Law Commons^™

Comments On Judicial Independence And Impartiality In Isds: A Paper Prepared For The Uncitral Working Group Iii, Gus Van Harten, Pavla Křístková

All Papers

This paper was prepared in support of the mandate of Working Group III to consider the possible reform of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) for reasons of independence and impartiality. It outlines the deep flaws in the current design of ISDS on this issue and offers ideas about reforms to incorporate essential safeguards

Social And Economic Adversity Experienced By Canadians And Everyday Legal Problems, Ab Currie, Lisa Moore

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

As part of a national study on the Cost of Justice by the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ), over 3,000 adults in Canada were asked about their experiences with civil and family justice problems and their views on the justice system in Canada. Additionally, survey participants were asked generally if over several years they had experienced ongoing issues with debt, finding or securing good and affordable housing or with unemployment. These specific areas were canvassed as possible indicators of larger, persistent issues related to social adversity in their lives. This paper draws on findings from the Everyday Legal Problems …

Ten Ideas For Community Based Justice, Ab Currie

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

Community-based legal services have long been a part of national legal services programs in countries that introduced legal aid programs in the early years of the access to justice movement. Because of inadequate funding for legal services the pressure to do more with less has been a constant in legal aid and access to justice services. This rationing of resources has driven much creativity, innovation and a wealth of ideas for improving the delivery of legal services and continues to do so. The ten ideas about community-based justice presented in this short paper are a small part of that much …

Public And Private Spending On Justice In Canada, Lisa Moore, Mitchell Perlmutter, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

As a ubiquitous aspect of everyday life, it should come as little surprise that legal problems have a tremendous cumulative cost on society. Assessing the cost of civil, family and criminal justice problems in Canada is a complex and multifaceted undertaking, owing in part to the number of agencies involved in the administration of justice, the various types of justice system expenses, and the intangible and ‘knock on’ costs that often result from experiencing legal problems. Further, costs can be examined in monetary, temporal, personal, physical health, mental health and other terms. The monetary costs are of course the most …

"I'Ve Always Been Outspoken On What I Think Can Be Improved": An Interview With Dr. Garry J. Smith, Fiona Nicoll, Mark R. Johnson

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Dr. Garry J. Smith has spent many years at the forefront of critical gambling research in Canada. In this interview he talks about the genesis of the Alberta Gambling Research Institute, how sociology brings a different lens to gambling studies than psychology, why he speaks out against certain aspects of commercial gambling, the relationship between fun and fairness, and the critical gaps in research that need to be added to address the inherent conflicts of interest that occur with self-regulated gambling.

The interview was conducted by academics Fiona Nicoll and Mark R Johnson on 29 November, 2017. A transcript of …

Ongoing Debates About Gambling Regulation In Brazil: Between Current News And Prospective Laws, An Uncertain Future Ahead, Maria Luiza Kurban Jobim

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Brazil, one of the countries covered by the Bingo Project, has been travelling an intricate path towards gambling regulation. When we presented our completed research at the final Bingo Project conference in 2016 , we mentioned the existence of two simultaneous processes towards gambling regulation, one initiated in the Senate and the other in the Chamber of Deputies. Unsurprisingly, when this volume went to print, both drafts were still in the Congress, waiting for further discussions and final approval.

Playing Bingo With Mum - And Dad!, Ruth Cherrington

Journal of Law and Social Policy

This is a personal account of playing bingo with my parents at various stages of our lives at our local working men’s club in Coventry – the Canley Social Club and Institute. I know these memories will resonate with those who have any experience of club life. They also touch upon wider issues such as the local community that used the club and the rules, both official and unofficial, related to bingo and other forms of low-level gambling in social clubs.

Fifty Years Of Legal Gambling In Canada: So What?, Colin S. Campbell

Journal of Law and Social Policy

As most of my published papers on gambling in Canada have tended to declare at the outset, a 1969 amendment to the Canadian Criminal Code opened the door to a major transformation in the legal status of gambling in Canada. Prior to this amendment, pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing at race tracks was the only form of gambling legally permitted. Nonetheless, other forms of gambling such as charitable bingos and raffles for the purpose of raising funds for worthy community causes were operated in a grey and fuzzy area of criminal law. Thus, policing authorities through the 20th century often …

First Nations Gaming In Canada: Gauging Past And Ongoing Development, Yale Belanger

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Canada's First Nations gaming industry, now entering its third decade of operations, includes sixteen for-profit casinos operating in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario (two charity casinos also operate in Ontario) and eleven Nova Scotia First Nations operating just under six hundred Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) annually generating approximately one billion dollars gross revenues. Each of these sites was constructed with the goal of generating revenue for economically struggling communities, but in most cases, they quickly became the lightning rod of a complex sovereignty discourse underlined by First Nations claims that they possessed the inherent right to control on-reserve economic …

All About That Place: The Curious Case Of Bingo Liberalisation In Brazil, Toni Williams

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Bingo is a form of gaming that is often associated with good works, social services, low stakes entertainment, and working-class sociality. In many parts of the world bingo halls are the province of charities, veterans’ clubs, older women, and families: But not in Brazil. Commercial bingo grew rapidly in Brazil during a decade of legality that ended in 2004. Legal bingo halls employed tens of thousands of people and the game was widely played by middle-class and well-educated Brazilians as well as older working-class women and men. However, the game, or more precisely the bingo halls in which it was …

Beyond The Figure Of The Problem Gambler: Locating Race And Sovereignty Struggles In Everyday Cultural Spaces Of Gambling, Fiona Nicoll

Journal of Law and Social Policy

As gambling has become a ubiquitous feature of many neoliberal capitalist societies, the problem gambler has become a familiar cultural figure, invoked in regulation, popular culture and everyday life. This article brings critical research on governmentality together with cultural studies and critical Indigenous scholarship on whiteness, race and sovereignty to understand the racial biopolitics of gambling beyond the individual subject of problem gambling. I argue that, for settler-colonial states, gambling plays a role in maintaining tropes of cultural representation and securing legal and political power within an overarching system of white racial entitlement. An investigation of cultural spaces and products …

Online Gambling, Regulation, And Risks: A Comparison Of Gambling Policies In Finland And The Netherlands, Alan Littler, Johanna Järvinen-Tassopoulos

Journal of Law and Social Policy

The purpose of this article is to compare the different regulatory approaches taken by Finland and the Netherlands in response to the pressures of European Union law, unlicensed gambling, and the harmful effects which can arise from gambling. The two Member States represent two different models of gambling regulation. According to Kingma, the models refer to different attitudes and concerns towards gambling in different timeframes. We argue that Finland fits the “alibi model” of gambling regulation, whereas the Netherlands aligns with the “risk model”. Both countries have decided to restrict the cross-border movement of gambling services, even though Finland has …

A Tale Of Two Casinos: Unequal Spaces Of Local Governance, Alexandra Flynn

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Local actors, including resident and business associations, do not simply influence decision-makers, but can also reshape the purportedly neutral governance model within which decision-making takes place. In big cities like Toronto, this reshaping exacerbates the existing geographic and socio-economic unevenness. The work of James Scott, Mariana Valverde, and Cheryl Teelucksingh helps to explain how local actors interface with seemingly neutral governance bodies to have their interests heard, particularly in relation to locally undesirable land uses. The paper considers two case studies detailing the governance practices at work in differing decisions about casinos in the City of Toronto. A 2012-2013 debate …

Law, Judges And Authorized Gambling In Italy: A Tale Of Contradictions, Nadia Coggiola

Journal of Law and Social Policy

To date, notwithstanding the large number of scholarly investigations into the legal implications of gambling, little attention has been paid to the interaction between contract law, and the negative moral or social labelling which traditionally affects gambling contracts in many Western countries. The purpose of this article is to investigate how Italian civil courts have applied Civil code and Consumer code rules on abusive clauses to cases involving authorized gambling and betting contracts. These rules should apply to authorized gambling and betting contracts, which generally involve an individual player and a professional service provider, either because the player adheres to …

Risk, Charity, And Boundary Disputes: The Liberalisation And Commercialisation Of Online Bingo In The European Union, Donal Casey

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Land-based bingo has traditionally been perceived as a low-risk social form of gambling. The game is often run for purposes of charitable fundraising, and in many countries bingo is associated in good causes and community rather than risk or profit. These distinguishing characteristics have shaped bingo’s regulation in many jurisdictions. However, technological advances have changed the nature of the game as it moved online and challenged traditional approaches to regulation. In this paper, I document the evolution of online bingo regulation in order to explore what we can learn about the changing ways in which states govern speculative play through …

Regulation And Resistance In Canadian Bingo Halls: A Socio-Legal Account, Kate Bedford

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Bingo is a key lens through which to explore how regulation shapes (or fails to shape) different meanings of gambling, and by extension the different meanings attached to speculation in everyday life. In Canada, bingo is played in a highly distinctive gambling environment that is now being subjected to more standardised rules, often drawn from casinos. In this article, I consider how workers and players in Canadian bingo halls are affected by shifting landscapes of provincial bingo regulation. By exploring smoking bans and new rules on touching cash, I ask: what is happening to bingo and its distinctive player demographic …

Keeping Chance In Its Place: The Socio-Legal Regulation Of Gambling, Kate Bedford, Donal Casey, Alexandra Flynn

Journal of Law and Social Policy

In the winter of 2010, driving through a blizzard to a research interview outside of Ottawa, one of the co-editors of this special issue—Kate Bedford—slid and spun off the road in her rental car. The interviewee—an 80-year-old man who organized a small weekly bingo game—helped dig her out. Sitting in the community centre with him afterwards, thawing, there was ample opportunity for Bedford to reflect on the diverse meanings attached to gambling and the complex ways in which it is regulated. The interviewee talked about ‘use of proceeds’ forms and validating expenses payments for volunteers, describing a gambling landscape that …

Commonwealth Climate And Law Initiative - Climate Change And Legal Risk, Janis P. Sarra, Cynthia Williams

Conference Papers

In this presentation, Dr Janis Sarra, Presidential Distinguished Professor and Professor of Law University of British Columbia, outlined the fiduciary obligations of corporate directors and pension fiduciaries as they relate to climate change. Professor Cynthia A. Williams, Osler Chair in Business Law, Osgoode Hall Law School provided an overview of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, highlighted the potential for liability risks in Canada for misleading or inaccurate disclosures relating to climate change, and surveyed the field of current climate-related litigation.

Corporations As Invisible Friends, Harry Glasbeek

Editorials and Commentaries

The corporate world is a site of legally created irresponsibility.

Our four-year-old had an invisible friend, Kim. She and Kim invited us to a tea party.

Obligingly, we passed cookies and a cup to Kim. Our daughter carelessly dropped a cup. Afraid, and imaginatively, she said that Kim had done it. We told her that pretence had its limits. We had to teach her that all of us are to take responsibility for our conduct and actions taken on our behalf.

That is the moral glue that holds society together. Unless you find yourself in the corporate world.

Indigenous Environmental Justice, Knowledge And Law, Deborah Mcgregor

Articles & Book Chapters

This article is based on a paper prepared for the convening of Over the Line: A Conversation about Race, Place, and the Environment, coordinated by In-grid Waldron; it was thus originally delivered in the context of a community of scholars interested and engaged in environmental justice (EJ) as well as anti-racism scholarship and activism. Conversations at the symposium were rich and deep, introducing novel ideas and generating a synergistic energy among those present. While this article builds upon the knowledge, experiences, and perspectives shared at the event, it also aims to introduce a distinct conception of Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) …

Bc Teachers’ Federation V. British Columbia: The Supreme Court Takes A School Holiday, Eric Tucker

Articles & Book Chapters

Constitutional labour rights in Canada now protect workers’ freedom to organize and bargain collectively and to strike. These associational freedoms are especially important for public sector workers, the most frequent targets of legislation limiting their freedoms. However, the Supreme Court of Canada judgments recognizing these rights and freedoms have also introduced important ambiguities about their foundation, scope and level of protection. This brief comment locates these ambiguities in the context of Canada’s political economy and industrial relations regime, which are beset by contradiction and conflict. It then explores the origins and development of the jurisprudential ambiguities in constitutional labour rights …

Law, Autonomy, And Local Government: A Legal History Of Municipal Corporations In Canada West/Ontario, 1850-1880, Mary Margaret Pelton Stokes

PhD Dissertations

The historiography of local government in mid-nineteenth century Canada West/Ontario is divided on the question of municipal autonomy. The more dominant thesis asserts that the Municipal Corporations (Baldwin) Act of 1849 ushered in a period of freedom for municipalities. The second depicts the Act as oppressive of autonomy in the interests of economic development. Both interpretations are based largely on extrapolation from earlier and later periods; there have been no direct examinations of local governance in Canada West/Ontario for what may be considered its formative period, from 1850 to 1880. In addition, much that has been written has been conceptually …

International Dispute Resolution: International Commercial Arbitration: 2018-19, Hugh Meighen

Osgoode Course Casebooks

Course number: 3007D.03

Everyday Legal Problems And The Cost Of Justice In Canada – Income Report, Lisa Moore

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

The national “Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada” (Cost of Justice) survey was conducted with a random sample of 3,263 adults ages 18 years and older. 3,051 resided in households with land lines and 212 used cell phones only. The data presented in the following pages is based on the 3,051 land line calls. Weighted to the Canadian population, this represents an estimated 23,590,697 people from the ten provinces.

Everyday Legal Problems And The Cost Of Justice In Canada – Spending On Everyday Legal Problems Report, Lisa Moore

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

The national “Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada” (Cost of Justice) survey was conducted with a random sample of 3,263 adults ages 18 years and older. 3,051 resided in households with land lines and 212 used cell phones only. The data presented in the following pages are based on the 3,051 land line calls. Weighted to the Canadian population, this represents an estimated 23,590,697 people from the ten provinces.

Everyday Legal Problems And The Cost Of Justice In Canada – Survey Data Report, Lisa Moore

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

Civil and family justice problems in Canada result in financial, temporal, physical health, mental health and social costs that are often not treated with the same urgency as healthcare problems or other social problems. The “Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada” (Cost of Justice) survey, the flagship study for the Cost of Justice project, includes the first national legal problems survey in Canada (or elsewhere) to specifically ask participants about the costs of legal problems to their economic and social wellbeing. By measuring all costs related to experiencing civil and family justice problems, the Cost of …

Request For Rulemaking On Environmental, Social, And Governance (Esg) Disclosure, Cynthia Williams, Jill E. Fisch

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

Enclosed is a petition for a rulemaking on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure authored by Osler Chair in Business Law Cynthia A. Williams, Osgoode Hall Law School, and Saul A. Fox Distinguished Professor of Business Law Jill E. Fisch, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and signed by investors and associated organizations representing more than $5 trillion in assets under management including the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, Illinois StateTreasurer Michael W. Frerichs, Connecticut State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier, Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read, and the U.N. Principles for Responsible Investment.

Charter Damages: Private Law In The Unique Public Law Remedy, Peter Krikor Adourian

LLM Theses

In 2010, the Supreme Court of Canadas decision in Vancouver (City) v Ward created a framework for a Charter damages claim. In two subsequent decisions, the Court deviated from Ward by relying extensively on private law principles to award public law damages. In doing so, the Court has created increasingly troubling results. I review the history of Charter damages and the Courts relevant Charter and private law damages jurisprudence, with a particular focus on factors like fault thresholds, immunities, and direct liability of government. I find that Ward provides an appropriate and just remedy in accordance with a purposive approach …

Domestic Violence And International Child Abduction At The Border Of Canadian Family And Refugee Law, Michelle Hayman

Journal of Law and Social Policy

This article explores the problematic interaction of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction with refugee law in Canada, particularly where domestic violence by the left-behind parent is alleged. It discusses how Canadian family courts, primarily in Ontario, have treated concurrent refugee claims when deciding Hague Convention applications. As well, it explores the operation of international child abduction law in Canadian refugee determinations where domestic violence is alleged. The article concludes by offering suggestions about legal and policy changes which could help reduce the unfair burden the interaction of these legal regimes places on family members …

The Disability Tax Credit: Exploring Attitudes, Perceptions, And Beliefs About Disability, Tamara Larre

Journal of Law and Social Policy

This article examines the disability tax credit (DTC), one of the few federal programs providing direct funding to persons with disabilities. The goal of the article is to explore the DTC as a window into attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs about disability. This is an important contribution to the literature as disability scholars have shown how societal forces, such as attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs about disability, contribute to disability itself. Through comparing attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of legislators and judges with the views expressed in the disability literature, the article reveals harmful stereotypes that fail to take into account the diverse …