bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The New Legal Scholarship: Problems and Prospects.
Authors: Hagan John
Published: July 2014

Legal scholarship has changed dramatically in this century. Early in this century, legal scholarship found form and coherence in a method of study and teaching often referred to as the doctrinal approach. This approach placed its emphasis on the determination of rules, principles and procedures through the detailed analysis of cases — a method that goes back at least as far as Langdell's reforms at the Harvard Law School. There can be little debate as to the professional success of this approach to legal scholarship. It provided a method for teaching and for the writing of legal treatises and law review articles that endures to this day.

Yet if there was a purity to this methodological emphasis on “law in the books,” there was also an incompleteness that led others to call for research on the “law in action.” Often known as the legal realist movement, and best documented in its emergence at the Yale Law School, this approach to legal scholarship called attention to gaps between doctrine and practice. It is interesting to note that both the traditional doctrinal approach and legal realism were eager to claim the mantle of science. In doing so, the doctrinal approach focused on recorded cases as its units for observation and analysis, while the realists moved beyond these official accounts to examine the way the law actually was applied and affected people's lives. The realist's point was that the law often only affected social life indirectly and that doctrine frequently affected society in uncertain and unanticipated ways.
Using Process Theory to Explain Judicial Decision Making.
Authors: Baar Carl
Published: July 2014

This article is part of an effort to place current research on the Canadian judicial process into a broader theoretical context. This effort developed first from a sense that the legal and behavioural frameworks that have dominated the explanation of judicial decision making in the United States Supreme Court obscure more than they illuminate about judicial decision making in Canada; and second from the realization that the most illuminating American studies — those that trace the process by which major cases are brought before the courts and decided — are seen as interesting but atheoretical, as journalism not science. Perhaps our theory is out of joint. And perhaps an effort to understand how American theories and research on judicial decision making can inform Canadian research may be instructive both to American judicial studies and to the work of those outside the United States who are continually tugged toward American approaches that promise liberation from traditional legal analysis.
Human Dignity and the Psychology of Interrogation in Miranda v. Arizona.
Authors: Manfredi Christopher
Published: July 2014

Miranda v. Arizona, holding confessions obtained during police interrogation inadmissable unless preceded by a full and specific disclosure of a suspect's rights, is perhaps the best known U.S. Supreme Court decision on due process. The decision was built on the twin pillars of human dignity and free will. The Court determined that the intent of the Fifth Amendment is to protect human dignity, and argued that dignity is jeopardized by state actions whose effect is to diminish free will. Consequently, the Court extended the restrictions on police investigators it had been developing since Bram v. United States. In that decision, the Court ruled that confessions could not “be extracted by any sort of threats or violence, nor obtained by any direct or implied promises, however slight, nor by the exertion of any improper influence.” In Miranda, the Court attached the widest possible meaning to “improper influence,” ruling that interrogation is, in itself, an influence against which suspects must be protected by procedural safeguards. It is instructive to reflect on these issues at a time when similar questions are being raised in Canadian courts under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
From Subversion to Liberation: Homosexuals and the Immigration Act 1952–1977.
Authors: Girard Philip
Published: July 2014

Historians of the Cold War have tended to focus on the repression of political dissidents during that period, but only recently has attention been shifted to the simultaneous suppression of other types of non-conformity, such as sexual variance and non-traditional gender roles. Parallel to the repression of internal political dissent which accompanied the international Cold War, another, more subtle, campaign was proceeding. This was the attempt to re-establish the social order, based on family life and traditional sex roles, which the war had tended to undermine.
Education as a Basic Human Right: A Response to Special Education and the Charter.
Authors: MacKay A. Wayne , Krinke Gordon
Published: July 2014

“Special Education and theCharter: The Right to Equal Benefit of the Law” is an excellent article on the provincial statutory regimes and their relationship to s. 15 of theCharter. It surveys the legislatures' attempts at delivering education to students and highlights the shortcomings in these attempts, focussing on the inability or unwillingness of the legislatures to provide an appropriate education to mentally disabled individuals. The article then takes a prospective approach, illustrating how a generous interpretation of s. 15 of theChartermight be used to correct deficiencies in educational statutes. Both the survey of statute law and the commentary on its relationship to the equality provisions of theCharterprovide a valuable addition to scholarly writing on the provision of appropriate education to the mentally disabled.

However, there is some danger in assuming that the right to education derives solely from statute. Statutes are creations of legislatures. If the right to education exists only in these statutes, education may be viewed not as the right of every child, but as a privilege bestowed by the legislature, to be determined by administrators, and to be overseen only as a last resort by the courts.
The Role of Law in Social Transformation: Is a Jurisprudence of Insurgency Possible?.
Authors: Brickey Stephen , Comack Elizabeth
Published: July 2014

Contemporary Marxist theorizing on law has produced a number of different ways of conceptualizing the class character of law within a capitalist society. The main focus of these approaches has largely been on the role of law in maintaining and reproducing an unequal, exploitative system. As a consequence, the issue, even the possibility of using law as a mechanism for securing substantial social change has been downplayed and, in some cases, precluded.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for a rethinking of law, especially in terms of its potential as an agent for social transformation. The discussion will be divided into two main sections. The first involves theoretical considerations. Problems encountered with existing approaches to law vis-à-vis their implications for change will be examined and the direction in which a theoretical reformulation might proceed will be outlined. The second involves practical considerations. Here the focus will be on the kinds of legal strategies and particular forms and conditions of law that could be extended or developed in order to move in the direction of a socialist society.
Should Imprisoned Criminals have a Constitutional Right to Vote?.
Authors: Planinc Zdravko
Published: July 2014

Section 3 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms sets out the democratic rights of Canadian citizens.

Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein.

Donald Smiley has written that “some of the rights contained in the Charter are stated so explicitly that there is little doubt about their meaning and effect,” and that section 3 is one of the best examples of such clarity. But Smiley was wrong. The “meaning and effect” of section 3 has been thrown into doubt by the question whether its guarantee of the right to vote extends to imprisoned criminals. Newfoundland obviously thinks that it does, for in The Charter of Rights Amendment Act 1985, it repealed the traditional prohibition of prisoner voting. Other jurisdictions have chosen to retain the legal prohibition and to defend it against constitutional challenges mounted by inmates of Canadian prisons. The issue is probably headed for the Supreme Court, which will have to decide whether prisoners are full “citizens” within the meaning of section 3, and, if they are, whether a limit on their right to vote can be justified under section 1 as a “reasonable limit, demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society.”
The Impact of the Change in Legal Metropolis on the Development of Lower Canada's Legal System: Judicial Chaos and Legislative Paralysis in the Civil Law, 1791–1838.
Authors: Kolish Evelyn
Published: July 2014

This paper contends that the chaos and uncertainty characteristic of the administration of the civil law in Lower Canada resulted fundamentally from the impact of the change in legal metropolis on the process of transfer and adaptation of a European legal system to a colonial setting, in a context of ethnic or national struggle for hegemony. After a brief look at the situation existing under the Quebec Act and the explanations previously offered, the paper examines the functioning of the two major mechanisms of legal adaptation or reform--legislation and jurisprudence--in order to analyse their failure to reduce judicial chaos between 1791 and 1840. Ethnic conflict combined with the change of metropolis acted to prevent any modernization of the law not inspired by English legal principles and thus effectively eliminated the possibility of legislative reform of the laws. In this context, a predominantly British judiciary became the prime avenue for anglicizing Canadian law and thereby increasing rather than decreasing the existing uncertainty and confusion in the administration of the civil law.
Deux journées dans la vie du droit: Georges Gurvitch et Ian R. Macneil.
Authors: Belley Jean-Guy
Published: July 2014

Entre 1930 et 1945, Georges Gurvitch a consacré plusieurs ouvrages à l'élaboration de sa “théorie du droit social.” Depuis 1968, Ian R. Macneil développe sa “théorie relationnelle du contrat.” Leur ambition commune était de dépasser la pensée juridique dominante en révélant comment et pourquoi elle ignore arbitrairement certains aspects fondamentaux de la réalité sociale du droit et du contrat. Malgré leurs mérites exceptionnels, ces deux théories n'ont à ce jour exerçé aucune influence significative dans la communauté des juristes. Cet échec repose sur deux raisons fondamentales. La premère tient au fait que Gurvitch et Macneil ont accordé une priorité inconditionnelle à l'objectif de la connaissance sur celui de l'action en cherchant à rendre compte systématiquement de la complexité de la réalité sociale du droit et du contrat. La théorie juridique dominante se soumet, au contraire, aux exigences de simplification logique du pragmatisme politique et professional. L'échec de Gurvitch et Macneil s'explique, d'autre part, par les idéaux de solidarité et d'autonomie qui inspirent leurs théories tandis que la plupart des juristes adhèrent encore à une conception autoritaire du droit et de la société.
Droit, pouvoir et sciences humaines dans la pensée de Michel Foucault.
Authors: Laforest Guy
Published: July 2014

Michel Foucault a été l'un des grands penseurs français du vingtième siècle, l'un des maîtres du soupçon à propos de notre civilisation. Ceux qui oeuvrent dans les domaines du droit et des sciences humaines sont conviés par lui à réfléchir sur la généalogie de leur champ respectif d'activité. En particulier, Foucault a remis en question l'aptitude du principal modèle juridique, celui de la souveraineté, à rendre compte du champ des relations de pouvoir au début de la modernité. Il s'est penché sur le façonnement des individus et des populations à travers une série de pratiques disciplinaires et régulatrices. Ces dernières auraient par ailleurs été impensables sans l'étroite collaboration des sciences humaines naissantes. Pour Foucault, les praticiens du droit et des sciences humaines se rejoignent dans la productivité ontologique du bio-pouvoir. Pour contrer une telle alliance, il faut d'abord prendre lucidement conscience de sa puissance.
Conflict, Compromise and Administrative Convenience: The Police Organization in Nineteenth-Century Toronto.
Authors: Boritch Helen
Published: July 2014

Recent historical scholarship has stressed the importance of dominant political and economic interest groups in shaping the organization and role of nineteenth-century police institutions. While acknowledging the necessity of developing macro-structural interpretations of police development, this paper argues that a comprehensive understanding of policing requires greater attention to organizational concerns with legitimation, self-maintenance and self-determination as intervening variables in the evolution of urban police forces. Using data on policing in nineteenth-century Toronto, emphasis is placed on delineating the process by which police administrators sought to achieve insulation from external sources of control and to act as independent agents of change and innovation in the structure and functions of policing.
The Canadian Temperance Movement: Contemporary Parallels.
Authors: Schweighofer Anton R.F.
Published: July 2014

The similarities between the Canadian temperance movement and the contemporary war on drugs are examined. The similarities in rhetorical, educational, social and political tactics suggest that contemporary anti-drug policy relies on techniques Canadians rejected sixty years ago when they rejected alcohol prohibition. A rethinking of contemporary drug policy is therefore in order.
La constitutionnalisation de l'égalité.
Authors: Simard Carolle
Published: July 2014

Le principe rigide de l'égalité peut être imposé par le hasard ou par une nécessité extérieure, mais les hommes capables de soupeser chacun, comme dans une balance, et d'attribuer, selon leur bon plaisir et leur appréciation, aux uns plus, aux autres moins, de tels hommes devraient soit descendre de surhommes, soit être soutenus par une terreur surnaturelle.
Law and Ethics: Opportunistic Infections of Medical Practice?.
Authors: Burgess Michael M.
Published: July 2014

The medical profession is in a crisis due to the increasing awareness of pluralism and the rejection of “community standards of practice” as a principle ethically and legally sufficient to govern medical practice. Historically, professional peer-review and appeals to local medical community standards of practice have been the basis for managing legal and ethical disputes. It was rare for patients or courts to challenge the authority and autonomy of the profession. This was the legacy of an earlier, less pluralistic society. Monolithic societies have a common or authoritative set of moral values, usually founded on a religious structure and institution, so that the moral limits of any type of practice, including medical practice, are well understood. We no longer live in such a society.
Law, Ideology and Corporate Crime: A Critique of Instrumentalism.
Authors: Sargent Neil
Published: July 2014

The paper explores the limitations of class instrumentalist analyses of law in accounting for the failure of the criminal justice system to control corporate crime. The first part of the paper examines current theoretical perspectives in Canadian corporate crime research, with particular emphasis on the class instrumentalist analyses of law which predominate in the literature. The remainder of the paper seeks to develop a critical analysis of corporate crime which avoids the reductionism of such class instrumentalist analyses. In particular, it is argued that attempts to theorize the failure of the criminal justice system to respond to corporate crime require investigation not only of external factors influencing the enactment and enforcement of legislation, but also of the manner in which ideological discourses are articulated through the form and content of criminal law in such a way as to reproduce the popular consent for the differential treatment of suite and street crime. Failure to problematize the ideological role of criminal law in legitimating the differential treatment of corporate and street crime is likely to undermine attempts to make corporate offenders more accountable for their illegal behaviour by further criminalizing certain types of corporate behaviour.
Critical Legal Education: Paralysis with a Purpose.
Authors: Cassels Jamie , Maloney Maureen
Published: July 2014

This essay explores the possibilities within Canadian legal education for the development of critical skills, attitudes and practices. It examines the structure and organizational culture of law school, and analyses the assumptions underlying the dominant model of legal knowledge. The conclusion drawn is that at every level, legal education teaches political values, and rewards personal characteristics that are conducive to the preservation of the status quo and which serve to marginalize critical knowledge and practice. The final section considers and commends several modest efforts to make some room for the critical analysis which is so lacking in legal education.
Federalism, Ideology, and Charter Review: Alberta's Response to Morgentaler.
Authors: Urquhart Ian T.
Published: July 2014

In the inaugural volume of this journal Peter Russell of the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto noted that the political science community, after nearly fifty years of blindness to judicial power, had begun to regain an appreciation of the courts' political significance. Despite this reawakening, certain legal subjects very germane to political science still tend to be the preserve of legal academics. One such subject is judicial review, more specifically the impact of judicial review upon policy outcomes. To date, arguably the most detailed and valuable commentary on this topic is offered by a legal scholar, Patrick Monahan. InPolitics and the Constitution, Monahan suggests that judicial review is not as universally consequential as we might expect. For him, the instrumental impact of judicial review varies according to whether it is based on the law of federalism or on theCharter of Rights. He believes that, for reasons to be outlined shortly,Charterreview is likely to have a greater substantive impact than federalism review. In this article, I use a discussion of Alberta's reaction to the 1988 decision inMorgentaler, Smoling, and Scott v. The Queento question this conclusion. This decision on abortion provides an excellent example of how federalism may temper the substantive impact ofCharterreview. The reaction of Alberta to the Court's judgement demonstrates how the intergovernmental interdependence typical of Canadian federalism may dilute or at the very least delay the consequences ofCharterreview for policy outcomes.
Medicare, Meech Lake, and the Federal Spending Power.
Authors: Barker Paul
Published: July 2014

In the spring of 1987, Canada's first ministers agreed to a package of proposals for reforming major elements of the country's constitution. The package, which has come to be known as the Meech Lake Accord, contains a number of significant provisions, one of which deals with the federal spending power and national shared-cost programs. This provision stipulates that the federal government must compensate provinces that decline to participate in future national sharedcost programs, but immediately adds that such compensation is conditional upon the non-participating provinces establishing “a program or initiative that is compatible with the national objectives.”

The provision has led to a great deal of debate and discussion. Of special interest, and concern for some, has been the possible effect of the provision on the capacity of the federal government to use its spending power to set up national shared-cost programs. Some contend that Ottawa's capacity would be severely restricted or even eliminated by the provision. Others claim that it would have little or no impact, that the Accord would simply constitutionalize present practices. These conflicting views on the implications of the Meech Lake Accord for shared-cost programs doubtless flow from many sources, but a major one appears to be differing views on thepresentability of Ottawa to establish these types of arrangements.
The Possibilities and Perils of Legal Studies
Authors: Sargent Neil
Published: July 2014

The paper explores the possibilities and perils of an interdisciplinary approach to legal studies emerging as an alternative intellectual paradigm to the doctrinal tradition within legal scholarship. The privileged status accorded to the doctrinal tradition within the legal academy is sustained by its continued importance in providing a link between law as a field of intellectual inquiry and law as a field of professional practice. Despite the promise of a more pluralistic intellectual climate within the legal academy, it seems unlikely that an interdisciplinary approach to legal studies will succeed in challenging the preeminence of legal doctrine as the primary source of professional-knowledge claims about law. At the same time, however, any attempt to claim legal studies as a separate field of intellectual inquiry outside the legal academy confronts many of the same doubts about the nature of law as a unitary object of knowledge as the doctrinal tradition from which it seeks to distance itself. The paradox of the legal studies project is that whenever it tries to free itself from the embrace of the doctrinal tradition, it confronts epistemological doubts about the conditions for its own existence. It appears, therefore, that the legal studies project is destined to continue its labours in the shadow of the law.
Communities in Conflict: The School Prayer in West Germany, the United States and Canada
Authors: Waltman Jerold
Published: July 2014

Three remarkably similar court cases involving prayers in public schools have been decided in Germany, the United States, and Canada, all of which illustrate the issue of communities in conflict. Comparing these cases is especially pertinent for Canadian jurisprudence inasmuch as community has been trumpeted as important for giving life to the Charter. Developing four options for religiously plural federal societies, this article shows how these three countries each choose different routes, and how these choices relate to history and culture. Further, it points out that an emphasis on community in Charter interpretation is in tension with itself.
Labour and Arbitration in the Mowat Era
Authors: MacCallum Margaret E.
Published: July 2014

The Liberal government of Oliver Mowat, which held office in Ontario from 1872 to 1896, experimented with legislation providing for a formal arbitration structure to resolve labour disputes. Although labour had not requested the initial legislation, in the context of employer resistance to labour organizations, arbitration was viewed by some labour leaders as one way to get the employer to the bargaining table. Since Mowat's legislation did not compel the submission of disputes to arbitration, it was of little use in achieving this goal. Nonetheless, the legislation was used by the Mowat government as evidence of its commitment to equal justice for all classes.
Les dangers du secret: note sur l'État canadien et les sociétés secrètes au milieu du 19e siècle
Authors: Fecteau Jean-Marie
Published: July 2014

Au milieu du 19e siècle canadien, époque où se met définitivement en place l'ordre politique libéral, la question du maintien de l'ordre public revêt une importance particulière. La détermination de la légitimité démocratique oblige en effet à redéfinir les limites au sein desquelles pourront s'exprimer les libertés civiles. Où la liberté d'expression devient-elle appel à la sédition? Jusqu' à quel point la liberté de s'assembler peut-elle aller sans prendre les formes de l'émeute ou de la rébellion? Quand le droit d'association peut-il se pervertir en complot contre l'État? C'est à ces questions que s'adresse avant tout le premier cabinet réformiste lorsque, en 1843, sous l'impulsion de Baldwin, il présente trois projets de loi touchant les assemblées publiques, les processions et les sociétes secrètes. Cet article analyse les conditions dans lesquelles ces projets de loi furent présentés et débattus, étudie leur teneur, et essaie de prendre la mesure de lews implications pour l'ordre politique naissant.
Vers de nouveaux droits humains? L'argument de la dérive
Authors: Duhamel André
Published: July 2014

Il est souvent affirmé que la reconnaissance juridique de nouveaux droits humains de «troisième génération» entraînerait une dévaluation, une dérive des droits en tant que tels. Je montre que ce genre d'argument 1) est circulaire, présupposant la légitimité juridique des seuls droits existants, 2) est récurrent dans l'histoire et intrinsèque au discours moderne des droits. J'avance en conclusion l'hypothèse que l'argument exprime une crainte face au potentiel de la démocratie politique.
Pour une approche légaliste et non réductionniste des droits moraux
Authors: Couture Jocelyne
Published: July 2014

La critique des droits moraux témoigne d'un dilemme apparemment incontournable: ou bien affirmer le caractère opérationnel de ces droits, les soumettre à des exigences de positivité mais souscrire, ce faisant, au conventionnalisme en matière de morale ou bien insister sur la cohésion morale d'un systime de droits et se rallier à des entères fondationnels, mais satisfaire, ce faisant, de droits moraux dépourvus d'efficace pratique. Le présent article a pour but de montrer qu'en s'inspirant d'un modèle du fonctionnement des systèmes légaux, il est possible de concilier le cohérentisme en ce qui regarde l'émergence des droits moraux et le positivisme en ce qui regarde leurs conditions d'application. L'argument présuppose une analogie entre systèmes légaux et systèmes moraux en tant que pratiques sociales rationnellement déterminées, mais il n'implique pas que les droits moraux soient réductibles à des droits légaux.
Rights and Consequences: It All Depends
Authors: Nielsen Kai
Published: July 2014

It is argued that there are no moral or legal rights that may never rightly be overridden no matter what the consequences. There are human rights which are inalienable while still being rightly overrideable in certain circumstances. Even rights-based constructivist accounts of human rights do not provide a grounding for morality that escapes consequentialist critique. But the proper form of consequentialism is a weak form of consequentialism which is distinguished from utilitarian consequentialism.
La normativité nucléaire: Quelques réflexions
Authors: Boustany Katia
Published: July 2014

La technologie nucléaire a très tôt fait l'objet d'un encadrement juridique international et national, dont l'objet, pour l'essentiel, est de répondre aux spécificités d'un ensemble d'activités à forte composante de risque. Toutefois, le caractère souvent dérogatoire au droit commun que revêt la normativité nucléaire soulève de nombreuses interrogations relatives aux rapports entre l'ordre juridique et l'ordre technologique, notamment en matière d'adéquation du processus normatif aux valeurs sociales contemporaines (environnement et droits fondamentaux). En outre, la place majeure occupée par les experts scientifiques au niveau de l'éaboration et de la formulation des normales applicables au secteur nucléaire peut, à certains égards, affecter l'équilibre des pouvoirs et des organes étatiques quant à l'exercice de la démocratie. L'analyse et la comparaison de diverses situations nationales, à travers des pratiques différenciées du droit, montre que de nouveaux modèles de régulation des rapports entre la techno-industrie, la société et les instances politiques devraient être pensés pour répondre aux préoccupations exprimées à l'égard des activités civiles nucléaires.
Theses on Access to Justice
Authors: Macdonald Roderick A.
Published: July 2014

In June 1989, the Minister of Justice of Quebec announced the creation of a Groupe de travail sur l'accessibilité à la justice (unofficially, a Task Force on Access to Justice) charged with evaluating the effectiveness of the Quebec Legal Aid Programme and other measures to make justice more accessible to the population at large. The Task Force submitted its Final Report, entitled Jalons pour une plus grande accessibilité à la justice, in September 1991. This essay offers a critical review of the deliberations of the Task Force, including an assessment of how the Task Force initially conceived its mandate, and the processes by which its Final Report was generated. The essay also attempts to situate the recommendations set out in the Final Report within the broader context of North American access to justice theory. Finally, the essay presents various theses about the relationship between legal theory and the outcome of structurally independent deliberative bodies that are subject to the pull of the policy audience.
La médiation et les concepts de garde au Canada
Authors: Cano Marlène
Published: July 2014

Au Canada, la médiation connaît un essor grandissant surtout depuis les années 1970. Des auteurs soutiennent que la médiation offre plusieurs avantages tels que la réduction des coûts émotifs et financiers d'une séparation. Cet intérêt croissant se révèle à la lecture de nombreux ouvrages sur le sujet et à la mise sur pied des programmes rattachés aux tribunaux. De plus, certaines législations réfèrent à la médiation, sans toutefois la réglementer directement. Cette attention portée par l'État à la médiation dissimule, peut-être, une préoccupation pécuniaire. Malgré ses apparences progressives, l'intervention de l'État dans ce secteur nous préoccupe. Vise-t-on essentiellement à économiser les deniers publics sans égard aux plus démunis? Et qu' en est-il du caractère «privé» du processus de médiation et des ententes qui en découlent? N'y a-t-il pas là le risque d'agir au détriment de la partie la plus faible? C'est pourquoi, en dépit des avantages apparents de la médiation, il est important d'en examiner la teneur sous un oeil critique.

Il sera question du processus de médiation, du rôle et de la formation des médiatrices. Ensuite, les concepts de garde dans les systèmes de droit civil et de common law canadiens seront examinés. Nous procéderons à une analyse critique de la médiation, en mentionnant l'importance de prendre en compte le phénomène de la violence conjugale. La toile de fond consiste à souligner que, malgré les lois en droit de la famille conférant l'égalité formelle entre conjoints, l'égalité véritable n'est pas acquise dans notre société.
Prohibition's Legacy: The Emergence of Provincial Policing in Nova Scotia, 1921–1932
Authors: Phyne John
Published: July 2014

The Depression is usually cited as the reason for the origins of provincial policing in Nova Scotia. This neglects the period preceding the Depression. In particular, the struggle to enforce prohibition between 1921 and 1929 resulted in the centralization of social control in Nova Scotia. Provincial policing became the unintentional public policy success of the prohibition era. A centralized temperance inspectorate formed the foundation of provincial policing. Moreover, between 1930 and 1932, the Nova Scotia Police was established to enforce the Nova Scotia Liquor Control Act which, in turn, generated revenue on behalf of an emerging welfare state. In the final analysis, provincial policing was influenced by middle-class prohibitionists, but it ultimately reflected the interests of state bureaucrats.
Adhesion to Canadian Indian Treaties and the Lubicon Lake Dispute
Authors: Flanagan Thomas
Published: July 2014

Research shows that adhesions to the numbered treaties were of two types: “internal” and “external.” In an internal adhesion, a band living within the previously ceded area agreed to the terms of the treaty, and no new transfer of land was involved. In an external adhesion, a band living outside the previously ceded area agreed to the terms of the treaty, thus adding a previously unceded piece of territory to the treaty area.

This distinction is essential to understanding the long-running Lubicon Lake dispute. From the federal government's point of view, all of northern Alberta was ceded in Treaty Eight; so the Lubicons, who live within this area, are entitled to make only an internal adhesion. In contrast, the Lubicons claim to live on unceded land and thus demand to make an external adhesion. Their claim to possess unextinguished aboriginal title to a specific tract of land is used to justify demands for compensation that would not be paid in the case of an internal adhesion.
Collective Punishment: Criminological Assessment: A Reply to Lipnowski's “A Partial Rehabilitation of the Principle of Collective Punishment”
Authors: Brodeur Jean-Paul
Published: July 2014

One of the former members of the U.S. Sentencing Commission was an economist who proposed the following reasoning during a conference on sentencing held in Ottawa in 1988. Since there was no doubt that doubling all fares for air travel would result, at least momentarily, in fewer customers using air transportation, it was presumed to follow at least as clearly that noticeably increasing the punishment for crime would result in fewer persons willing to engage in crime. What the economist had overlooked was that the probability that you would have to pay for your plane ticket at the increased rate is very high; actually, you cannot fly unless you have bought a ticket. In contrast, the probability that a criminal will be caught and suffer the consequences of his or her behavior is perceived to be rather low in the case of most criminals, and with regard to certain crimes, such as break and enter, is actually quite low. Hence, increasing criminal punishments will not deter criminals as automatically as raising the cost of air travel will deter potential customers.
Do Women Judges Make a Difference? An Analysis by Appeal Court Data
Authors: McCormick Peter , Job Twyla
Published: July 2014

Given the recent penetration of the judicial profession by women, and concomitant speculation about the possible impact of women judges upon judicial decision-making, the authors examine criminal appeals to the Alberta Court of Appeal between 1985 and 1992 to address in general statistical terms the parameters of the participation of women judges. The results suggest that there is little statistically identifiable difference in the performance of men and women judges, even on specific issues such as sexual assault offenses, and what modest differences can be found are in the opposite direction from those suggested by comparable research in the United States
Hypotheses, Statistics, and Women Judges: A Response
Authors: McCormick Peter , Job Twyla
Published: July 2014

As recipients of a “Comment” longer than our own article, we cannot help being reminded of Abraham Lincoln's story about the man who was being tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. Queried by a bystander, the man replied: “Actually, if it wasn't for the honor of the thing, I'd rather walk.” We appreciate the courtesy of the Journal in permitting us to make a brief nonfeminist response to a self-described feminist critique of a nonfeminist article.

We have, of course, the same ultimate destination as Ms. Brockman, that being some empirically grounded understanding of whether, and if so how, the participation of women judges is changing the judicial system. This is a very large and a very important question; our immediate and much more modest purpose, as our opening comments stressed, was “to assess one fragment of the accumulating evidence.” It seemed to us that it would have been important to know if women trial judges were reversed far more often than men, or if the performance of women appeal judges differed from that of their male colleagues in some way that could be generally characterized and linked to gender. This being so, it seemed just as important—although much less exciting—to report that there is (in one province, over a limited number of years, on criminal cases only) no clear indication of either of these trends.
Teaching Critically within a Modern Legal Genre
Authors: Conklin William E.
Published: July 2014

This paper argues that the effort to teach law critically from the external viewpoint reinforces the ideological and social function of a professional law school in a modern state. One should realize that law is a language, a secondary language that conceals suffering as it parasitically assimilates all primary discourses. The professional law school of a modern state aids in the production of such concealment. Examples are offered from different areas of legal discourse as well as from the author's experiences. The suffering arises from the concealment of the languages of embodied subjects, whose harm can only be recognized through the chains of authoritative signifiers that the professor pro-fesses. The secondary legal language either excludes the primary languages or redefines the subject's experience. Further, the legal language is inculcated into the subject's language to the point that the citizen must identify with the secondary legal language or, if not, may be authoritatively en-forced to do so. The second sense of suffering aggravates the first.
Présentation/Presentation
Authors: Sansfaçon Daniel
Published: July 2014

Malgré toutes les concessions que je serais disposé à faire au préjugé monogamique, je n'admettrai jamais que l'on parle d'une égalité de droits en amour chez l'homme et la femme, cela n'existe pas. […] [I] I appartient aux conditions de l'amour chez les deux sexes que l'un ne présuppose pas chez l'autre le même sentiment, la même notion d' «amour» (Nietzsche, Le Gai Savoir).
Whores and Worthies: Feminism and Prostitution
Authors: McGinnis Janice Dickin
Published: July 2014

Feminism has a particular problem in dealing with questions of sexuality. This is directly tied to the fact that it is our sexuality which has so often been used to deny us rights. Our ambivalence has led some of us to make strange choices. For instance, some of us have joined with conservatives, our natural enemies, campaigning against pornography. This paper looks at another area in which conflicts within the feminist philosophy have worked to confuse our responses and allowed them to be used to undermine the very people we proclaim ourselves the protectors of: women. In two major cases since 1990, the Supreme Court of Canada has quoted feminist words to undermine the position of prostitutes in our society. In addition, LEAF failed to apply for intervenor status on behalf of prostitutes in either case. What does it mean when mainstream feminism finds itself unable to listen to the demands of prostitutes' rights groups and to help them get rid of the laws that make their work more difficult and dangerous? What does it say about feminism as a true “women's movement” that we find ourselves unable to honor other women's assessment of their position in society and their desires for change.
Who Wins and Who Loses in the Provincial Courts of Appeal? A Statistical Analysis, 1920–1990
Authors: McCormick Peter
Published: July 2014

Given the visibility and obvious importance of judicial power in the age of the Charter, it is important to develop the conceptual vocabulary for desribing and assessing this power. One such concept that has been applied to the study of appeal courts in the United States and Great Britain is “party capability”, a theory which suggests that different types of litigant will enjoy different levels of success as both appellant and respondent. Using a data base derived from the reported decisions of the provincial courts of appeal for the second and seventh year of each decade since the 1920s, this article applies party capability theory to the performance of the highest courts of the ten provinces; comparisons are attempted across regions and across time periods, as well as with the findings of similar studies of American and British courts.
Socialist Legality and Legal Culture in Shanghai: A Survey ofGetihu
Authors: Potter Pitman B.
Published: July 2014

This paper presents an analysis of attitudes among independent business operators (getihu)in Shanghai toward basic tenets of legal reform in the People's Republic of China. Based on a survey questionnaire administered during the summer of 1993 with the assistance of the Law Institute of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, this paper suggests that the getihu are generally receptive to official norms about equality, justice, and private law relations. Despite having doubts about the efficacy of these norms, the getihuseem motivated by factors of disenfranchisement to accept them as useful in their struggle to get ahead. This suggests that the linkage between legal reform and economic development in China is not automatic, but will depend on the particular conditions of legal and economic actors. This has implications generally for the importance of local conditions in causal links between forms of private law and economic development.
Private Troubles, Private Solutions: Poverty Among Divorced Women and the Politics of Support Enforcement and Child Custody Determination
Authors: Pulkingham Jane
Published: July 2014

In this paper, recent feminist analyses of the feminization of poverty thesis and proposals for a particular kind of child custody determination—the primary caregiver presumption—will be examined. The question of women's subordination in the context of child custody outcomes is of fundamental importance to the issue of financial support for raising children, and women's economic position in general. Yet the complexity and dialectical nature of this relationship is not fully appreciated in most analyses. As a result, recent progress in the area of family law reform may inadvertently entrench traditional assumptions about the role of women and men, perpetuating the myth of the male breadwinner, family-wage model.
Constructing Lesbian and Gay Rights
Authors: Sanders Douglas
Published: July 2014

Lesbian and gay rights are argued as rights to privacy, rights to protection from violence, rights to equality as individuals, rights to equality as family units, rights of minorities or as part of a larger framework of the recognition of sexual diversity within the society. In the last decades Canadian law has recognized equality claims, first through the reform of antidiscrimination laws and later through the interpretation of the equality provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.The major current issue, important because it involves lesbian and gay visibility, is the recognition of same-sex couples for the range of rights, obligations and benefits connected with marriage or heterosexual cohabitation. Recognition is occurring throughad hocreforms, often in response to litigation or to decisions of human rights tribunals.
LaConvention contre la torture, le Comité contre la torture et le traitement des personnes psychiatrisées
Authors: Schabas William A.
Published: July 2014

La garantie contre la torture fait partie du «noyau dur» des droits de la personne et il ne peut être opposé de réserve ou de dérogation, même en cas de crise ou de guerre. Le Comité contre la torture, constitué en vertu de la Convention contre la torture et les autres traitements et peines inhumains ou dégradants,a examiné plusieurs aspects des traitements aux personnes psychiatrisées. Dans certains rapports périodiques soumis en vertu de laConvention,les États parties examinent des questions telles les conditions de détention dans les hôpitaux psychiatriques, l'administration de traitements controversés comme les électrothérapies et la psychochirurgie, l'abus de la détention psychiatrique pour des fins politiques et les règles applicables aux personnes souffrant de maladie mentale accusées ou reconnues coupables d'infractions criminelles. Cependant, la place généralement réservée à ces problèmes dans les rapports périodiques et dans les discussions du Comité demeure relativement mineure et plusieurs États parties n'en font aucune mention. Cette situation peut s'expliquer en raison de l'absence de directives précises provenant du Comité quant au contenu et à l'étendue des rapports devant lui être soumis, le défaut d'organisations non-gouvernementales d'aider le Comité dans son travail à cet égard et la faiblesse des pouvoirs d'enquête du Comité.
“Reconstructing” The Patriarchal Nuclear Family: Recent Developments in Child Custody and Access in Canada
Authors: Bourque Dawn M.
Published: July 2014

Abstract — Examining recent (1990 to 1993) reported Canadian cases on custody and access, I document a movement toward a re-privatisation of “family” to a traditional patriarchal nuclear form. Patterns of privatisation, readily apparent in economic and social policy are also evident within family law. Custody and access determinations in a separation or post-separation setting represent a moment where these implicit tactics become visible; the result is serious limits placed on the freedom and safety of women and their children. Focus on issues of custodial mothers' mobility, wife abuse and allegations of child physical and/or sexual abuse reveals a propensity on the part of the judiciary to prioritise paternal access to children as a criterion of the “best interests of the child.” Like joint legal custody, which the Canadian courts are still reluctant to impose on unwilling parents, de facto joint custody is occurring under sole custody orders. These tendencies ensure the separated or divorced “family” will be “re-onstructed” and re-privatised along familiar patriarchal lines.
The Westray Mine Disaster and its Aftermath: The Politics of Causation
Authors: Tucker Eric
Published: July 2014

Causation analysis is densely political in at least three ways. First, because causation is crucial to our system of attributing moral, legal and political responsibility, causation arguments are advanced for purely instrumental purposes. They do political work. Second, because any particular occurrence is the outcome of an almost infinite number of antecedent events, “but for” causation analysis produces trivial results. A judgement about causal significance is required and will depend, in part, on the goals of the analysis. The choice of goals is political, but unstated goals and hidden assumptions often exclude consideration of some possible causes as significant. These politics of causation need to be made explicit. Third, the institutional setting in which official determinations of causation are made influence the outcome. Hence, it is necessary to explore these as well. Each of these three dimensions of the politics of causation is explored through an analysis of the 1992 Westray mine disaster which killed 29 miners in Nova Scotia, and the official responses to it. It is argued that if the goal is to protect workers and nothing else, then the political-economic context that promotes the creation of hazardous conditions must be considered a significant cause of harmful occurrences. It is unlikely, however, that any of the official responses to the disaster will take this approach.