Law and Society Commons^™

A New International Legal Regime For A New Reality In The War Against Drugs, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

The paper reviews the existing international legal regime on the war against drugs and argues that it has become obsolete in the face of the trend to legalize the consumption of certain drugs, such as marijuana, in developed nations. It particularly analyzes the contradictory practice of the United States to pressure producing states, such as Mexico and Colombia, to enforce the regime and at the same time allow the legalization of consumption in local U.S. states.

Teaching Public Policy Drafting In Law School: One Professor's Approach, Lisa A. Rich

Faculty Scholarship

This article provides an overview of the Drafting for Public Policy course offered at the Texas A&M University School of Law. The article addresses the theoretical and pedagogical underpinnings of the course, including how such a course easily encompasses the teaching of cultural context and awareness, as well as professional identity, and encourages students to engage deeply in the policymaking process. It also explores the continued relevance of the work of Harold D. Lasswell, as well as that of Myres McDougal and Anthony Kronman. These works, from 1943 and 1993 respectively, resonate now because they called on law schools to …

Causing A Racket: Unpacking The Elements Of Cultural Capital In An Assessment Of Urban Noise Control, Live Music, And The Quiet Enjoyment Of Private Property, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

I examine the tension between and the treatment of the elements of cultural capital within dynamic mixed-use spaces, and posit that Canada's current noise control and noise pollution legislation, by-laws, and case law demonstrate a hierarchical protection framework placing greater importance on the "quiet enjoyment of private property" over live music culture, where performances are often the subject of noise complaints. While the elements of cultural capital valued by those who favour the value of quiet enjoyment of private property is well represented throughout legislation, by-laws, and case law, the elements of cultural capital valued by those who favour the …

Welcome To The Revolution, Kim Brooks

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

If you were able to close your eyes in 1867 and open them in 2017, you’d find that Canada was a surprisingly different place. Women have made sure of that.

The revolution has come along two axes. First, there is the dramatic increase in women’s participation in every aspect of public life—from education to the paid workforce, to public office, to science and the arts. Second, there is the effect of that engagement on the way Canada has evolved. If you could close your eyes again, take women’s public participation out of the equation, and then open them, Canada would …

Next Up: A Proposal For Values-Based Law Reform On Unilateral Withholding And Withdrawal Of Potentially Life-Sustaining Treatment, Jocelyn Downie, Lindy Willmott, Ben White

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

As the legalization of assisted dying shifts from a project for law reform to one of implementation, the gaze for Canadian end of life law and policy academics and practitioners should be turned quickly to another pressing issue – the unilateral withholding and withdrawal of potentially life-sustaining treatment. What should happen when the health care team believes that treatment should not be provided and the patient’s loved ones believe that it should? While the future of end of life law and policy no doubt includes many other issues, this is an urgent and immediate horizon issue for Canada as well …

A Test For Freedom Of Conscience Under The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms: Regulating And Litigating Conscientious Refusals In Health Care, Jocelyn Downie, Francoise Baylis

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Conscientious refusal to provide insured health care services is a significant point of controversy in Canada, especially in reproductive medicine and end-of-life care. Some provincial and territorial legislatures have developed legislation or regulations, and some professional regulatory bodies have developed policies or guidelines, to better reconcile tensions between health care professionals’ conscience and patients’ access to health care services. As other groups attempt to draft standards and as challenges to existing standards head to court, the fact that the meaning of “freedom of conscience” under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is not yet settled will become ever more …

Should Medical Assistance In Dying Be Extended To Incompetent Patients With Dementia? Research Protocol Of A Survey Among Four Groups Of Stakeholders From Quebec, Canada, Gina Bravo, Claudie Rodrigue, Vincent Thériault, Marcel Arcand, Jocelyn Downie, Marie-France Dubois, Sharon Kaasalainen, Cees M. Hertogh, Sophie Pautex, Lieve Van Den Block

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Background: Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders affect a growing number of people worldwide. Quality of life is generally good in the early stages of these diseases. However, many individuals fear living through the advanced stages. Such fears are triggering requests for medical assistance in dying (MAiD) by patients with dementia. Legislation was recently passed in Canada and the province of Quebec allowing MAiD at the explicit request of a patient who meets a set of eligibility criteria, including competence. Some commentators have argued that MAiD should be accessible to incompetent patients as well, provided appropriate safeguards are in place. Governments …

Development Versus Preservation Interests In The Making Of A Music City: A Case Study Of Select Iconic Toronto Music Venues And The Treatment Of Their Intangible Cultural Heritage Value, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Urban redevelopment projects increasingly draw on culture as a tool for rejuvenating city spaces but, in doing so, can overemphasize the economic or exchange-value potential of a cultural space to the detriment of what was initially meaningful about a space—that which carries great cultural community wealth, use-value, or embodies a group’s intangible cultural heritage. Development and preservation interests illustrate this tension in terms of how cultural heritage— both tangible and intangible—is managed in the city. This article will turn to Toronto’s “Music City” strategy that is being deployed as part of a culture-focused urban redevelopment trend and Creative City planning …

Protecting Urban Spaces Of Intangible Cultural Heritage And Nighttime Community Subcultural Wealth: A Comparison Of International And National Strategies, The Agent Of Change Principle, And Creative Placekeeping, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Working towards an equality of differences of a city’s diverse cultures and subcultures requires an examination of the realities of how municipal and provincial legal frameworks governing the city space—such as urban planning policies, zoning decisions, and bylaw enforcement—play out within the microcosm of the everyday neighborhood, where conflicting life patterns must coexist even when they are at odds. Drawing on an urban legal anthropology and urban legal geography methodology assessing the realities of the life of subcultural communities in the city space, this paper’s objective is to explore potential paths towards an equitable regard and valuation of the different …

Money Norms, Julia Y. Lee

Faculty Scholarship

Money norms present a fundamental contradiction. Norms embody the social sphere, a system of internalized values, unwritten rules, and shared expectations that informally govern human behavior. Money, on the other hand, evokes the economic sphere of markets, prices, and incentives. Existing legal scholarship keeps the two spheres distinct. Money is assumed to operate as a medium of exchange or as a tool for altering the payoffs of different actions. When used to make good behavior less costly and undesirable behavior more costly, money functions to incentivize, sanction, and deter. Although a rich literature on the expressive function of law exists, …

The Supreme Court Of Canada And Federalism: Does / Should Anyone Care Anymore?, A. Wayne Mackay

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Federalism is still a relevant and vital aspect of Canadian Constitutional Law. Although a lower profile aspect than the Charter of Rights and Aboriginal rights (and in common parlance less "sexy"), the division of powers continues to an important part of the work of the Supreme Court of Canada and part of what defines us as a nation. The author argues that the Supreme Court has pursued an increasingly contextualized approach to division of powers issues - one that abandons the arid legalism of earlier days, in favour of a broad social analysis of issues based on extensive use of …

Addressing Cultural Bias In The Legal Profession, Debra Chopp

Articles

Over the past two decades, there has been an outpouring of scholarship that explores the problem of implicit bias. Through this work, commentators have taken pains to define the phenomenon and to describe the ways in which it contributes to misunderstanding, discrimination, inequality, and more. This article addresses the role of implicit cultural bias in the delivery of legal services. Lawyers routinely represent clients with backgrounds and experiences that are vastly different from their own, and the fact of these differences can impede understanding, communication, and, ultimately, effective representation. While other professions, such as medicine and social work, have adopted …

Is The Future Of Law A Driverless Car? Assessing How The Data Analytics Revolution Will Transform Legal Practice, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

Machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies (“data analytics”) are quickly transforming research and practice in law, raising questions of whether the law can survive as a vibrant profession for natural persons to enter. In this article, I argue that data analytics approaches are overwhelmingly likely to continue to penetrate law, even in domains that have heretofore been dominated by human decision makers. As a vehicle for demonstrating this claim, I describe an extended example of using machine learning to identify and categorize fiduciary duty waiver provisions in publicly disclosed corporate documents. Notwithstanding the power of machine learning techniques, however, I …

Vulnerability And Inevitable Inequality, Martha Albertson Fineman

Faculty Articles

The abstract legal subject of liberal Western democracies fails to reflect the fundamental reality of the human condition, which is vulnerability. While it is universal and constant, vulnerability is manifested differently in individuals, often resulting in significant differences in position and circumstance. In spite of such differences, political theory positions equality as the foundation for law and policy, and privileges autonomy, independence and self-sufficiency. This article traces the origins and development of a critical legal theory that brings human vulnerability to the fore in assessing individual and state responsibility and redefining the parameters of social justice. The theory arose in …

The Washington Redskins Case And The Search For Dignity, Victoria Phillips

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

INTRODUCTION: For more than sixty years, Native American activists have been involved in discussions and protests over the appropriation and use of tribal references in sports names, logos, and mascots. During this same period, many of these uses have since been changed, driven by civil rights struggles and a growing awareness of the proven social harms and racism inherent in these references. Despite a gradual movement towards abolition and evolving signs of cultural understanding, many mascots invoking Native names and imagery persist today across professional, collegiate, and local school district sports. These mascots and team names, and the trademarks associated …

Narratives Of Self Government In Making The Case, Benjamin Berger

Articles & Book Chapters

This is a book about persuasion. In Making the Case: The Art of the Judicial Opinion, Paul Kahn draws the judicial opinion into the centre of our field of vision and invites us to join him in inquiring into the role that it plays shaping our legal and political communities, and in seeking to understand how it does its work. Ultimately, he shows that persuasion is at the heart of the judicial opinion and, with that, at the heart of the rule of law.

Voice And Exit As Accountability Mechanisms: Can Foot-Voting Be Made Safe For The Chinese Communist Party?, Roderick M. Hills Jr., Shitong Qiao

Faculty Scholarship

According to Albert 0. Hirschman's famous dichotomy, citizens can express their preferences with their "voice" (by voting with ballots to elect better representatives) or by "exit" (by voting with their feet to choose better places to live). Suppose, however, that ballot-voting is ineffective: Can exit not merely aid but also replace voice? Using the People's Republic of China, a party state without elective democracy as a case study, we argue that exit is not a substitute for, but rather a complement to, voice. China's bureaucratic promotion system plays the same role that local elections do in the United States, promoting …

Markets And Sovereignty, Joseph Blocher, Mitu Gulati

Faculty Scholarship

The past few decades have witnessed the growth of an exciting debate in the legal academy about the tensions between economic pressures to commodify and philosophical commitments to the market inalienability of certain items. Sex, organs, babies, and college athletics are among the many topics that have received attention. The debates often have proceeded, however, as if they involve markets on one side and the state on the other, with the relevant question being the ways in which the latter can or should try to facilitate, restrict, or rely on the former. In this article, we approach the relationship between …

Aggressive Encounters & White Fragility: Deconstructing The Trope Of The Angry Black Woman, Trina Jones, Kimberly Jade Norwood

Faculty Scholarship

Black women in the United States are the frequent targets of bias-filled interactions in which aggressors: (1) denigrate Black women; and (2) blame those women who elect to challenge the aggressor’s acts and the bias that fuels them. This Article seeks to raise awareness of these “aggressive encounters” and to challenge a prevailing narrative about Black women and anger. It examines the myriad circumstances (both professional and social) in which aggressive encounters occur and the ways in which these encounters expose gender and racial hierarchies. It then explores how the intersectional nature of Black women’s identities triggers a particularized stereotype …

What If The International Criminal Court Could Prosecute President Al-Assad For The Chemical Weapon Attacks In Ghouta?, Paul Cho

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.