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2018

Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University

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Articles 1 - 30 of 110

Full-Text Articles in Law

Consumption Tax, Double Taxation And The Taxes And Levies (Approved List For Collection) Act (Amendment) Order 2015: The Lingering Labyrinth, Okanga Ogbu Okanga Dec 2018

Consumption Tax, Double Taxation And The Taxes And Levies (Approved List For Collection) Act (Amendment) Order 2015: The Lingering Labyrinth, Okanga Ogbu Okanga

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Nigeria has a long history of legal conflict on fiscal federalism. One dimension borders on who has the power to tax the consumption of goods and services. Although the Nigerian Constitution prescribes how taxing powers are to be exercised between the federal government and the federating units, controversy remains as to the extent of taxing powers exercisable by each tier of government. This is because, apart from the Constitution, a peculiar military-era statute, the “Taxes and Levies Act” prescribes what taxes each tier of government can collect and appears to circumscribe their constitutional taxing powers. The federal government and the …


The Single Contract Basis Of International Corporate Taxation: A Review Of Saipem V Firs, Okanga Ogbu Okanga Dec 2018

The Single Contract Basis Of International Corporate Taxation: A Review Of Saipem V Firs, Okanga Ogbu Okanga

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Nigeria's principal corporate tax legislation, the Companies Income Tax Act 1961, stipulates as a basis for the taxation of a nonresident company deriving income in Nigeria, what it terms a “single contract.” This, according to the statute, entails a contract that embodies the activities of surveys, deliveries, installations or construction (common features of what is in common parlance termed a “turnkey project”). A major challenge with the application of the provision lies in the comprehension of the pivotal term, “single contract.” A diversity of views on the import of the term paints a telling picture of ambiguity and underlies the …


Submission: 2018 Legislative Review Of Export Development Canada, Sara Seck, Keith Macmaster, Penelope Simons Nov 2018

Submission: 2018 Legislative Review Of Export Development Canada, Sara Seck, Keith Macmaster, Penelope Simons

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This submission to the 2018 review of Export Development Canada is informed in part by a conference and policy meeting that we hosted in October 2017 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 prior and subsequent research. Our submission will focus primarily on Theme 5: Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Rights, which asks whether, in fulfilling its mandate, EDC reflects the expectations …


Employing Older Prisoner Empirical Data To Test A Novel S 7 Charter Claim, Adelina Iftene Nov 2018

Employing Older Prisoner Empirical Data To Test A Novel S 7 Charter Claim, Adelina Iftene

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article builds the case for expanding s 7 of the Charter of Canadian Rights and Freedoms to apply to prison regulations and decisions in the specific context of an aging prison population. As original empirical data shows, prisons are highly insensitive to age-related problems, and inappropriate or insufficient medical treatment receives official sanction from a wide range of correctional documents. The stark inadequacies of the current system endanger older prisoners’ security of the person, and sometimes their lives, in ways that violate their rights under s 7, since the deprivations they suffer result from legislative policies and state conduct …


Challenges And Opportunities Of A Forthcoming Strategic Assessment Of The Implications Of International Climate Change Mitigation Commitments For Individual Undertakings In Canada, Robert B. Gibson, Karine Péloffy, Meinhard Doelle Oct 2018

Challenges And Opportunities Of A Forthcoming Strategic Assessment Of The Implications Of International Climate Change Mitigation Commitments For Individual Undertakings In Canada, Robert B. Gibson, Karine Péloffy, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Canada is preparing to initiate a challenging, but potentially ground-breaking, strategic assessment on the implications of its climate change mitigation commitments for project assessments. The strategic assessment is immediately needed to provide project-level guidance for decision makers who will be required under new federal legislation to consider the extent to which each assessed project “contributes to sustainability” and “hinders or contributes to” meeting Canada’s climate commitments. However, Canada, like many other countries, has not yet translated its Paris Agreementclimate commitments into an adequate suite of specific policies, pathways, budgets, and other directives for compliance. Consequently, the climate commitments’ strategic assessment …


Smart Devices In Criminal Investigations: How Section 8 Of The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms Can Better Protect Privacy In The Search Of Technology And Seizure Of Information, Lee-Ann Conrod Oct 2018

Smart Devices In Criminal Investigations: How Section 8 Of The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms Can Better Protect Privacy In The Search Of Technology And Seizure Of Information, Lee-Ann Conrod

LLM Theses

This thesis examines the jurisprudence from the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) on informational privacy under section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it relates to searches of technology in the context of criminal investigations. The development and use of technology in criminal investigations will be detailed along with an overview of the current state of the law in this area. Challenges with the interpretation of section 8 demonstrate a prevalent uncertainty. This thesis proposes a new approach for the SCC to apply to cases where technology intersects with section 8 of the Charter. The proposal …


Language's Empire: A Counter-Telling Of Administrative Law In Canada, Nicholas Hooper Oct 2018

Language's Empire: A Counter-Telling Of Administrative Law In Canada, Nicholas Hooper

LLM Theses

This thesis renders the unstated assumptions that animate statutory interpretation in the administrative state. It argues that the current approach is a disingenuous rhetorical overlay that masks the politics of definitional meaning. After rejecting the possibility of structuring principles in our (post)modern oversaturation of signs, the thesis concludes with an aspirational account of interpretive pragmatism in the face of uncertainty.


Protecting Women's Rights? Prospects Under The Un Human Rights Treaty System: A Case Study On India 2005-2017, Deepali Oct 2018

Protecting Women's Rights? Prospects Under The Un Human Rights Treaty System: A Case Study On India 2005-2017, Deepali

LLM Theses

The establishment of the United Nations Treaty System was the fundamental step for the protection and enforcement of women’s rights. The system is designed to monitor the human rights standards in countries that have ratified the treaties, called state parties. However, the system is facing several challenges that have compromised its effective working for the protection and enforcement of women’s rights. The thesis seeks to explain the challenges to the effective working of the system, that is, why the system does not work as designed in protecting women’s rights against three specific issues: domestic violence, sexual trafficking, and reproductive rights. …


Recent Developments In Marine Insurance Law And Consequences For Iran, Mohammad Ali Majd Oct 2018

Recent Developments In Marine Insurance Law And Consequences For Iran, Mohammad Ali Majd

LLM Theses

The United Kingdom Insurance Act 2015 entered into force on 12 August 2016. It introduced major changes to some provisions of the Marine Insurance Act 1906 which has been the principal model for establishing marine insurance law and practice not only in common law jurisdictions, but also in some civil law countries. The main areas of change are the duty of fair presentation, warranties, insurer’s remedies for fraudulent claims and damages for the late payment of claims. This thesis investigates how uniformity in international marine insurance law can be promoted by virtue of the new changes in English law and …


Game Of Tones: A Twail-Analysis Of The Evolution And Impacts Of The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change Technology Transfer Regime In Africa, Adebayo Majekolagbe Oct 2018

Game Of Tones: A Twail-Analysis Of The Evolution And Impacts Of The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change Technology Transfer Regime In Africa, Adebayo Majekolagbe

LLM Theses

The 1992 Rio Outcome articulates what is arguably, to date, the most ambitious North–South environmentally sound technology (EST) transfer aspirations. Yet, 26 years post-Rio, Africa remains at the lowest rung of the global EST deployment totem. Departing from talking-points like the connection of EST transfer and intellectual property rights, this research focuses on the normative underpinnings of the history, processes and dynamics of UNFCCC’s EST transfer regime. Using a ‘reconsidered’ Third World Approach to International Law approach and its accompanying historical research methodology, the thesis seeks to track landmarks in UNFCCC’s EST transfer regime evolution and the impacts of a …


Responsible Investing: Access Denied, Keith Macmaster Oct 2018

Responsible Investing: Access Denied, Keith Macmaster

LLM Theses

Retail investors are increasingly demanding responsible investments. Retail investors also require the services of an advisor. Many responsible funds may not be responsible. This is due to many factors, including incomplete disclosures, and lack of financialization of risks. The thesis shows that traditional mutual funds, while structurally able to provide responsible investments, have not provided responsible holdings to mass affluent clientele. Institutional investors, and wealthy retail investors, have options to avail themselves of responsible investments; mass affluent investors have less choice to invest responsibly. The thesis recommends enhanced material disclosures and financial valuation models to better identify responsible investments. Advisors …


The Scope Of Party Autonomy In International Commercial Contracts: A New Dawn?, Akinwumi Olawuyi Ogunranti Oct 2018

The Scope Of Party Autonomy In International Commercial Contracts: A New Dawn?, Akinwumi Olawuyi Ogunranti

LLM Theses

Transnational contracts are almost inevitable in the world today. It follows that a system of law must govern the resolution of disputes that arise from the contracts. The freedom of parties to choose a law that regulates transnational contracts is recognized by most countries as party autonomy. However, the extent of this autonomy has been controversial. This thesis unravels the controversy surrounding the doctrine of party autonomy and, more importantly, provides another perspective to the argument – that the application and scope of party autonomy in countries is determined by historical, colonial, economic, and religious factors. It uses this as …


Improving The Criminal Justice System In Nigeria Through Restorative Justice: Lessons From Canada And New Zealand, Olaniran Akintunde Oct 2018

Improving The Criminal Justice System In Nigeria Through Restorative Justice: Lessons From Canada And New Zealand, Olaniran Akintunde

LLM Theses

This thesis argues the need for Nigeria to incorporate restorative justice within its criminal justice system. Its prevailing adversarial system is bedevilled with various challenges such as over- incarceration, recidivism, high rates of juvenile crime and prison congestion. The work draws lessons from Canada and New Zealand, two jurisdictions that have made improvements to similar systems like Nigeria via the adoption and practice of restorative justice. The advantages that a restorative justice alternative bring to criminal justice administration in Nigeria include less use of incarceration, improvement in social relationships, rehabilitation and the reintegration of young offenders. The thesis recommends that …


A "Reasonable" Expectation Of Sexual Privacy Inthe Digital Age, Moira Aikenhead Oct 2018

A "Reasonable" Expectation Of Sexual Privacy Inthe Digital Age, Moira Aikenhead

Dalhousie Law Journal

Two Criminal Code offences, voyeurism, and the publication of intimate images without consent, were enacted toprotect Canadians' right to sexual privacy in light of invasive digital technologies. Women and girls are overwhelmingly targeted as victims for both of these offences, given the higher value placed on their non-consensual, sexualised images in an unequal society.Both offences require an analysis ofwhether the complainant was in circumstances giving rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy, and the use of this standard is potentially problematic both from a feminist standpoint and in light of the rapidly evolving technological realities of the digital age. This …


Canada's Residential Schools And The Right To Integrity, Amy Anderson, Dallas K. Miller, Dwight Newman Oct 2018

Canada's Residential Schools And The Right To Integrity, Amy Anderson, Dallas K. Miller, Dwight Newman

Dalhousie Law Journal

Apart from characterizations of the residential schools system as imposing cultural genocide, it is possible to understand the system in terms of a legal wrong involving violations of family integrity. The 19th and early 20th centuries saw increasing state intervention in families generally so as to impose compulsory education. However, wrongs in this intervention were recognized, and international law developed toward a right of family integrity that led to changes in non-Indigenous contexts. Evidence from the TRC shows that Canada did not respond as quickly in the Indigenous context, thus permitting an identification of how the residential schools system violated …


From Law To Legal Studies And Beyond: 50 Years Of Law And Legal Studies At Carleton University, Vincent Kazmierski, Darren Pacione Oct 2018

From Law To Legal Studies And Beyond: 50 Years Of Law And Legal Studies At Carleton University, Vincent Kazmierski, Darren Pacione

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper considers the evolution of Carleton University's Department of Law and Legal Studies and its approach to the study of law and the legal within the context of the continuing growth of legal studies programs across the country. It starts by outlining the historical development of the Department and the evolution of its perspective of its role and purpose. Part II examines a number of aspects of the architecture of fourteen undergraduate legal studies programs across the country and the ways in which the roles of these programs are described. Part III provides a brief outline of the current …


The Constitutionality Of Classification: Indigenous Overrepresentation And Security Policy In Canadian Federal Penitentiaries, D'Arcy Leitch Oct 2018

The Constitutionality Of Classification: Indigenous Overrepresentation And Security Policy In Canadian Federal Penitentiaries, D'Arcy Leitch

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article examines one component of the Correctional Service of Canada's (CSC) risk classification scheme. The CSC uses the Custody Rating Scale (CRS), a 12-item actuarial instrument, to measure risk and to provide security classification recommendations. Empirical data shows that while CRS recommendations may have some predictive validity, certain of the 12 items the CRS includes do not, particularly for Indigenous prisoners. This article makes the case that the inclusion ofsuch items in the CRS violates prisoner's rights under section 7 of the Charter by depriving them of liberty in a manner that is arbitrary and overbroad. Habeas corpus is …


Duets, Not Solos: The Mclachlin Court's Co-Authorship Legacy, Peter Mccormick Oct 2018

Duets, Not Solos: The Mclachlin Court's Co-Authorship Legacy, Peter Mccormick

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article explores the recentphenomenon of the formal co-authorship of Supreme Court decisions. It begins with a short history of the practice, primarily in the closing years of the Lamer Court but expanding steadily under McLachlin. A closer investigation reveals two critically important dimensions: first, the practice is skewed toward the Court's more important decisions (measured in terms of subject matter legal complexity, interveners, and subsequent citation); and second, its diffusion across the Court's membership refutes the possibility that it simply reinforces persisting cleavages. This new practice represents a more overtly collegial format directed to the Court's more significant decisions. …


Government Lawyering: Duties And Ethical Challenges Of Government Lawyers, Andrew Flavelle Martin Oct 2018

Government Lawyering: Duties And Ethical Challenges Of Government Lawyers, Andrew Flavelle Martin

Dalhousie Law Journal

Are government lawyers different than lawyers in private practice? If so, why does it matter? While these questions have been addressed piecemeal in the Canadian legal ethics literature, Elizabeth Sanderson's Government Lawyering: Duties and Ethical Challenges of Government Lawyers is the first comprehensive and long-form answer to them.1 As Adam Dodek hints in the foreword 2 and has noted elsewhere,3 the degree to which government lawyers have been overlooked in the Canadian legal literature is incongruent with their sheer numbers as a proportion of the legal profession in Canada. The need for this book is pronounced.


Reassessing The Constitutional Foundation Of Delegated Legislation In Canada, Lorne Neudorf Oct 2018

Reassessing The Constitutional Foundation Of Delegated Legislation In Canada, Lorne Neudorf

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article assesses the constitutionalfoundation by which Parliament lends its lawmaking powers to the executive, which rests upon a century-old precedent established by the Supreme Court of Canada in a constitutional challenge to wartime legislation. While the case law demonstrates that courts have continued to follow this earlyprecedent to allow theparliamentary delegation of sweeping lawmaking powers to the executive, it is time for courts to reassess the constitutionality ofdelegation in light ofCanada's status as a liberal democracy embedded within a system of constitutional supremacy. Under the Constitution of Canada, Parliament is placed firmly at the centre ofpublic policymaking by being …


Genderfucking Non-Disclosure: Sexual Fraud, Transgender Bodies, And Messy Identities, Florence Ashley Oct 2018

Genderfucking Non-Disclosure: Sexual Fraud, Transgender Bodies, And Messy Identities, Florence Ashley

Dalhousie Law Journal

If I don't tell you that I was assigned male at birth, as a transgender person, can I go to jail for sexual assault by fraud? In some jurisdictionslike England or Israel, the answer is: yes. Previous arguments against this criminalisation have focused on the realness of trans people's genders: since trans men are men and trans women are women, it is not misleading for them to present as they do. Highlighting the limitationsofthis position, which doesn't fully account for the messiness ofgendered experiences, the author puts forward an argument against the criminalisation of (trans)gender history non-disclosure rooted in privacy. …


The Impact Of The Honour Of The Crown On The Ethical Obligations Of Government Lawyers: A Duty Of Honourable Dealing, Andrew Flavelle Martin, Candice Telfer Oct 2018

The Impact Of The Honour Of The Crown On The Ethical Obligations Of Government Lawyers: A Duty Of Honourable Dealing, Andrew Flavelle Martin, Candice Telfer

Dalhousie Law Journal

The honour of the Crown is recognized as a Canadian constitutional principle that is essential to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. As part of the process of reconciliation, this article argues that the honour of the Crown imposes a special ethical obligation on government lawyers in specific circumstances, which we call the duty of honourable dealing. We situate this duty in the divided literature and case law about whether government lawyers have special ethical obligations and in the two dimensions in which the honour of the Crown applies: the Crown as an institution and the Crown as a collection …


Case Comment: Heller V. Uber Technologies Inc., Peter Quon Oct 2018

Case Comment: Heller V. Uber Technologies Inc., Peter Quon

Dalhousie Law Journal

Canadian courts have accepted mandatory arbitration clauses as presumptively enforceable unless there is legislation that precludes their application. This position was confirmed by the Supreme Court in Seidel v. TEL US CommunicationsInc. In Heller v. Uber Technologies Inc., the Ontario Court of Appeal considered an arbitration clause in the context of legislation following the approach in Seidel, but the Court also undertook an unconscionability analysis. Reviewing a motion that was granted to stay a class action proceeding in favour of an arbitration clause, the Court unanimously held that the clause was invalid on two separate grounds. First, the arbitration clause …


Strategies For More Inclusive Municipal Participatory Governance And Implimenting Un-Habitat's New Urban Agenda: Improving Consultation And Participation In Urban Planning Decision-Making Processes Through Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Procedures, Sara Gwendolyn Ross Sep 2018

Strategies For More Inclusive Municipal Participatory Governance And Implimenting Un-Habitat's New Urban Agenda: Improving Consultation And Participation In Urban Planning Decision-Making Processes Through Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Procedures, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Based on the findings of an urban legal anthropology project in Toronto, Canada that tracked municipal decision-making practices in relation to development, redevelopment, and heritage preservation in the city and the often unforeseen and unacknowledged effects these can have on marginal, transgressive, and subaltern (subcultural) communities and their community cultural spaces and practices, this article will first turn to a few neighbourhood examples of public consultation processes underway in Toronto and observations of visual (vocal) resistance to faulty consultation practices. These examples reveal some of the realities of public consultation design in Toronto and how it is experienced on the …


Illness, Injury And Medical Deportations At The Frontier: The Canadian Legal Regime For Health Care Protections For Agricultural Migrant Workers, Constance Macintosh May 2018

Illness, Injury And Medical Deportations At The Frontier: The Canadian Legal Regime For Health Care Protections For Agricultural Migrant Workers, Constance Macintosh

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper explores how health interests and rights play out in the temporary agricultural worker regime. In particular, it illustrates how a system that–as discussed below–is formally positioned as granting such workers the same rights as nationals, may not in practice provide equivalent or meaningful protections. The assessment is not just about the social exclusion challenges that often undermine the ability or possibility of migrant workers to activate their legal rights (which is the usual critique of why post-national citizenship writing is overly optimistic), but about how the legal and regulatory system itself misses the mark.


Legal Ethics And The Political Activity Of Government Lawyers, Andrew Martin May 2018

Legal Ethics And The Political Activity Of Government Lawyers, Andrew Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The ability to engage in political activity is an essential feature of a democratic society. However, the ability of government lawyers to do so is unclear. While most governments have passed legislation identifying permissible political activity of their employees, it is unclear how the professional obligations of lawyers apply in this context and how these professional obligations interact with this legislation. This article answers these questions. The duty of loyalty to the client requires most government lawyers to refrain from all political activity at the same level of government. The special professional obligations of Crown prosecutors require these lawyers to …


Designing A Robust Tax System For Nigeria: Lessons From An International Perspective, Olukemi Tawoju May 2018

Designing A Robust Tax System For Nigeria: Lessons From An International Perspective, Olukemi Tawoju

LLM Theses

This thesis argues that Nigeria can adapt its tax system for better gain from investment and other taxation. It outlines the foundation for a good tax policy, and explores initiatives by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD and the United Nations (UN) regarding harmful tax practices and tax incentives. Their recommendations and those of scholars, conclude that tax incentives are ineffective in attracting foreign direct investment, may result in taxpayer abuse, and erode the revenue base of capital importing countries like Nigeria. Utilizing internationally accepted features on effective tax incentive design, examining the operation of the Nigerian tax …


A Comparative Analysis Of Voluntariness Safeguards And Review Procedure Under Oregon And The Netherlands' Physician Assisted Dying Laws, Michaela Estelle Okninski Apr 2018

A Comparative Analysis Of Voluntariness Safeguards And Review Procedure Under Oregon And The Netherlands' Physician Assisted Dying Laws, Michaela Estelle Okninski

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article provides a comparative statutory analysis of the requirements for a voluntary decision in a request for physician assisted dying under Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and the Netherlands' Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act. This comparative analysis aims to provide insight into how voluntariness is determined in practice and how the review procedure is conducted, with a view to identifying strengths and limitations within a legislative framework. First, the legislative safeguards aimed at protecting a voluntary decision are discussed. This is followed by an examination of the review procedure. This article concludes by …


Legal History And Rights For Nonhuman Animals: An Interview With Steven M. Wise, Angela Fernandez Apr 2018

Legal History And Rights For Nonhuman Animals: An Interview With Steven M. Wise, Angela Fernandez

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article offers a window into the recent work of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) and its quest to secure legal personhood for cognitively advanced nonhuman animals (chimpanzees, elephants, and orcas). Law& History Professor Angela Fernandez interviews Nonhuman Rights Project founder Steven Wise about the work of his organization, setting the litigation strategy of the NonHuman Rights Project against the background of Wise's historical work on the 1772 British case that ended slavery in England, Somerset v. Stewart. The conversation Fernandez has with Wise ranges across the most recent decisions of the Nonhuman Rights Project cases, what has happened since …


Legalizing Assisted Dying: Cross Purposes And Unintended Consequences, Emily Jackson Apr 2018

Legalizing Assisted Dying: Cross Purposes And Unintended Consequences, Emily Jackson

Dalhousie Law Journal

In the UK, assisted dying continues to be unlawful, and pro-legalization campaigners have made use of human rights based applications for judicial review and Private Members Bills in order to try to change the law. Interestingly, however, the proposed statute would not offer an assisted death to many of the litigants who have sought to force Parliament's hand. This article considers whether this a one-off peculiarity, or whether there might be other mismatches between what the law can achieve and what matters most to people who are seeking an assisted death for themselves. It also explores what seems to be …