The Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal publishes peer reviewed scholarly works, book reviews, and recent development dispatches, focusing on comparative and international labour law issues. Students enrolled in this seminar may receive credit to the value of four credit hours each academic year and not more than eight credit hours in total. Students must enroll in the Journal for at least two semesters in order to earn credit. Meetings are generally held every other week throughout the fall and winter semesters.
Course or Seminar Category: Constitutional and Administrative Law
Constitutional Litigation
This is a fun course with equal emphasis on both oral and written advocacy. Debate, questions, brainstorming and discourse are encouraged.
Students will experience the steps of a constitutional case, from the initial claim, to cross-examinations, to arguing a preliminary motion and culminating in a final factum and moot before a panel of judges with students receiving both oral and written feedback throughout.
We will focus on a substantive area of constitutional law (such as, for example, freedom of expression, equality rights or division of powers) as well as questions of procedure, evidence (adjudicative and legislative, privilege) and judicial notice. A key focus is on the importance of remedies as an initial consideration, not as an afterthought.
The seminar also involves working through problems in small groups and presenting positions in class.
Seminar topics are designed to be in service of the final moot and factum. Topics typically include: the role of the courts in constitutional litigation; commencing a constitutional case; drafting pleadings; what is government action under s. 32 of the Charter; standing; selecting the appropriate court and procedure; mootness, interventions; the role of the Attorney General; evidence in constitutional cases; proving constitutional facts; the role of experts and drafting effective affidavits; presentation and assessment of social science data in the adversarial system; drafting constitutional arguments and presenting them effectively; oral advocacy; the importance of remedies for constitutional infringements; litigation strategies for public interest groups and case studies.
Regulatory Offences
In this seminar students will learn the substantive and procedural aspects of regulatory offences, or public welfare or quasi-criminal offences as they are sometimes called. The course has a practical focus, examining matters that arise before courts, administrative tribunals, regulators and law enforcement agencies. Seminar topics will include: the classification of regulatory offences, evidence gathering techniques, the application of the Charter of Rights, and the unique nature of strict liability prosecutions, including the operation of the due diligence defence. Sentencing considerations and proposals for reform will be canvassed as well.
Fundamental Justice and the Charter
Section 7 has emerged as one of the Charter’s most important and challenging provisions. This seminar provides students the opportunity to examine s. 7 in depth, from historical, theoretical, doctrinal and jurisprudential lenses. Topics to be addressed include: the historical origins of s. 7; the nature of the entitlements (life, liberty, security of the person); engagement; principles of fundamental justice (including the “instrumental rationality” principles of arbitrariness, overbreadth and gross disproportionality); s. 7 and the Criminal law (e.g. right to silence, full answer and defense); the role of s. 7 outside of the criminal law (e.g. immigration, extradition); and positive & social rights (e.g. housing, healthcare, environmental rights). Wherever possible, students will be exposed to emerging s. 7 issues, including through the examination of recent and ongoing litigation.
Health Law
This seminar explores the dynamic and challenging field of health law, with a focus on practical issues. The course provides a survey of the legal framework and policy considerations underlying the cornerstone areas of health law, including: consent, capacity and substitute decision-making; mental health law; professional regulation and governance; medical malpractice; and health information privacy. Practical and topical issues will be explored in the areas of: elder law (issues in long-term care facilities, retirement homes); the law of medical assistance in dying in Canada; human rights in health care; hospitals and health care facilities (including physician privileges, employment issues and tensions between administrators, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders); the civil commitment system; reproductive health and surrogacy; governance of health care and corporate health issues.
Typical seminars will cover substantive law including case law and statutes, as well as policy issues and examples of applications in practice. Students are expected to actively participate via class discussion and a class presentation. Guest speakers will provide unique perspectives on particular topics. Students will be asked to attend (in person or through electronic means) a hearing in the health law field and to reflect on that proceeding in a midterm written paper, and to explore and analyze an issue in health law through a major research paper. Through readings, class discussion and assignments, students will gain a foundation for a dedicated health law practice and an analytical framework for addressing health law issues as they arise in other practice areas.
Constitutional Litigation
In this seminar, students explore the adjudication process in constitutional litigation, consider questions of procedure, proof and remedies and discuss effective preparation of and advocacy in constitutional cases. Seminar topics will include: the role of the courts in constitutional litigation; commencing a constitutional case, drafting pleadings, government action under s.32 of the Charter, standing, crown defendants, choice of venue, remedies, evidence in constitutional cases, the role of experts and drafting effective affidavits, discovery of governments, and interlocutory relief.
Comparative Law: Indigenous Legal Traditions
This seminar will introduce students to non-state Indigenous legal orders. Using a transsystemic pedagogical model and a wide range of reading materials (legal cases, methodology, pedagogy, anthropology, theory) students will critically explore the theories and practices of indigenous legal traditions through analysis and substantive treatment of: indigenous sources of law; oral histories and traditions (as legal archive); legal cases and precedent; modes of reasoning and interpretation; and authority and legitimacy.
Taxation Law
This is not an accounting course. Neither is it a course singularly concerned with public finance. While income tax law is unavoidably concerned with public finance and tax accounting, there is so much more to it. The determinations of what is “income”, who is a “taxpayer”, which taxpayers pay which rates of income tax and the scope of tax deductions / credits carry profound socioeconomic implications. This course provides an introductory survey of income tax taking up the policy and technical dimensions of income tax with a central emphasis on the taxation of individuals. The course imparts knowledge relevant to core income tax concepts, financial literacy, recurring political debates (which often involve questions of taxation) and strategies for working within a complex statute.
The material for this course will be delivered in an lecture format. All assigned readings will be supplemented by detailed PowerPoint materials. These materials are not cryptic bullet point summaries of the readings. Instead, they are carefully prepared to bring greater context, organization and coherent explanation to assigned readings. All PowerPoint materials follow a disciplined, consistent and orderly format, breaking materials down by topic and sub-topic. The verbally delivered lecture content tracks very closely with the PowerPoint materials, adding further explanation, context and debate to these materials. If students scrutinize the readings, digest the supplementary PowerPoint materials and participate in lectures, they will be equipped to succeed in the course.
Securities Regulation
This is a four hour course that attempts foundational and detailed coverage of the Ontario Securities Act, with the goals of both ensuring good understanding of the most important requirements of securities law, as well as the underlying policy objectives that those rules are intended to achieve. There will be reference to other provincial or international regulation where appropriate for comparison. Included in the detailed coverage are the definitions of key securities regulatory concepts such as “security”, “trade”, and “distribution”; requirements for primary and secondary distribution of securities; prospectus disclosure; exemptions and resale rules as well as recent changes here; continuous and timely disclosure obligations with particular reference to prohibitions on insider trading; mergers and acquisitions with particular reference to takeover bid legislation; primary and secondary market civil liability; enforcement law and policy.
Legal Governance of Health Care
This course will focus on the legal frameworks (statutory and common law) governing health care delivery. Topics covered may include the following general areas: federal and provincial jurisdiction over health care, civil liability of practitioners and institutions, professional self-regulation, access to health services, regulation of hospitals, and public health law. When examining these broad topics, we may consider bioethical principles that underlie the relevant law, protections for privacy in health information, impacts on persons with disabilities, and problems of discrimination in the provision of health services.