Law Commons^™

Regulation Of Chemical Risks: Lessons For Reform Of The Toxic Substances Control Act From Canada And The European Union, Adam D.K. Abelkop, John D. Graham

Pace Environmental Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to compare the regulatory systems in Canada and the EU, and use comparative insights to draw some lessons that may be of interest to U.S. policy makers engaged in TSCA reform. CEPA and REACH are seen by stakeholders as state of the art in chemicals assessment and management, and thus the U.S. may draw useful insights from them. Indeed, the European Union and Canada have each been urging other countries to join in a globalization of the REACH or Canadian programs, respectively. Regardless of what TSCA reformers choose to learn from the Canadian and …

A Sure Thing? Online Gaming And Canada, Ryan M. Rodenberg, John T. Holden

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

The legal status of gaming activities on First Nations land within Canada is complicated. The foci of this paper are two-fold. First, we trace the origin and expansion of First Nations gaming. Second, we analyze the potential of First Nations as hubs for the growing global e-gaming industry, with an emphasis on Internet poker and online sports wagering. We conclude by positing that the Canadian regulatory scheme presents an opportunity to First Nations in connection with e-gaming.

The Ombudsman As A Monitor Of Human Rights In Canadian Federal Corrections, Howard Sapers, Ivan Zinger

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Economics Of Canadian National Railway V. Norsk Pacific Steamship (The Jervis Crown), David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Economic analysis of legal doctrine assumes, indeed its relevance largely depends upon the assumption, that judicial decisions will have an instrumental impact on the future behaviour of firms and individuals who are not themselves parties to the litigation which resulted in the specific doctrinal development being analysed. In other words, economic analysis assumes that the decisions of courts - and particularly, for what should be obvious reasons, the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada - have a direct influence upon the manner in which non-litigants will choose to order their affairs following that decision. Thus, the focus of a …

The Internal Trade Agreement: Furthering The Canadian Economic Disunion?, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The premise of this article on the current status of the Canadian economic union and the meaning of the Internal Trade Agreement (the "Agreement") on that union, is that the union describes the economic relations among individual Canadians. The union is not comprised of the interconnections among political jurisdictions. The Canadian economic union, when conceived as the product of the relations between individual Canadians, is the market. We have decided that our material well-being as individuals and as a community is best served by decentralizing economic power and thereby permitting individuals, whether alone or in groups, to act relatively autonomously …

Procedural Fairness And Incentive Programs: Reflections On The Environmental Choice Program, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This paper explores the application of procedural fairness to the federal government’s Environmental Choice Program’s decision-making processes. While Canadian courts have traditionally required public bureaucrats to act “fairly” when implementing command models of regulation, they have only recently been confronted with demands that regulators implementing economic incentive programs also act in accordance with procedural fairness norms.

Consumer Redress Through Alternative Dispute Resolution And Small Claims Court: Theory And Practice, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

There are significant difficulties in providing consumers with redress because dispute resolution costs are high relative to the sums being sought. Consumers also manifest a reluctance to enter legal processes for other reasons. This prompted the creation of user-friendly small claims courts and encouraged the discussion and sometimes the use of non-judicial, alternative dispute resolution forums for addressing consumer redress. This paper explores the theoretical and practical distinction between these two types of dispute resolution forums. The practical differences are examined on the basis of observation of both types of forums and discussions with practitioners of alternative dispute resolution.

The …

Judicial Choice And Disparities Between Measures Of Economic Values, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

An important idea, which characterizes law in society, is a reluctance to move from the status quo. In general, one can argue that legal institutions and legal doctrine are not engaged in the redistribution of wealth from one party to another. This paper explores a possible explanation for that principle. The authors' research suggests that, across a wide range of entitlements and in a variety of contexts, individuals value losses more than foregone gains. The paper argues, as a matter of efficiency, that law and social policy might have developed in a manner consistent with this valuation disparity. Furthermore, this …

Law, Order And Democracy: An Analysis Of The Judiciary In A Progressive State--The Saskatchewan Experience, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Current legal debates on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada have focused on the apparent shift in the location of power from elected representatives to the judiciary since 1982. In this paper, I take an historical perspective on that issue. I will explore the relationship of political power, as exercised by the judiciary through the interpretation of legislation, with concepts of parliamentary supremacy in Saskatchewan during the fist half of this century.

The paper first describes the political character of the judiciary in Saskatchewan from 1905 until 1941, and then describes the political movements which gave rise to …

Government Liability For Economic Losses: The Case Of Regulatory Failure, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Compensation claims against provincial and federal governments are largely a product of the second half of the 20th century. The initial surge of cases after the enactment of the federal Crown Liability Act in 1953--mirrored also in developments at the provincial level-- were typically "private" tort claims. Indeed a significant percentage of claims against the federal government continue to be nothing more than automobile accident, occupier liability claims and lawsuits arising out of similar relatively minor bureaucratic error. Recently, however, as a result of both the imagination of litigators and the growth of the regulatory state, claims against governments have …

What Role Should The Federal Government Play In Consumer Protection?, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of these remarks is to comment on and to reinforce many of the points made by Professor Neilson in his "Comment on the Recent Federal Proposals for the Rationalization of Trade Practices Regulation in Canada".' More broadly, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the motives and agenda of the current policies and constitutional reform proposals which address the role which the federal government should play in consumer protection generally.

The Regulation Of Green Advertising: The State, The Market And The Environmental Good, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In this paper I explore this most recent development in regulatory policy and, in particular, the role government plays when it chooses to use private markets (consumer, institutional and corporate) as regulatory instruments to produce and allocate environmental benefits. The privatization of environmental regulation by employing markets to deliver environmental benefits does not involve the implementation of public policy through executive or legislative action. Rather, it is achieved through a public choice to privatize the delivery of environmental regulation by permitting or encouraging decentralized economic power to respond to consumer demands for environmental quality.

Of Persons And Property: The Politics Of Legal Taxonomy, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The essay falls into three major parts. In the first part, we explain and describe what we believe to be the core idea of law - that it represents a discursive and taxonomic economy which is used to give meaning to the world by creating a particular and partial reality. The concepts and language lawyers use, the way those media are deployed, the argumentative devices relied upon, and the values inculcated combine in conscious and unconscious ways to constitute law and a legal style of life. In part two, we tell two stories. One involves the Supreme Court's treatment of …

Can It Really Be Unconstitutional To Regulate Product Safety Information?, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In this paper, I examine the impact of two Supreme Court decisions on information-based product safety regulation which, in a variety of guises in Canada, can be said to restrict manufacturers', distributors' and marketers' ability to "express" themselves. In the end, I conclude that, if one appreciates the justification for and the processes by which this kind of product safety regulation is instituted, there is only a small risk that the current regulatory activity will be held unconstitutional. When one takes into account the degree of co-operation between business and government in establishing the content of most regulatory activity and …

Regulating Regulators: The Legal Environment Of The State, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In this paper I focus on the ability of tort law to reduce primary costs, or losses associated with the number and seriousness of accidents. In one sense I will be analysing the state as if it were a private firm in which losses suffered by private individuals and firms are externalities. Several years ago Mark Spitzer wrote a paper on this topic in which he posited several models of state activity and analysed the incentive effects of liability rules in each case. In my view Spitzer's general conclusion - the rule which may be synthesized from all of the …

Suing The State, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

As one examines the ways in which we have chosen to respond to claims of individuals and firms to compensation from the federal administration, one is immediately struck by the rapid rate of growth in the number of claims and the magnitude of the compensation that has been sought in recent years. What is even more dramatic, however, is the shift in the focus of our attention away from low-level bureaucratic activity, and towards alleged administrative failures to ensure air traffic safety, combat international terrorism, regulate financial institutions, protect the interests of businesses in international trade negotiations, privatize the delivery …

Chief Justice Nemetz's Judicial Record: Judicial Decision-Making And Judicial Values, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Much of Chief Justice Nemetz's life has been devoted to the public good and public service - to the betterment of society through law. Through his judgments and through his contribution to the administration of justice in British Columbia and Canada, he has brought the law closer to every one of us. Few of us can appreciate the degree of sacrifice and dedication to the public good which a life of judging requires. For all these reasons, and out of respect for the dedication of the judiciary, lawyers rarely discuss “judicial values" and particularly the values of a specific judge; …

Thinking About The State: Law Reform And The Crown In Canada, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In August 1985, the Law Reform Commission of Canada released a working paper entitled "The Legal Status of the Federal Administration." The working paper calls for a re-examination of the concept of the federal Crown in Canadian law. In this article, Professor Cohen undertakes a critical examination of the focus and methodology of the Commission's work. Professor Cohen commends the Commission for its excursion into the field of law reform and the state, but points out that this working paper represents an incomplete and flawed treatment of the subject. In light of this, Professor Cohen proceeds to describe and evaluate …

Bleeding Hearts And Peeling Floors: Compensation For Economic Loss At The House Of Lords, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The decision of the House of Lords in Junior Books Ltd. v. Veitchi Ltd. represents an unwarranted development in the law of tort and contract, unless its rationale and limitations are fully appreciated. This reform in such an important area is premature "in the absence of hard data on the probable impact of such an extension of liability.” Much of the published commentary on recovery of economic loss in tort, and on this decision in particular, has been written from the ex post perspective of accident compensation doctrine and theory. Most writers have been concerned with the development of positive …

The Public And Private Law Dimensions Of The Uffi Problem: Part Ii, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The subject of this paper, then, is the private and public law dimensions of the formaldehyde problem. The topics which I have chosen to discuss are directly relevant to any inquiry into the nature of the bureaucratic and entrepreneurial processes which together created the UFFI problem. My concern is not to fix blame, and I have chosen not to draw conclusions in respect of the doctrinal and policy issues which I discuss. Rather, I have attempted to describe the regulatory process which was associated with the development of the product, and to discuss the role of the courts in reviewing …

The Public And Private Law Dimensions Of The Uffi Problem: Part I, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The subject of this paper, then, is the private and public law dimensions of the formaldehyde problem. The topics which I have chosen to discuss are directly relevant to any inquiry into the nature of the bureaucratic and entrepreneurial processes which together created the UFFI problem. My concern is not to fix blame, and I have chosen not to draw conclusions in respect of the doctrinal and policy issues which I discuss. Rather, I have attempted to describe the regulatory process which was associated with the development of the product, and to discuss the role of the courts in reviewing …

The Relationship Of Contractual Remedies To Political And Social Status: A Preliminary Inquiry, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This paper has, then, two major themes. In the first part I hope to elucidate the relationship of political, legal, and social status associated with land ownership to the unique legal remedies - specific performance and non-recovery of damages - which society created in respect to exchanges of land (and thus exchanges of status) for money. In the conclusion I examine the transformation of legal rules applied to agreements in which labour is exchanged for money. If, in fact, property rules in contract evolved in response to the political, legal, and social attributes of land ownership, then one may be …

Comment On The Plain English Movement, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this comment is to demonstrate that plain English contracts may carry more risks than benefits; the approach may, in fact, present a regressive stage in the evolution of consumer law.

The Canadian Corporation And Wall Street: Application Of United States Securities Laws To Canadian Issuers, Merril Sobie

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to present the Canadian legal practitioner with a summary of those sections of American securities laws which are applicable to foreign issuers. Discussion, for the most part, will be limited to a brief outline of the more salient aspects of securities regulation; a complete presentation of any one feature would be impossible within the confines of a single article. Wherever possible, relevant authorities will be cited and counsel would be wise to examine their more detailed treatment. Moreover, though federal legislation in this area is not exclusive, discussion will be limited to the national …