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Articles 1 - 22 of 22
Full-Text Articles in Law
Twenty Years After Krieger V Law Society Of Alberta: Law Society Discipline Of Crown Prosecutors And Government Lawyers, Andrew Flavelle Martin
Twenty Years After Krieger V Law Society Of Alberta: Law Society Discipline Of Crown Prosecutors And Government Lawyers, Andrew Flavelle Martin
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Krieger v. Law Society of Alberta held that provincial and territorial law societies have disciplinary jurisdiction over Crown prosecutors for conduct outside of prosecutorial discretion. The reasoning in Krieger would also apply to government lawyers. The apparent consensus is that law societies rarely exercise that jurisdiction. But in those rare instances, what conduct do Canadian law societies discipline Crown prosecutors and government lawyers for? In this article, I canvass reported disciplinary decisions to demonstrate that, while law societies sometimes discipline Crown prosecutors for violations unique to those lawyers, they often do so for violations applicable to all lawyers — particularly …
Business, Human Rights, & The Triple Planetary Crisis: Confronting Overconsumption, Sara Seck
Business, Human Rights, & The Triple Planetary Crisis: Confronting Overconsumption, Sara Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
According to the United Nations, the world is facing a triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature (biodiversity) loss, and pollution and waste, with the most egregious consequences felt by those least responsible. These crises are also intertwined: nature-based solutions are promoted as climate change solutions even as heat domes fuel forest fires; extraction of minerals for green energy solutions negatively impacts biodiversity and creates pollution and waste; and carbon major companies are also among the largest producers of plastic pollution. International human rights law is increasingly grappling with environmental rights and responsibilities, as evidenced by the work of special …
Gender And Intersectionality In Business And Human Rights Scholarship, Melisa N. Handl, Sara L. Seck, Penelope Simons
Gender And Intersectionality In Business And Human Rights Scholarship, Melisa N. Handl, Sara L. Seck, Penelope Simons
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
In this article, we explore what intersectionality, as an analytic tool, can contribute to business and human rights (BHR) scholarship. To date, few BHR scholars have explicitly engaged in intersectional analysis. While gender analysis of BHR issues remains crucial to expose inequality in business activity, we argue that engagement with intersectionality can enrich and support this and other BHR scholarship. Intersectional approaches allow us to move beyond single-axis analysis, contest simplistic representations about gender issues and expose the complexity of human relations. It draws our attention to structures that sustain disadvantage such as racism, colonialism, social and economic marginalization and …
Doing Business Guidance, Legal Origins Theory, And The Politics Of Governance By Knowledge, Liam Mchugh-Russell
Doing Business Guidance, Legal Origins Theory, And The Politics Of Governance By Knowledge, Liam Mchugh-Russell
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This article uses the World Bank’s Doing Business project to illuminate the politics of “governance by knowledge.” It synthesizes scholarship critiquing the project’s legitimacy and contributes to research challenging the instrumental benefits of improved Doing Business performance. The article’s major contribution is an immanent critique of Legal Origins Theory, which was developed largely to provide ex post validation for the project’s core claims, but whose premises, when taken seriously, lead to conclusions that contradict its “one-size-fits-all” logic. The article demonstrates much can be learned about the politics of development by engaging rationalizations of power on their own terms.
Mapping Human Rights-Based Climate Litigation In Canada, Lisa Benjamin, Sara L. Seck
Mapping Human Rights-Based Climate Litigation In Canada, Lisa Benjamin, Sara L. Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
In line with global trends, there has been an increase in human rights-based climate litigation brought in Canadian courts in recent years. Some litigants invoke human rights as found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to push federal and provincial governments to take seriously the implementation of their climate obligations. Other litigants invoke procedural environmental human rights to engage in free speech and peaceful protest in the face of government action supporting fossil fuel consumption or expansion. At the same time, the Supreme Court of Canada has recognized that Canadian courts could develop civil remedies for corporate violations …
Dispute Settlement Under The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe
Dispute Settlement Under The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) will add a new dispute settlement system to the plethora of judicial mechanisms designed to resolve trade disputes in Africa. Against the discontent of Member States and limited impact the existing highly legalized trade dispute settlement mechanisms have had on regional economic integration in Africa, this paper undertakes a preliminary assessment of the AfCFTA Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM). In particular, the paper situates the AfCFTA-DSM in the overall discontent and unsupportive practices of African States with highly legalized dispute settlement systems and similar WTO-Styled DSMs among other shortcomings. Notwithstanding the transplantation of …
The Theorized Relationship Between Organizational (Non)Compliance With The United Nations Guiding Principles On Human Rights And Desired Employee Workplace Outcomes, Magda B. L. Donia, Salvador Herencia Carrasco, Sara L. Seck, Robert Mccorquodale, Sigalit Ronen
The Theorized Relationship Between Organizational (Non)Compliance With The United Nations Guiding Principles On Human Rights And Desired Employee Workplace Outcomes, Magda B. L. Donia, Salvador Herencia Carrasco, Sara L. Seck, Robert Mccorquodale, Sigalit Ronen
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Despite the presence of guiding legislation such as the United Nations Guiding Principles, respect for human rights is subject to the conscience of organizational actors. Given that some transnational corporations are more powerful than nation states, they play an important role in the economies in which they operate, often with far-reaching impact on the labor conditions and human rights protections within these countries. In the current global context, respect for human rights may be undermined when organizational decision-makers are tempted to ignore unethical practices due to considerations such as competition and short-term financial incentives. We propose that the higher standards …
A Relational Analysis Of Enterprise Obligations And Carbon Majors For Climate Justice, Sara L. Seck
A Relational Analysis Of Enterprise Obligations And Carbon Majors For Climate Justice, Sara L. Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
A coherent theory of climate justice must answer the question of “who owes what to whom, and why?” In this paper I consider this question with a focus on the contribution of business enterprises, in particular the ‘carbon majors’, to climate injustice. I will first introduce a relational approach to legal analysis, drawing upon the work of feminist and vulnerability theorists, Indigenous feminist theorists, and feminist corporate and international law theorists. This relational approach confronts the dominant yet unacknowledged prevalence of the bounded autonomous individual of liberal thought in diverse areas of law and policy, and offers a method not …
Submission To The Open Call For Input Regarding The Working Group’S Report On The Gender Lens To The Un Guiding Principles On Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck, Penelope Simons
Submission To The Open Call For Input Regarding The Working Group’S Report On The Gender Lens To The Un Guiding Principles On Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck, Penelope Simons
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
In October 2017, we co-hosted a conference and policy meeting on the subject of extractive industries and the human rights of women and girls, at the Human Rights Resource Education Centre in Ottawa. This submission will reflect on some of the insights that emerged from the conference and policy meeting, as well as our own subsequent research. A selection of conference papers are forthcoming in a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law. We have inserted our submissions in response to some of the specific questions raised by the Working Group.
Climate Change, Corporate Social Responsibility, And The Extractive Industries, Sara Seck
Climate Change, Corporate Social Responsibility, And The Extractive Industries, Sara Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
During the negotiation of the Paris Agreement, many argued that the final text should integrate a human rights approach so as to better align climate governance under the UNFCCC with climate justice. Reference to human rights ultimately appeared only in the Preamble, despite submissions from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that urgent and ambitious State action to combat climate change is an existing duty of international human rights law. Another submission highlighted the role of businesses as duty-bearers who must contribute to climate mitigation and be accountable for climate impacts. This article will consider an unexplored avenue through …
Lessons For The Treaty Process From The International Law Commission And International Environmental Law, Sara L. Seck
Lessons For The Treaty Process From The International Law Commission And International Environmental Law, Sara L. Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The chapter examines Amnesty case studies in order to document the state practice identified and the gaps that need to be filled. The chapter will then consider the work of the ILC in its progressive codification of the law on prevention and loss allocation with respect to transboundary harm arising from hazardous activities, culminating in draft Articles8 and draft Principles,9 respectively, in 2001 and 2006. The modest claim of this chapter is that as the key United Nations body responsible for the progressive development and codification of international law, the work of the ILC should surely be of relevance to …
The Canadian Country Visit Of The United Nations Working Group On Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck
The Canadian Country Visit Of The United Nations Working Group On Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) unanimously endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework” (UNGPs) in 2011. In May 2017, members of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights will conduct a country visit to Canada. This paper will introduce the UNGPs, examine the experience of other countries visited by the working group, including the United States, which was visited in 2013, and consider what to expect during the visit to Canada. It is likely that the working group will consider implementation of the state …
Business Responsibilities For Human Rights And Climate Change, Sara Seck
Business Responsibilities For Human Rights And Climate Change, Sara Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This contribution to the work of the International Law Association’s Study Group on Business and Human Rights considers the relationship between business responsibilities for human rights and climate change. While it is now widely accepted that the adverse effects of climate change undermine the enjoyment of human rights, and that businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights, the relationship between business responsibilities for human rights and climate change is unclear. This paper first considers state duties to protect human rights from climate change harms, including harms arising from business activities, and second, considers how the business responsibility to respect …
Revisiting Transnational Corporations And Extractive Industries: Climate Justice, Feminism, And State Sovereignty, Sara Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This Article explicitly examines the relationship between climate justice, gender, and transnational fossil fuel extractive industries by drawing upon feminist theoretical insights. First, I provide an overview of the differential impacts of climate change on women and briefly review insights from select international legal scholars who have considered gender and climate change. Second, I describe the Philippines climate petition, a novel attempt to seek an investigation into the accountability of transnational fossil fuel companies for climate harms. Third, I examine three sets of issues arising in the Philippines climate petition and draw explicitly upon Karen Knop’s Re/Statements: Feminism and State …
Business, Human Rights And The Iba Climate Justice Report, Sara Seck, Michael Slattery
Business, Human Rights And The Iba Climate Justice Report, Sara Seck, Michael Slattery
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The 2014 Climate Justice Report by the International Bar Association (IBA) makes many recommendations designed to contribute to the fight against climate change. One important step forward is its explicit recognition of the responsibility of business to respect human rights affected by climate change. This commentary explores the extent to which the IBA’s approach to this issue aligns with the business responsibility to respect human rights as described in the 2011 United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The commentary also considers other international standards that incorporate business responsibilities for human rights in order to determine whether sufficient …
Corporate Law Tools And The Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck
Corporate Law Tools And The Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This paper, written in 2012, provides a summary of the corporate law tools project undertaken as part of the mandate of Professor John Ruggie as Special Representative for Business and Human Rights. The author was one of the co-convenors of a multi-stakeholder consultation on corporate law tools held in 2009 and designed to inform the Ruggie mandate. This paper provides her assessment of the scope and limitations of this project, the extent to which it may have informed aspects of the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and an agenda for future research.
Corporate Law Tools And The Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights, Sara L. Seck
Corporate Law Tools And The Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights, Sara L. Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This paper, written in 2012, provides a summary of the corporate law tools project undertaken as part of the mandate of Professor John Ruggie as Special Representative for Business and Human Rights. The author was one of the co-convenors of a multi-stakeholder consultation on corporate law tools held in 2009 and designed to inform the Ruggie mandate. This paper provides her assessment of the scope and limitations of this project, the extent to which it may have informed aspects of the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and an agenda for future research.
Conceptualizing The Home State Duty To Protect Human Rights, Sara L. Seck
Conceptualizing The Home State Duty To Protect Human Rights, Sara L. Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The state duty to protect human rights from abuses by non-state actors including business is one of the three differentiated but complementary pillars that make up the UN Protect, Respect, Remedy Framework for Business and Human Rights. Yet the jurisdictional scope of the duty to protect is disputed. This chapter explores both the permissibility of home state regulation under jurisdictional principles of public international law and the existence of home state obligations to regulate and adjudicate transnational corporations to prevent and remedy human rights violations. Properly understood, the state duty to protect applies to all executive, legislative and judicial organs …
Canadian Mining Internationally And The Un Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck
Canadian Mining Internationally And The Un Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Between 2005 and 2011, there was much debate within Canada and at the United Nations over what role home states should play in the regulation and adjudications of human rights harms associated with transnational corporate conduct. In Canada, this debate focused upon concerns associated with global mining, and led to a series of government, opposition and multi-stakeholder reports and proposals. These culminated in 2010 with the appointment of a Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor for the Extractive Sector and the defeat of Bill C-300, an act respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries. Meanwhile, …
Conceptualizing The Home State Duty To Protect Human Rights, Sara Seck
Conceptualizing The Home State Duty To Protect Human Rights, Sara Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights (SRSG) has identified the State duty to protect against human rights abuses by non-State actors, including business, as one of the fundamental pillars of the Framework for Business and Human Rights [Framework].1 The Framework “rests on differentiated but complementary responsibilities”, and is comprised of three “core principles”: the State duty to protect, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, and the need for more effective access to remedies.2 However, the jurisdictional scope of the State duty to protect is disputed. According to the SRSG, international law provides that …
Unilateral Home State Regulation: Imperialism Or Tool For Subaltern Resistance?, Sara L. Seck
Unilateral Home State Regulation: Imperialism Or Tool For Subaltern Resistance?, Sara L. Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Home state reluctance to engage in the regulation of international corporate activities in the human rights context is sometimes expressed as a concern that it would constitute an imperialistic infringement of host state sovereignty. This concern may be explicit, or it may be implicit in an expressed desire to avoid conflict with the sovereignty of foreign states. Yet, in the absence of a multilateral treaty directly addressing business and human rights, a role for home states in regulating so as to prevent and remedy human rights harms is increasingly being suggested. The purpose of this paper is to explore theoretical …
Book Review Of Passion: An Essay On Personality , Richard F. Devlin Frsc
Book Review Of Passion: An Essay On Personality , Richard F. Devlin Frsc
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Passion is a cogently structured, compel Jingly argued and seductively enthralling masterpiece which, in years to come, will undoubtedly stand out as an inspirational source for many who seek social transformation. Unger's style, in this essay at least, is lucid and inviting. Substantively, Passion demonstrates not only the depth of his penetrating intellect but also his command of an array of' disciplines. Unger's polymathy is all the more impressive when we remember that ours is an era in which idiosyncratic specialization is the norm.