Law Commons^™

‘We Are The Monitors Now’: Experiential Knowledge, Transcorporeality And Environmental Justice, Dayna Scott

Articles & Book Chapters

Residents of pollution hotspots often take on projects in ‘citizen science’, or popularepidemiology, in an effort to marshal the data that can prove their experience of the pollution to the relevant authorities. Sometimes these tactics, such as pollution logs or bucket brigades, take advantage of residents’ spatially ordered and finely honed experiential and sensory knowledge of the places they inhabit. But putting that knowledge into conversation with law requires them to mobilize a new, ‘foreign’ set of tools, primarily oriented to the observation, measurement and sampling of pollution according to conventional scientific standards. Here, I employ qualitative empirical methods in …

African Lessons For Post-2015 Global Right To Development Conceptualization And Practice, Obiora Chinedu Okafor

The Transnational Human Rights Review

No abstract provided.

What Is Right With Africa: The Promise Of The Protocol On Women's Rights In Africa, Leslye Amede Obiora, Crystal Whalen

The Transnational Human Rights Review

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Human Rights And Judicial Globalization, Klodian Rado

The Transnational Human Rights Review

There are numerous academic writings about the actors, factors, and mechanisms that shape and drive human rights at national, transnational, and international levels. However, the relationship between human rights and the process of judicial globalization remains underexplored in recent scholarship, and the purpose of this study is to explore such a relationship and its effects. First, we provide a brief theoretical background of both human rights and judicial globalization concepts, and then, we focus on the relationship between them. By investigating existing empirical data, we uncover how judicial globalization is effecting and shaping human rights through various mechanisms and their …

Indigenous Rights Before The Inter-American Court Of Human Rights : A Call For A Pro Individual Interpretation, Valerio De Oliveira Mazzuoli, Dilton Ribeiro

The Transnational Human Rights Review

In its traditional conception, international law regulates relations between sovereign states. This definition is challenged by current developments of international law, especially in the area of human rights. The human person is arguably a bearer of rights and duties under international law. However, recognizing this individual legal personality is not enough. International bodies and treaties need to acknowledge that individuals are subjects of international law within a pluralistic world. In other words, the law of nations must crystalize the idea that individuals are, with all their cultural differences, subjects of international law. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights recognizes this …

Human Rights States And Societies: A Reflection From Kenya, Willy Mutunga

The Transnational Human Rights Review

A human rights state is conceptualized as a liberal democratic state with a social democratic content, the modern day version of the capitalist welfare state. With the “collapses” of communism and neoliberalism, the paradigms of human rights and social justice have taken a center state. The birth of transformative constitutions and transformative constitutionalism linked to modern and comprehensive Bills of Rights have enriched the intellectual, ideological, and political debates of human rights and social justice paradigms. On one hand they have the ingredients of mitigating neo-liberalism while on the other hand they reflect some of the features of the paradigms …

Reinforcing The Identity Of The African Children's Rights Committee: A Case For Limiting The Lust For Judicial Powers In Quasi -Judicial Human Rights Mechanisms, Solomon T. Ebobrah

The Transnational Human Rights Review

Established as a quasi-judicial treaty supervisory body rather than an international court, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child struggles for relevance in the African human rights system where most non-state stakeholders arguably prefer organs with clear judicial powers. Thus, similar to the experiences of its older counterparts, the Committee appears to be under subtle pressure to substitute or at least reinforce its quasi-judicial character with more judicial powers and action. In essence, the Committee suffers from the uncertainty that prevails in international law regarding the definition of the term quasi-judicial; and the unclear …

Theorizing International Criminal Procedure Review Essay: Christoph Safferling's International Criminal Procedure, Sujith Xavier

The Transnational Human Rights Review

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Women, Water Justice And Zaagidowin (Love), Deborah Mcgregor

Articles & Book Chapters

I would like to open by saying Chi-miigwech (a big thank-you) to those Elders/Grandmothers who have shared their stories and teachings with me over the years. Some have since passed on and I hope that through my words, their love and generosity will continue the process of healing the people and waters upon which they so integrally depend.

The paper which follows contains many references to notions of love, mutual respect, and responsibility towards the natural world, and water in particular. These ideas may seem a little tenuous for a serious paper on a critical environmental justice issue, but concepts …

The Failure Of The Canadian Human Rights Regime To Provide Remedies For Indigenous Peoples: Enough Time Has Passed, Jeffery Gordon Hewitt

LLM Theses

In 2008, Canada amended the Canadian Human Rights Act to remove s.67, which in essence precluded Indigenous Peoples from bringing complaints as against Canada and Band governments. Since the amendment took effect in 2010, a multi-fold increase has occurred in the number of complaints filed with the Human Rights Commission of Canada from dozens to hundreds. The first such significant complaint to be heard by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal was filed by the First Nation Child and Family Caring Society along with the Assembly of First Nations (the Complaint). The Complaint alleges Canada's funding with respect to First Nation …

Selected Annotated Bibliography Of National And Regional Legal Needs Survey, Nicole Aylwin, Mandi Gray

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

Since the mid-1990’s there have been at least twenty-six large-scale national surveys on the public’s experience of justiciable events conducted within sixteen separate jurisdictions. Twenty-four of these surveys have utilized the methodological framework of Hazel Genn’s Paths to Justice (1999). Genn’s approach seeks to examine legal needs beyond what may be identified by respondents as a legal need. This approach emerged due to critiques of previous legal needs research that only sought to identify persons who were likely to use legal services rather than the types of problems that are taken to lawyers. Genn’s approach does not rely upon respondent’s …

Volume 89, Issue 7 (2015)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Lets Talk About Sexual Assault A Feminist Exploration Of The Relationship Between Legal And Experiential Discourses, Dana Erin Phillips

LLM Theses

This thesis challenges the tendency within feminist legal thought to imagine a sharp division between law and lived experience, and specifically between feminist methods that engage legal discourse and those that invoke grassroots narratives grounded in experience. In order to better elucidate the relationship between legal and experiential discourses, the author compares recent legal discourse on sexual assault focusing on two Supreme Court of Canada decisions with women's own accounts of sexual violence, as presented in mainstream news media in the wake of the 2014 Jian Ghomeshi story. The findings, examined through the lens of feminist scholarship, support a view …

False Universalism Of Global Governance Theories: Global Constitutionalism, Global Administrative Law, International Criminal Institutions And The Global South, Sujith Xavier

PhD Dissertations

Why are theories of global governance unsatisfactory? Why are theories of global governance unable to integrate the lived realities of the people of the global South? International law and its institutions are growing at an unprecedented speed and this expansion has captured the curiosity of international lawyers and international law scholars. As international law and its institutions continue to grow, there are concurrent concerns regarding their democratic foundations. A large body of scholarship encapsulates these anxieties through the prism of global governance. In particular, two specific theories of global governance, global constitutionalism, and global administrative law, seek to introduce ideas …

Governing Water In Canada: The Legislative Experiments In New Governance, Patricia Hania

PhD Dissertations

Governing water in Canada is in transition. Since 2000, episodes of drought, unsafe drinking water, and polluted watersheds have affected local and First Nations communities. In reaction to these crises, provincial regulators entered a new governance phase. This regulatory turn profoundly transforms the traditional environmental regulatory approach by introducing a collaborative new governance arrangement. The legal scholarship is generally supportive of this trend, however, a dearth of empirical research exists to understand how decisions are made under this new regulatory approach.

This dissertation presents an eco-resiliency framework to examine the responsiveness of this new governance mode to environmental change. The …

Volume 89, Issue 6 (2015)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Just In Time Research: Rural & Remote Access To Justice: Intake Platform Research, Canadian Forum On Civil Justice

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

This memo provides a wide scan of tools and platforms that either are, or ostensibly could be, used to conduct intake assessment and document storage in a clinic context. Our findings include comprehensive intake platforms that are designed exclusively for intake purposes, as well as a suite of tools that have broader application but lend themselves to application in an intake environment. We looked at tools marketed to professionals, institutions, businesses, and consumers.

Rural And Remote Access To Justice, A Literature Review, Nicole Aylwin, Lisa Moore

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

All Canadians, regardless of financial or other barriers, should have reasonable access to justice. Yet the reality remains that for the nearly 20% of Canadians living in rural and remote communities, accessing justice remains difficult, largely due to the unique challenges to service provision that exist in rural and remote communities. These challenges are rooted in the geographical, demographic, and social and cultural characteristics that define rurality and remoteness, and in the varied combinations of these elements that determine the legal and social service needs of individual communities. Moreover, rural and remote areas have various infrastructure, resource, communication and social …

Lawmatters At Your Local Public Library: A History Of Bc’S Program For Public Legal Information And Education In Public Libraries, Janet Freeman, Nancy Hannum

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

Public libraries have always been an important partner in the education of their communities in all aspects of knowledge, including the legal system. In the 1970’s the Law Reform Commission of Canada conducted a survey to research how and where the public found legal information. The resulting Law Reform Commission report published in 1975 included recommendations that more legal information materials be available for public libraries, as well as more training for public librarians to answer legal questions using both print materials and referral resources.

They Promised To Leave Us Some Of Our Land: Aboriginal Title In Canada's Maritime Provinces, Robert Colin Hamilton

LLM Theses

This thesis analyzes the status of Aboriginal title in Canada's Maritime Provinces in light of the Supreme Court of Canada's historic declaration of Aboriginal title in the 2014 decision of Tsilhqot'in Nation v. British Columbia. This thesis argues that, in light of the clarified legal principles articulated by the Court, it is very likely that Aboriginal title can be proven to have existed in the Maritime Provinces. In light of this conclusion, the inquiry then shift to whether that title was legally extinguished. The legal parameters of the extinguishment question are surveyed in considerable detail and it is concluded that …

Volume 89, Issue 5 (2015)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Volume 89, Issue 4 (2015)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Lawyers In Canada: Identity, Professionalization, Law, Sonia Lawrence, Signa A. Daum Shanks

Articles & Book Chapters

For Indigenous communities and individuals in Canada, "Canadian" law has been a mechanism of assimilation, colonial governance and dispossession, a basis for the assertion of rights, and a method of resistance. How do Indigenous lawyers in Canada make sense of these contradictory threads and their roles and responsibilities? This paper urges attention to the lives and experiences of Indigenous lawyers, noting that the number of self-identified Indigenous lawyers has been rapidly growing since the 1990s. At the same time, Indigenous scholars are focusing on the work of revitalizing Indigenous law and legal orders. Under these conditions, Indigenous lawyers occupy a …

Volume 89, Issue 3 (2015)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Volume 89, Issue 2 (2015)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Vicarious Kinks: S/M In The Socio-Legal Imaginary,
 By Ummni Khan, Kyle Kirkup

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Book review of Vicarious Kinks: S/M In The Socio-Legal Imaginary,
by Ummni Khan.

Book Review: Nothing To Lose But Our Chains: On Constitutional Disobedience, By Louis Michael Seidman, Carissima Mathen

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Book review of Nothing To Lose But Our Chains: On Constitutional Disobedience, by Louis Michael Seidman.

Book Review: The Governance Gap: Extractive Industries, Human Rights, And The Home State Advantage, By Penelope Simons & Audrey Macklin, Sara L. Seck

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Book review of The Governance Gap: Extractive Industries, Human Rights, And The Home State Advantage, by Penelope Simons & Audrey Macklin.

Corruption And Development: The Need For International Investigations With A Multijurisdictional Approach Involving Multilateral Development Banks And National Authorities, Juan G. Ronderos, Michelle Ratpan, Andrea Osorio Rincon

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

We argue that while Multilateral Development Banks (“MDBs”) and national governments have mechanisms to fight corruption, the objectives and outcomes of these enforcement mechanisms diverge. MDBs are interested in the causes and effects of corruption from a development perspective and, as such, tend to sanction small and medium enterprises and individuals, while national governments are focused on a more punitive outcome, targeting larger multinational corporations. This article examines the enforcement objectives articulated in national legislation, namely the US Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act and its Canadian counterpart, the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, as well as several Canadian cases, …

Have We Legalized Corruption? The Impacts Of Expanding Municipal Authority Without Safeguards In Toronto And Ontario, Stanley M. Makuch, Matthew Schuman

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article discusses the importance of rule of law values such as predictability, certainty, equality, and procedural safeguards in controlling corruption at the municipal level of government and how those values are being replaced by political and economic values such as efficiency, discretion, responsiveness, and need. Particular attention is placed on how this change in values may lead to corruption and abuse of power in planning and other decisions made by municipal governments.