Law Commons^™

Introducing The Self-Represented Litigant Case Law Database, Lidia Imbrogno, Julie Macfarlane, Sandra Shushani

National Self Represented Litigants Project

The purpose of the SRL Case Law Database is to highlight patterns and themes relevant to SRLs, as evidenced by decisions reported by Canadian courts.

Judges are now routinely being asked to consider issues that relate directly to the Access to Justice challenges of self-represented litigants. Judicial decision-making in cases involving SRLs is a new area of law, and one which presents many challenges for a traditional “strict neutrality” model of judging.

We hear frequently from both SRLs who contact us to share their particular case outcomes, and legal professionals (lawyers, court clerks) who send us particular decisions, in anticipation …

Introducing The Self-Represented Litigant Case Law Database, Julie Macfarlane, Sandra Shushani, Lidia Imbrogno

Law Publications

The Self-Represented Litigant (SRL) Case Law Database Project began in January of 2017 and is the newest work-in-progress of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project. Our goal is to track the developing jurisprudence across Canada in cases that relate to and affect the positions of individuals appearing unrepresented.

Digital Locks, Physical Objects And Immaterial Works, Pascale Chapdelaine

Law Publications

One of the greatest controversies in contemporary copyright law is the introduction of technological protection measures (TPMs) at the international and national level. By creating a separate parallel regime for digital copyright works, TPMs shifted the paradigm by redefining the rules of engagement of how users would increasingly access and experience digital copyright works.

In this chapter of my book Copyright User Rights, Contracts, and the Erosion of Property (Oxford University Press, 2017) I look at the implementation of TPMs as a regulatory tool from a multi-jurisdictional perspective. Initially mainly intended to protect copyright holders’ works made accessible online or …

Equitable Allocation Of Climate Adaptation Finance - Considering Income Levels Alongside Vulnerability, Patricia Galvao-Ferreira

Law Publications

The 2015 Paris Agreement elevates the goal of climate adaptation to the same level of importance as the goal of climate mitigation, and emphasizes the need to mobilize finance for climate adaptation in developing countries. As of February 2017, however, the financial gap for climate adaptation remained monumental. With the administration of US President Donald Trump threatening to interrupt American financial flows to the climate regime, developing countries are expressing growing concern about the ability of developed country parties to mobilize enough finance to meet the sizeable costs of their climate adaptation needs. In this context, the question of how …

Gangs And The Culture Of Violence In El Salvador (What Role Did The Us Play?), Norma Roumie

The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History

Gang violence in El Salvador has resulted in conditions that have perpetuated an environment of terror and culture of violence. This paper aims to understand the emergence of transnational gangs in El Salvador and the US involvement in this process. The article is divided into the following subtitles; 1980s civil war and the repercussions of US involvement, Salvadorans migration to the US and reverse migration (with a focus on Los Angeles and San Salvador), and US exportation of heavy-handed policies to El Salvador’s institutionalized use of political violence. The paper concludes that US involvement in El Salvador created a foundation …

Creating An Anti-Corruption Norm In Africa: Critical Reflections On Legal Instrumentalization For Development, Paul D. Ocheje

Law Publications

Abstract

This article reflects critically on the instrumental value of law in the anti-corruption struggle in Africa. Three questions are central to this reflection: (a) Is the instrumental use of law to achieve a developmental purpose, such as anti-corruption, defensible in theory and practice? (b) Is law necessary to, and/or adequate for, the creation of an anti-corruption norm? (c) Why do the developing countries perform so poorly in the fight against corruption in comparison with their wealthier, industrialized counterparts? While the article defends the instrumentalization of law in this regard, it argues that the African normative context of corruption throws …

Family Legal Services Review Submission On Unbundling & Legal Coaching, Nikki Gershbain

National Self Represented Litigants Project

Legal coaching is a form of unbundling that, as Justice Bonkalo notes, “is uniquely characterized by the lawyer equipping the client to move his or her own matter forward (by reviewing documents, preparing them for an appearance, etc.) rather than personally doing the work for the client.”

While the practice of legal coaching is not new – lawyers have been doing this informally for years – the term “coaching” was coined by Dr. Julie Macfarlane in her groundbreaking 2013 National Study on SRLs, which included interviews or focus groups with 259 SRLs from Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario, as well …

Family Legal Services Review Submission On Paralegal Practice, Julie Macfarlane

National Self Represented Litigants Project

The National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP) fully supports the recommendations made by Justice Bonkalo in her Family Legal Services Review to broaden Access to Justice for family litigants.

This submission will focus on the recommendations regarding the extension of paralegal practice into some family cases, and the licensing of qualified paralegals who can offer these services to family litigants. A second and separate submission, written by our Research Fellow Nikki Gershbain, sets out our arguments (framed in the context of the NSRLP’s 2013 Study, “Identifying and Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants”, and Nikki’s stakeholder consultations) for an institutional adoption …

Access To Justice Annotated Bibliography: May 2017 V.5, Joanna Pawlowski

National Self Represented Litigants Project

The revised and updated version of our Annotated Bibliography on the SRL Phenomenon and Access to Justice.

Evaluating Systemic Advocacy: A Primer & Tools For Evaluating Systemic Advocacy In Ontario's Legal Clinics, Gemma Smyth

Law Publications

No abstract provided.

Part Three Child And Family Services Act Table Of Concordance With Bill C-89, Lois Boateng

Law Publications

Bill 89, Supporting Children, Youth and Families Act, 2017, (41^st Parl, 2^nd Sess) Ontario (2017)

Table of Concordance between Part III (Child Protection) of the Child and Family Services Act and Part V (Child Protection) of Bill C-89, An Act to enact the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2016, to amend and repeal the Child and Family Services Act and to make related amendments to other Acts.

Contents

Interpretation- Definitions. 3

Child in Need of Protection. 4

Best Interests of Child. 5

Where child an Indian or native person. 6

Place of Safety. 6

Temporary …

Tracking The Continuing Trends Of The Self-Represented Litigants Phenomenon: Data From The National Self-Represented Litigants Project, 2015-2016, Julie Macfarlane, Gurleen Gill, Piper Riley Thompson

National Self Represented Litigants Project

From 2011-2013, Dr. Julie Macfarlane conducted a study about experiences of self- representation in Canada in three provinces, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. She conducted detailed personal interviews and/or focus group interviews with 259 self-represented litigants (SRLs). Since the Study’s release in 2013 – “The National Self-Represented Litigants Project: Identifying and Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants” – SRLs continue to contact the National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP). This led the research team to develop an “Intake Form” in SurveyMonkey, in order to collect information from SRLs across Canada. While the data provided in the Intake Forms is less detailed …

A Third Revolution In Family Dispute Resolution: Accessible Legal Professionalism, Noel Semple

Law Publications

Innovation in family law firms can tangibly improve access to justice in Canada. This article develops that claim by drawing on empirical data and scholarship about Canadian family law. Part 1 explains how and why legal needs arising from the dissolution of intimate relationships are so difficult for the parties to meet. This Part draws on civil legal needs surveys, surveys with lawyers, and data from interviews with litigants. The focus shifts to family law firms (including sole practitioners) in Part 2, using new empirical data about the Canadian lawyers who do this work. Three promising opportunities to innovate for …

Male, Pale, And Stale? Diversity In Lawyers' Regulatory Leadership, Noel Semple

Law Publications

When lawyers elect the leaders of their self-regulatory organizations, what sort of people do they vote for? How do the selection processes for elite lawyer sub-groups affect the diversity and efficacy of those groups? This article quantitatively assesses the demographic and professional diversity of leadership in the Law Society of Upper Canada.

After many years of underrepresentation, in 2015 visible minority members and women were elected in numbers proportionate to their shares of Ontario lawyers. Regression analysis suggests that being non-white was not a disadvantage in the 2015 election, and being female actually conferred an advantage in attracting lawyers’ votes. …

Top Heavy: Beyond The Global North & The Justification For Global Administrative Law, Sujith Xavier

Law Publications

Global administrative law scholars have argued that global administrative law’s principles and normativity can bring about legitimacy to global governance institutions, and subsequently benefit the people of the Global South. I challenge these recent arguments that suggest global administrative law has managed to incorporate the concerns of the Third World. I caution international lawyers’ attempts to theorize global governance as administration to fill the democracy gap within the global space. My arguments are premised on the history of domestic administrative law and its uses to facilitate the settler colonial project in places like North America. I first examine the two …

Questions, Questions: Has Weber Had An Impact On Unions’ Representational Responsibilities In Workplace Human Rights Disputes?, Claire Mummé

Law Publications

This essay attempts to put forward a research agenda for properly evaluating the changing nature of unions’ human rights representational obligations since Weber. I begin by investigating two legal questions: first, whether unions are held to a more stringent duty of fair representation (DFR) standard in regards to members’ discrimination grievances than prior to Weber and Parry Sound, and second, whether there has been a broadening of the concept of union discrimination under human rights codes, such that unions may be held liable for failing to bring forward discrimination grievances. With the legal picture in place, I then set out …

Placing Twail Scholarship And Praxis, Sujith Xavier, Amar Bhatia, Usha Natarajan, John Reynolds

Law Publications

This Special Issue of the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice collects some of the written reflections of participants from the Third World Approaches to International Law [TWAIL] Conference held in Cairo, Egypt, from 21 to 24 February 2015. TWAIL is a loosely affiliated network of scholars and practitioners of international law and policy. TWAIL scholars and practitioners are animated by the relationship between the Global North and the Global South, and the ensuing disparities in wealth and health spurred on by processes of diverging and converging colonial and postcolonial histories.

Norms, Law And Social Change: Nigeria’S Anti-Corruptionstruggle, 1999–2017, Paul Ocheje

Law Publications

Corruption is notoriously persistent in Nigeria notwithstanding the panoply of laws deployed over the years against it. This article argues that the factors constraining the effectiveness of laws in the fight against corruption are to be found not in the laws, but in the larger societal matrix of resilient social norms and institutions, which constitute the environment of corruption in the country. The environment thus constituted is either conducive to, or largely tolerant of, corruption. The article then suggests that the anti-corruption effort, to be successful, must engage broadly with the environment by instigating social change.

Legal Services Regulation In Canada: Plus Ça Change?, Noel Semple

Law Publications

In common law Northern Europe and in Australasia, a wave of reform has been transforming legal services regulation since roughly 1980. Old structures and approaches, based on the principles of professionalism and lawyer independence, are being replaced in these jurisdictions by new ones that prioritize competition and consumer interests. In the United States this has conspicuously not happened, leaving intact a regulatory approach whose broad outlines have changed little in the past 100 years.

Thus, I have argued that the legal services regulatory regimes of the common law world today are bifurcated into (i) a competitive-consumerist paradigm apparent in the …