and collective bargaining laws through an examination of the Supreme Court of Canada's jurisprudence on the duty to accommodate. While collective bargaining can be an important force to promote equality for disadvantaged groups, resistance to changing the terms of collective agreements to accommodate those groups can arise, especially when other employees' seniority rights are affected. The emerging jurisprudence suggests that seniority rights will be respected in many situations, especially in layoffs, but the article outlines circumstances in which accommodation will be necessary to vindicate equality rights.

Relations Of Force And Relations Of Justice: The Emergence Of Normative Community Between Colonists And Aboriginal Peoples, Jeremy Webber

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This paper argues that Aboriginal rights are best understood as the product of cross-cultural interaction-not, as is usually supposed, the result of some antecedent body of law (English, international, or Aboriginal). Aboriginal rights are therefore intercommunal in origin. The paper does describe the process by which this body of law emerged, but its primary vocation is theoretical, concerned with the following questions: How can a normative community emerge in the presence of profound cultural divisions? How can relations of justice emerge in a context dominated by power and coercion? How does moral reasoning draw upon the factual relations of the …

Tort In A Contractual Matrix, John G. Fleming

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article addresses one aspect of the interface between tort and contract: the way tort law is affected, whether by extending or contracting its reach, by the parties coming together against a contractual structure. Two basic situations are considered. The first concerns the effect of a contractual limitation clause on the tort liability of, or to, a third party such as a subcontractor's to the building owner. The second considers what effect to attribute to a plaintiff's failure to protect himself or herself in advance by contracting against the risk

The Supreme Court In Flames: Fire Insurance Decisions After Kosmopoulos, Reuben A. Hasson

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article examines three recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions on fire insurance after the historic Kosmopoulos decision. In all three cases, the author finds a distressing lack of concern with relevant statutory provisions, policy arguments, and precedent. Responsibility for this deplorable state of affairs must be shared between the Court and counsel. Insurance law is a very complex body of law, deserving as much care as that of, say, the law of the Charter.

Filling The "Charter Gap": Human Rights Codes In The Private Sector, Gavin W. Anderson

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The author considers the capacity of the federal and provincial human rights codes to deal with human rights abuses in the private sector. He compares the social democratic potential of the codes, with the classical liberalism of Charter jurisprudence, which shields the private sector from constitutional scrutiny. Four case studies are used: the definition of "offered to the public," mandatory retirement, the rights of the poor, and systemic discrimination. It is concluded that there are important similarities between the codes and the Charter, both at an institutional design and a doctrinal level. As a result, the codes have been unable …

Mohegan Indians V. Connecticut (1705-1773) And The Legal Status Of Aboriginal Customary Laws And Government In British North America, Mark D. Walters

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article examines the eighteenth century case of Mohegan Indians v. Connecticut in order to determine its significance for arguments about the legal status of Aboriginal customary law and government in British North America. The article concludes that the Mohegan case confirms that in certain circumstances native nations on reserved lands in British colonies were subject, not to colonial jurisdictions established for settlers, but to their own traditional customs and institutions. It also concludes that the case is less clear than some recent commentators have suggested about whether British law recognized such nations as having rights of sovereignty.

Is The Pearson Airport Legislation Unconstitutional?: The Rule Of Law As A Limit On Contract Repudiation By Government, Patrick J. Monahan

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

It has long been assumed that Parliament has unlimited power to enact legislation cancelling valid contracts and denying compensation to any persons affected. This paper challenges that conventional wisdom. The author argues that the principle of the rule of law requires that governments be accountable in the ordinary courts for wrongful actions of government officials. This principle is undermined if government is absolved from any liability for breach of a fairly bargained and valid contract. Thus, legislation purporting to abrogate contracts and deny compensation is invalid, since it violates the implied limits on legislative authority associated with the rule of …

The Supreme Court Cites The Supreme Court: Follow-Up Citation On The Supreme Court Of Canada, 1989-1993, Peter Mccormick

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Judges do not simply declare outcomes but also give reasons; in Canada, these reasons are typically organized around citations of judicial authority. Each citation acknowledges a contribution to the immediate decision; therefore, a statistical analysis of citation patterns is also a measure of judicial influence. This study considers follow-up citations of the Supreme Court of Canada over a five-year period to assess the influence of past and current members of the Court, developing appropriate discounts for the recency of the citation and for its nature and extent. The sui generis impact of the Charter suggests that these inferences cannot be …

Strict Products Liability Revisited, Denis W. Boivin

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article examines the relationship between two concepts found throughout the law of products liability, defect and negligence. Traditional tort doctrine contends that, although they are sometimes used interchangeably, both concepts refer to quite distinct matters: the state of a product, on the one hand, and the nature of a manufacturer's conduct in supplying its products, on the other. The hallmark distinction between a standard of fault and one of strict liability, it is said, is that only the former requires proof of unreasonable care, whereas both require proof of a defect. Relying on developments in the United States and …

Sovereignty, Economic Integration, And The World Trade Organization, Susan Hainsworth

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Economic integration is altering the role of the state and the concept of sovereignty in international law. Intensifying economic interdependence has rendered sovereignty almost meaningless for an isolated state. However, the transfer and pooling of sovereignty in a jointly designed and mutually acceptable legalistic international institution allows state interests to be both respected and represented at the international level. After addressing the European Union model for managing advanced economic integration, the paper examines the extent to which the legal and institutional attributes of the new World Trade Organization represents a move towards a more legalistic international trade order, entailing a …

A Tale Of Two Fora: Fresh Challenges In Defending Multijurisdictional Claims, Janet Walker

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article analyzes recent developments in the Canadian common law of forum non conveniens as it is invoked in applications for stays and injunctions. It reviews the findings of the Supreme Court of Canada in Amchem and the Court of Appeal for Ontario in Frymer as they relate to the onus in stay applications, the significance of the plaintiffs loss of advantage and the special considerations applying to injunctions. The possibility of rationalizing the interprovincial application of the doctrine brought about by the Supreme Court's recent choice of law ruling in Tolofson is considered as are specific examples of the …

Second Chances: Bill C-72 And The Charter, Isabel Grant

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This paper examines the legislative response to the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in R. v. Daviault. The author argues that Bill C-72, which limits the defence of extreme intoxication, is constitutional because of its strong underpinnings in equality. The author reviews the statistics on violence against women and the role of intoxication in that violence to illustrate why the defence of intoxication raises issues of sex equality. The author argues that a court assessing the constitutionality of Bill C-72 should consider this strong foundation in equality and the fact that the Bill is the result of a careful balancing …

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.

Where Is The Freedom In Freedom Of Contract?: A Comment On Trebilcock's The Limits Of Freedom Of Contract, Hamish Stewart

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Michael Trebilcock's recent exploration of the limits of freedom of contract systematically considers both the instrumental and the intrinsic value of freedom or autonomy in an economic analysis. A third way of thinking about the value of freedom of contract is to take it as a presupposition of contract law: that is, freedom of contract is not just instrumentally or intrinsically desirable, but is conceptually necessary to contract law. Two examples are presented to suggest that by not considering this third perspective, Trebilcock leaves himself without a structure in which to deal with some of the issues that trouble him.

Michael And Me: A Postmodern Friendship, Allan C. Hutchinson

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This paper offers a review of The Limits of Freedom of Contract as an exercise in postmodern critique and politics. It examines the extent to which the book is informed by the postmodern motifs of contingency and indeterminacy. It attributes difficulties in Michael's analysis to a lack of postmodern nerve. Finally, it provides a contrast to a law-and-economics notion of citizenship which is applied to the problem of racist practices in the marketplace.

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 …

Remedies When Contracts Lack Consent: Autonomy And Institutional Competence, Richard Craswell

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Autonomy-based theories hold that enforceable contracts require the knowing and voluntary consent of the parties. In defining "knowing" and "voluntary," however, autonomy theorists have paid little attention to the remedy that will be granted if consent is round to be lacking, or to the question of what obligations (if any) will be enforced in place of the unconsented-to contract. In this paper, I expand on Michael Trebilcock's argument that considerations of institutional competence-specifically, the relative ability of courts and private actors to craft acceptable substitute obligations-should sometimes play a key role in defining what counts as "knowing" and "voluntary" consent.

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 …

The Law And Politics Of Quebec Secession, Patrick J. Monahan

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This paper considers the various legal issues that would arise in the context of Quebec's secession from Canada, and attempts to situate these issues politically. The author argues that, under the current constitutional amending formula, Quebec secession would require the support of the federal Parliament as well as the unanimous consent of the provinces; he also suggests that it is extremely unlikely that this level of support would be attained. The paper goes on to explore the possibility of Quebec seceding from Canada through a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI), suggesting that the success or failure of a UDI would …

Cooler Heads Shall Prevail: Assessing The Costs And The Consequences Of Quebec Separation, Patrick Monahan

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

No abstract provided.

Regional Agreements For Indigenous Lands And Cultures In Canada, Benjamin J. Richardson, D. Craig, Ben Boer

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

No abstract provided.

Power Without Responsibility Or Responsibility Without Power? Recent Developments In The Jurisdiction Of The Ontario Securities Commission, Mary Condon

Articles & Book Chapters

In its present legislative form and in its administration, the Ontario Securities Act has taken onto itself powers which this Commission believes were never intended...To correct this it believes that legislation should be enacted which will clearly define and limit the powers of the administrative authority to requirements under such legislation, and that these should not be deviated from for any reason of policy or otherwise.

Comment On S.M. Beck "Gatekeepers And The Commission: The Role Of Professionals In The Regulatory System", Mary Condon

Articles & Book Chapters

The theme of Beck's paper is that there is a need to re-examine the issue of the accountability of professionals, particularly lawyers, who act for clients in securities-related transactions. The role of law and lawyers in securities regulation has in the past been considered from the standpoint of the influence of legal professionals and legal ideas (such as those of fairness and equity) on the content of regulation and the practices of regulators.1 Beck's paper, however, considers the position of lawyers, not as the creators and shapers of regulation, but as objects of it.

As I read the paper, it …

Back To The Future!: Is The "New" Rigid Choice Of Law Rule For Interprovincial Torts Constitutionally Mandated?, Jean-Gabriel Castel

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In the last few years, the Supreme Court of Canada has held that private international law rules applicable to the jurisdiction of Canadian courts and the recognition and enforcement of the judgments of sister provinces must conform to the demands of territoriality and the principles of order and fairness which flow from the existence of an implied Full Faith and Credit clause in the Canadian Constitution. More recently, the Court has decided that, with respect to choice of law, the ancient lex loci delicti rule is applicable to both interprovincial and foreign torts and that it admits no exceptions in …

The Dead Parrot: Does Professional Self-Regulation Exhibit Vital Signs?, Harry W. Arthurs

Articles & Book Chapters

Self-governance of the legal profession, and the promulgation and enforcement of a code of professional conduct are usually justified by arguments from principle, practicality and past practice. None of these can be sustained However, if professional self-governance were replaced by governmental or judicial regulation, the operational norms of professional conduct - the way lawyers actually behave - would likely not change very much. In fact, formal regulation, by whatever means, is not a major determinant of conduct that can be characterized as unethical. Rather, such conduct is largely determined by the personal characteristics of the individual lawyer, the professional circumstances …

Copyright Inside The Law Library, David Vaver

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Death Of Common Sense - How Law Is Suffocating America By Philip K. Howard, Lorne Sossin, Julia E. Hanigsberg

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Book Review: M.Gillen "Securities Law In Canada" (Carswell, 1992), Mary Condon

Articles & Book Chapters

As a neophyte securities law teacher, I approached Professor Gillen's book, Securities Law in Canada, in hopeful anticipation. Would it be the useful, up-to-date teaching tool, suitable for students with little or no background in the area, that is seriously lacking in the Canadian securities law bibliography? I was not disappointed. The book is a very readable, well-organized and comprehensive overview of a subject often considered overly technical and abstruse by students.

Canada's Fiduciary Obligation To Aboriginal Peoples In The Context Of Accession To Sovereignty By Quebec, Volume 2: Domestic Dimensions, Renée Dupuis, Kent Mcneil

Books

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was established on 26 August 1991 by Order in Council P.C. 1991-1597 with the following mandate: "The Commission of Inquiry should investigate the evolution of the relationship among aboriginal peoples (Indian, Inuit and Métis), the Canadian government, and Canadian society as a whole. It should propose specific solutions, rooted in domestic and international experience, to the problems which have plagued those relationships and which confront aboriginal peoples today. The Commission should examine all issues which it deems to be relevant to any or all of the aboriginal peoples of Canada..." (P.C. 1991-1597)

Covenant Constitutionalism And The Canada Assistance Plan, Craig M. Scott

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.