Law Commons^™

The International Dimension Of The Right To Development: Where Is The Gapping Crack Of Accountability For Non-State Actors, Maxwel Miyawa

The Transnational Human Rights Review

Mainstream legal scholarship has paid much attention to clarifying the meaning of the right to development by placing a great deal of scrutiny primarily on obligations of states to the neglect of non-state actors, as if states are the only integral players in the global economy necessary for realizing the right to development. This entrepreneurship steered clear of assessing viability of the right’s founding vision of redressing institutional imbalances and unfairness of the global economic order. If the discourse took a global order reform trajectory, it would have injected thoughts on how accountability of international economic institutions and transnational corporations …

How Ontarians Experience The Law: An Examination On Incidence Rate, Seriousness And Response To Legal Problems, Matthew Dylag

LLM Theses

Access to civil justice is a conceptual framework that, at its most basic, claims all people are entitled to have their legal disputes resolved fairly. However, it is currently understood that these ideals are not reflected in the day-to-day realities of ordinary people. Though scholarship has examined ways in which to better allow for meaningful access to civil justice, there is still a need for further quantitative research especially from the Canadian perspective. This paper provides an empirical foundation to this discussion by examining the 2014 Cost of Justice project survey. Specifically, it examines the incidence rate of civil legal …

Diversity, Transparency & Inclusion In Canada’S Judiciary, Samreen Beg, Lorne Sossin

Articles & Book Chapters

The purpose of this paper is to provide a high level overview of some of the issues and stumbling blocks Canada has encountered in building a diverse judiciary. Part 1 of the paper begins by providing a brief overview of the heterogeneous makeup of Canadian society against the homogenous makeup of the judiciary. This will provide a helpful backdrop from which to explore conceptual questions related to the question of why a diverse judiciary matters. Part 2 examines some of the historical questions and milestones in the judiciary related to diversity. Part 3 summarizes the judicial appointments processes and takes …

Mandated Ethics: Regulatory Innovation And Its Limits In The Governance Of Research Involving Humans, Igor Gontcharov

PhD Dissertations

Harmonization of risk policy in research involving humans, following the adoption of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS) in 1998, which extended the biomedical model of research ethics review to the social sciences and humanities, constitutes the focus of this portfolio dissertation. The articles in the portfolio examine the challenges that prospective ethics review poses to those research disciplines, the methods and ethics of which may differ from, or even be antagonistic to the biomedical model.

The regulatory space of research involving humans is a highly dynamic field, and a place of significant tensions caused …

The Limits Of Regulation: A Case Study Of Virtual And Intangible Harm, Nachshon Goltz

PhD Dissertations

This dissertation deals with the limits of regulation through the analysis of virtual and intangible harm and the capacity of regulation to prevent or at least reduce such harm. The case study at hand is the potential harm to childrens imaginative development in virtual worlds. A comparison is drawn from the regulation of online advertising to children in Canada and the US. Based on a review of the literature in chapter 1, it is suggested that there are serious and long-term consequences to an underdeveloped imagination, including pathological phenomenon and lack of imaginative ability. As with other harms to children, …

La “Marca Canadiense”: La Violencia Y Las Compañías Mineras Canadienses En América Latina, Shin Imai, Leah Gardner, Sarah Weinberger

All Papers

Este informe, elaborado por el Proyecto Justicia y Responsabilidad Corporativa (JCAP, por sus siglas en inglés), es el primero que expone formas específicas de violencia y criminalización asociadas con los proyectos mineros canadienses en América Latina durante un período de quince años. La exposición de cada incidente se complementa con oportunas notas al pie, y todos los vínculos web mencionados se preservan con el uso del servicio Perma.cc de la Escuela de Derecho de Harvard. El informe critica la ausencia de mecanismos en Canadá para la investigación de cualquier presunta violación de los derechos humanos cometida por las compañías mineras …

The Canada Brand: Violence And Canadian Mining Companies In Latin America, Shin Imai, Leah Gardner, Sarah Weinberger

All Papers

The Canada Brand: Violence and Canadian Mining in Guatemala

This is the first report to profile specific forms of violence and criminalization associated with Canadian mining projects in Latin America over a fifteen-year period. Each incident is carefully footnoted and all web links are preserved using Harvard Law School’s Perma.cc service. The report is critical of the lack of Canadian mechanisms for investigating human rights abuses of Canadian companies operating overseas. It draws on the thinking of former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie and others to argue that the concepts of proximity to violence and complicity of the …

Class Roots: The Genesis Of The Ontario Class Proceedings Act, 1966 - 1993, Suzanne Erica Chiodo

LLM Theses

Nearly 25 years since its passage, the Ontario Class Proceedings Act has become one of the most frequently debated procedural mechanisms of its kind. The CPA came about following the release of the Attorney Generals Advisory Committee (AGAC) Report in 1990. None of the current narratives explain how this Report pulled together so many divergent interests where previous attempts had failed. My thesis answers this question with reference to the historical sources and the legal, political and social changes that took place throughout this period.

This thesis also highlights the unique nature of the AGAC consultation process, which saw the …

Volume 90, Issue 6 (2016)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Volume 90, Issue 5 (2016)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Designing Administrative Justice: Draft, Lorne Sossin

All Papers

This study explores the adaptation of design thinking to administrative justice. Design thinking – or human centred design – approaches services and products from the perspective of the user. This perspective too often is missing in the design of administrative tribunals, most of which have been developed top-down to serve the needs of a particular policy interest of the Government of the day.

This paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, I review the development of design thinking in the context of legal services and legal organizations. In the second part, I explore the implications of this …

The Role Of Judicial Discourse In Distorting The Public Inquiry Image: Is The Inquiry Becoming An Endangered Species?, Diana Morokhovets

LLM Theses

The goal is to explore the construction of the Public Inquiry image and its persona via judicial decision-making and legal discourses that are utilized to justify the final product of an inquiry. For instance, while the commissioner is generally equipped with extensive coercive and discretionary powers, there is scarcely any research on why these powers are exercised the way that they are and how (or if) the decisions that are made condition the public image of the inquiry and their ultimate impact on the survival of the institution. Specifically, it will be argued that despite the fact that a judge-commissioner …

Volume 90, Issue 4 (2016)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Comments On The Eu-Canada Joint Interpretive Declaration On The Ceta, Gus Van Harten

Editorials and Commentaries

Comments are offered on the EU-Canada Joint Interpretive Declaration on the CETA (updated to account for versions of 5 October, 11 October, 13 October, and 22 October 2016). For eight reasons, I argue that the Declaration does very little to alleviate key concerns arising from the CETA's proposed special rights and privileges for foreign investors.

Volume 90, Issue 3 (2016)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Costs Of Legal Services In Personal Injury Litigation In Ontario: Final Report, Allan C. Hutchinson

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

Contingency Fee Agreements (CFAs) are now a fixed feature of the Ontario litigation landscape. However, little research or study has been done on exactly how they operate in practice, whether they advance the objectives that they were intended to achieve, and whether litigants are best served by the current arrangements. In this study, I intend to make a preliminary start to that research, set out some tentative criticisms of the CFA system as it currently operates, and, where appropriate, suggest preliminary proposals for change.

It should be said at the outset that my efforts to obtain real and serious data …

Everyday Legal Problems And The Cost Of Justice In Canada: Infographic, Canadian Forum On Civil Justice

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

N/A

Nudging The Paradigm Shift, Everyday Legal Problems In Canada, Ab Currie

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

The subject of this paper is the everyday legal problems experienced by the public in Canada. This area of study is best understood by distinguishing it from the legal problems that are adjudicated in the courts or resolved by lawyers. The term everyday legal problem1 derives from Hazel Genn’s term, justiciable events.2 A justiciable event is a problem or issue that occurs in the normal life of an individual: for example buying and selling, entering into a contract, gaining and losing employment, forming or dissolving domestic relationships that involve some measure of dependency, managing the medical or financial affairs of …

Improving Employment Standards And Their Enforcement In Ontario: A Research Brief Addressing Options Identified In The Interim Report Of The Changing Workplaces Review, Leah F. Vosko, John Grundy, Eric Tucker, Andrea M. Noack, Alan Hall, Mark P. Thomas, Rebecca Casey, Kiran Mirchandani, Guliz Akkaymak

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

The quality of employment available to Ontarians is a growing concern among legislators, policymakers, and the general public alike. There is widespread recognition that precarious employment and the challenges posed by the associated realignment of risks, costs and power relations between employees and employers require improvements to employees’ legislative protection. Ontario’s Changing Workplaces Review (CWR) affords us an opportunity to take stock of important changes taking place the province’s labour market. As the Terms of Reference introduced at the outset of the CWR note, “far too many workers are experiencing greater precariousness” in employment in Ontario today than in the …

Lost In Translation? The Difference Between Hearsay Rule's Historical Rationale And Practical Application, Christopher Lloyd Sewrattan

LLM Theses

An examination of the difference between the hearsay rules historical rationale and current application. The analysis occurs in three steps. In section 1, the historical rationale of the hearsay rule is identified through a reconciliation of competing theories. Section 2 analyses the difference between the hearsay rules historical rationale and the application of the exclusionary hearsay rule. Section 3 analyses the difference between the hearsay rules historical rationale and the application of some categorical hearsay exceptions.

Overall, the thesis finds that the hearsay rules historical rationale has three aspects: concern with the inherent reliability of hearsay evidence, concern with procedural …

Volume 90, Issue 2 (2016)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

The European Union’S Emerging Approach To Isds: A Review Of The Canada-Europe Ceta, Europe-Singapore Fta, And European-Vietnam Fta, Gus Van Harten

Articles & Book Chapters

The European Union’s approach to ISDS is examined based on the available textual evidence in proposed or negotiated trade agreements. The evaluation focuses on three criteria: judicial independence, procedural fairness, and balance in the allocation of rights and responsibilities. Each criteria arises from concerns about the powerful and far-reaching arbitration mechanism at the core of ISDS and its role to decide the legality of sovereign conduct and allocate public funds to foreign investors. The main conclusions are that, in pursuing a massive expansion of ISDS in new trade agreements, the European Union has taken only partial steps on the issue …

Volume 90, Issue 1 (2016)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Geographical Indications And Development In The Third World: Towards A Strategic Approach Of Intellectual Property Rights In Jamaica - The Case Of Blue Mountain Coffee, Marsha Simone Cadogan

PhD Dissertations

The dissertation is a critical analysis of, and engagement with agricultural and food based geographical indications, the politics of development and international relations, and the prospects of forming reformist linkages between geographical indications and development in Jamaica and the Caribbeans intellectual property landscape. A net importer of intellectual property, Jamaica has yet to fully claim intellectual property as its own.

The dissertation proposes that geographical indication schemes should be envisaged, and practically function as part of Jamaicas development policy. This approach calls for a reformist approach to intellectual property in Jamaica, which includes an awareness of the pitfalls of being …

A Skeptical Optimist’S Perspective On Canada Getting To Proportional Representation As An Electoral Reform, Craig Scott

Editorials and Commentaries

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Unlocking Memories: Cognitive Interviewing For Lawyers By Geoff Coughlin, Jason M. Chin, Vanja Ginic

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This is a book review of Unlocking Memories: Cognitive Interviewing for Lawyers by Geoff Coughlin.

Re-Thinking Executive Control Of And Accountability For The Agency, Benedict Sheehy, Don Feaver

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The organization of many Western governments has undergone dramatic structural and procedural changes over the past century. A large portion of public administration previously done by departments within a more centralized structure of government has been shifted to administrative units, often referred to as “agencies” that fall outside the constitutional core—an “agencified” model. This article investigates the historical contexts and legal developments associated with these changes and illuminates how “agencification” has altered the balance between executive control powers and executive accountability obligations. It examines how the organizational changes have been addressed in both the responsible government models of the United …

Beyond Ip–The Cost Of Free: Informational Capitalism In A Post Ip Era, Guy Pessach

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Critical copyright scholarship rightly emphasizes the social costs of ordering cultural production through proprietary intellectual property law regimes. This scholarship also celebrates the virtues of free content and free access, particularly in digital domains. The purpose of this article is to question this critique, which tends to pair proprietary intellectual property protection with informational capitalism and the commodification of culture. This article argues that the drawbacks of cultural commodification and informational capitalism are also apparent in market-oriented media environments that are based on free distribution of content. The article makes a novel contribution by untying the seemingly Gordian knot binding …