Course or Seminar Category: International Comparative and Transnational Law

International Human Rights Law

In this seminar, we will attempt to understand the ever increasing, but constantly contested, role of international law (as well as other modes of regulation and other forms of normativity) in the promotion and protection of human and peoples’ rights the world over, a world that was recently referred to as “our global neighbourhood” by the Commission on Global Governance. The seminar will proceed in three broad movements.

In the first segment, we will grapple with the histories and policies that are relevant to the international legal protection of human and peoples’ rights. We will seek to locate, engage, and understand the underlying economic, socio-cultural and political forces that shaped, and continue to shape, both international human rights law and the world in which it operates. In pursuit of these objectives, we will, inter alia, consider the following facts/circumstances and reflect upon the following questions: we live in a world that is at once deeply multicultural and patently unequal, a world that is divided inter alia by race, gender, culture, and class-given these particularities, can the “international” (which claims universality) accommodate the “local” (which is particular)? Indeed, why (and to what extent) is the “international” an important element in the protection of human and peoples’ rights? How (and to what extent) is “law” relevant to the international protection of human rights – why do we not just resort to politics? A broad-based set of literature will be examined including African, Asian, Islamic, European, and Inter-American perspectives.

In the second segment, we will examine the various global-level and regional-level international normative texts (e.g. treaties), processes, and institutions that have been established to advance the cause of the international protection of human and peoples’ rights. We will attempt to understand the nature of their design, their functions, and their effectiveness. Our focus will be on the various global texts, norms, and institutions that exist (such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Human Rights Committee established under it), as well as on the African, European, and Inter-American Systems for the protection of human and peoples’ rights.

In the third and last segment, we analyze the lessons for both international human rights theory and practice that are decipherable from our examination of the literature and seminar discussions. In this context, we will focus on the practice of international human rights activism by states, groups, and individuals. We will also focus on the question of the possibility of the enthronement of a cosmopolitan international human rights ethos, of a “multicultural universality”.

Law of War

Was NATO’s military intervention in Libya legal? What about Afghanistan? Or the imprisonment of America’s detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba? Is Russia’s military overrun of Ukraine lawful? What is the legal status of killing by drones? What happens to people who commit war crimes? What are the remedies for an illegal war? This seminar examines the international law governing war, including both questions of when war is legal (so-called ‘jus ad bellum’) and how even legal wars must be conducted (so-called ‘jus in bello’ or the laws and customs of war) and the relationship between the two types of law. It also examines the various judicial institutions that have jurisdiction over these issues, from the World Court, to the ad hoc tribunals (Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone), to national courts exercising ‘universal jurisdiction’ (Belgium, Canada), to the new International Criminal Court.

Case studies on the armed conflicts over Kosovo, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, Ukraine, and between Israel and the Palestinians, provide the settings for concrete legal analysis and also for critical evaluation of the role of law in war.

Governance of the International Financial System

This seminar is about international monetary law and policy. It gives students a grounding in legal and policy issues arising from the operation of the international financial system. It falls within wider fields of international economic law, public international law, financial regulation, and the political economy of law. A substantive focus is on the role of relevant institutions, especially the International Monetary Fund.

The seminar will begin with sessions on the history, economics, and politics of the international financial system, examining concepts such as money, the balance of payments, international transfers, reserve currencies and other assets, rules and discretion and their relationship to power dynamics, the design of soft law, and sovereignty. It then turns to the evolution of the IMF and its Articles of Agreement, its regulation of the current and capital accounts of national economies, and the IMF’s relationship to other institutions such as national governments/ central banks, regional institutions, and private banks/ hedge funds.

The content will evolve in an effort to capture current developments in relationships among states, international institutions, and financial and other economic actors. In previous years, for instance, we examined sovereign debt, offshoring and tax havens, government responses to the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and the causes and evolving risks of financial instability. Time is afforded for critiques and discussion of possible reforms. Students have opportunities to develop their analytical, presentation, and research/ writing skills, in particular. Given the current instability and conflict within the international financial system, this year students may be offered a dedicated research topic on which to write and report back to the class with a view to helping us understand current issues and the perspectives and strategies of different actors.

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.

Comparative Law: Regional Economic Integration

Regional economic integration organizations are an essential part of the international institutional architecture outside the United Nations system and key elements of international economic governance. They aim to eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, ease the movement of labour and capital across jurisdictions, and contribute to overall regional economic development. The non-economic spillover effects of their operations include contributions to regional peace, stability and harmonious co-existence among states, the protection of human rights, advancing the rule of law, and fostering socio-cultural exchange. Taking a comparative approach, this course focuses on regional economic integration organizations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and Latin America, namely the East African Community, the Economic Community of West African States, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Caribbean Community, the European Union, and the Southern Common Market. It compares and analyzes these selected regional economic integration organizations from a predominantly legal standpoint. In doing so, the course examines their international law foundations, institutional frameworks, mechanisms for integrating their laws into member states’ legal systems, regimes on trade in goods and services and related issues such as tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade, and dispute settlement mechanisms and jurisprudence. Students will develop competence and facility over several regional economic integration organization treaties and sharpen their analytical, reasoning, critical reading and communication skills through this course.

International Business Transactions

Course will cover the payment and financing of international business transactions with particular attention to the sale of goods. With various degrees of emphasis, coverage will consist of:

● Brief introduction to basic conflict of laws rules governing international commercial transactions
● Introduction to international commercial banking (deposit taking, bank and customer relationship, foreign currency and cross-border payment obligations and bank deposits; correspondent banking; foreign currency risks);
● International payments by wire;
● Principal aspects of the law governing documentary sales in international trade: delivery, passage of property and risk);
● From paper to Electronic and functional equivalence of electronic documents.
● Selected aspect pertaining to negotiable instruments as payment and credit instruments in international trade; and
● Payment and financing international trade transactions: documentary collections and letters of credit (and related banking instruments).

Course is appropriate to both second and third year students—there are neither prerequisites nor co-requisites.

While the focus of the course is payment and financing of international trade, this may be the only course offered on the JD level introducing students to the foundations of banking law needed for both domestic and international business transactions. It may also be the only course introducing students to transport documents (such as bills of lading) and their use in international transactions as well as the law that governs international transactions.

At the instructor’s discretion final mark may be adjusted by half a mark (or in extreme cases full mark) that may be taken away or added for class participation (including attendance — as well as leading class discussion as assigned in advance). Classes will be recorded – per the usual policy of the Law School.

International Taxation

This course provides students with an in-depth understanding of the international tax landscape, focusing on the interaction between the Canadian Income Tax Act and the global tax regime, in order to enhance their issue spotting and problem-solving skills when crafting international tax structures. The globalization of trade and investment flows as well as technological advances have created a borderless world which has profoundly affected income tax structuring for both individuals and Canadian corporations. Students will explore cross-border (USA) and offshore tax issues that are critical for Canadians engaged in global activities. The curriculum covers both domestic tax law and international tax rules and treaties, focusing on the various principles that are key for Offshore and Cross Border business structuring, such as Central Management and Control, Foreign Accrual Property Income (FAPI), Excessive interest and financing expenses limitation rules (EIFEL), the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR), revenue shifting and transfer pricing, the American Global Intangible Low Taxed Income rules (GILTI), international tax treaties, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) rules, Web3 and Metaverse related tax issues and more.

Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law

This substantive law course will explore the interactions between Canadian common law and Indigenous law, primarily Anishinaabe law. The content will be viewed through the lens of Indigenous worldviews. Topics will include, but are not limited to: Indigenous sources of law; historical context and constitutional framework re: Indigenous Peoples; Aboriginal Rights, Title and the Doctrine of Discovery; treaties; resource rights and consultation; and the Indian Act and Identity. The course will be presented from a practitioner’s perspective working within Anishinaabe communities, with attention to practical intersections between the various topics. This course fulfills the prerequisite requirements for the Intensive Program in Indigenous Lands, Resources and Governments.

Globalization & the Law

Globalization is both a material and conceptual process that acts on and through the law. This seminar critically positions questions of the ‘global’ in conversation with the idea of law, legality and legal thought. Taking a historical approach, we will investigate how legal institutions and concepts evolved, travelled, and were transplanted across the globe in response to specific economic and political events and pressures. Students will critically engage with the process of ‘globalization’ to explore how power is distributed through law across both hegemonic and oppressed legal jurisdictions. With an eye towards social and liberation movements, we will explore the extent to which global, local and ‘glocal’ law can be relied on to advance—and restrict—emancipatory projects. We will contextualize the course’s historical approach to understanding global interconnectedness and ideas of justice with an examination of the most pressing challenges to the stability of the ‘rules-based international order’ today, including: the enduring effects of the covid-19 pandemic; the turn to populism and nationalism across the world; and the recent intensification of political and genocidal violence.

Immigration Law

This course begins with an overview of the Canadian immigration system and international migration patterns. The basic features of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Regulations will then be discussed including: temporary residence, family sponsorship, economic immigration, humanitarian applications, removal and inadmissibility. Embedded in this discussion will be an overview of how immigration decision-making takes place and the reviewability of immigration administrative decisions. A portion of the course will be devoted to looking at current topics in immigration law.