This course critically examines the phenomenon of globalization in its connection with law from various angles. The main objective of investigation is to ask: if globalization is really a relatively new phenomenon and what it means to relocate it in historical perspective; if it is uniformly visible and equally significant in different spheres of social life; what is the connection, if any, between the globalization of ideas and material objects in the social world; whether globalization has necessarily been reaffirmed by increase of digital connections; what is the role of technology, emerging or old, in shaping our understanding of global versus local; whether law merely reflects and adapts to the inevitability of globalization or it has an active role in the formation of the concept; if and in what ways the surge of populism which at times is accompanied by nationalism might be a threat to globalization, and more. In this pursuit, we will take aid from other disciplines just as from in-depth readings, discussions, potential guest speakers, and collective, in-class exercises.
Course or Seminar Category: International Comparative and Transnational Law
Immigration Law
This course begins with an overview of the Canadian immigration system and international migration patterns with the objective of understanding who is coming to Canada and why. The basic features of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Regulations will then be discussed including: family sponsorship, economic immigration 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.
Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law
This course will provide a critical survey of state law as it relates to Indigenous peoples in Canada. The focus will be on the following topics: the historical context and constitutional framework; Aboriginal rights and title; self-government; treaties and treaty rights; and introduction to the Indian Act; and the authority and obligations of the federal and provincial governments.
This course fulfills the prerequisite requirements for the Intensive Program in Indigenous Lands, Resources and Governments.
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.
Public International Law
Public International Law is the system of law relating to inter-state relations, the functioning of international institutions, the relations of such bodies with each other, and their relations with States, individuals, groups and other entities. It seeks an understanding of certain rules of law relating to individuals and non-State entities. This course is intended as an introduction to the norms, rules and practices of international law that are recognized as being binding obligations on sovereign states in their mutual relationships.
Topics will be covered from among the following: sources of international law; subjects of international law (States and non-State actors; self-determination; individuals; international organizations); rights and duties of States; recognition of States and governments and legal effects thereof; state responsibility for international delinquencies; international law applying processes in domestic legal systems; state and diplomatic immunities from suit in foreign courts; the United Nations Charter and limitations on the use of force and international dispute settlement.
Refugee Law
Refugee protection is in a perpetual state of crisis, both domestically and abroad. Many refugee law practitioners and scholars argue that states are retrenching from their duty to provide refugees with the protection to which they are entitled under international law. At the same time, some government actors, media figures and civil society groups contend that existing refugee determination processes are excessively generous and are subject to widespread “abuse” by economically motivated migrants. Still others suggest that refugee protection regimes either distract from or help reinforce a deeper problematic: control over migration that serves to entrench global disparities in income, wealth and security.
This course offers students an opportunity to engage critically with these and other debates over refugee law at the level of theory, policy and practice. This critical engagement will occur through a collaborative examination of refugee law instruments, institutions and jurisprudence in international and domestic forums, with a heavy emphasis on Canada.
The course will be offered through lectures and class discussions. The course will also include several weeks of student-led teaching in the second half of the term. There will be two written assignments. The course requires consistent and active student participation throughout the term, including participation in evaluated group work. There is no final exam or final paper. The course, including all evaluated work, will be complete by December 1.
Note that the course will be offered in a hybrid remote/in-person format (hyflex). Students can attend classes either on campus or remotely via Zoom.
Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law
This substantive law course explores the relationships between Indigenous legal orders, the common law and Canadian law, in the context of the practical complexities involved in litigating Aboriginal and Treaty rights cases. Topics may include, but are not limited to: Indigenous laws and governance systems; intersocietal law; history of treaties and treaty relationships; pre-existing Indigenous sovereignty and assumed Crown sovereignty; the honour of the Crown; the colonial doctrines of discovery and terra nullius; settler-colonialism and Indigenous resurgence. The course will provide a survey of key procedural and substantive elements (eg. pleadings,
expert witnesses, Elder evidence, argument and remedies) from the perspective of a practioner working exclusively in this area of law on behalf of First Nation clients and communities. This course consists of weekly lectures and in-class discussions. Evaluation encompasses: in-class quizzes, weekly reading assignments, participation, and a group advocacy component. This course also fulfills the prerequisite requirements for the Intensive Program in Indigenous Lands, Resources and Governments.
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 Criminal Law
Ending impunity for those responsible for atrocity crimes – such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression – is one of the goals of international criminal law (ICL). The course aims to provide students with a program oriented to the practice of ICL, underpinned by a strong framework of ICL doctrine and theory. Both substantive ICL (e.g., elements of crime, modes of liability) and procedural ICL (e.g., admissibility of evidence, victim/witness protective measures) will be discussed and debated. They will be studied alongside the policy, geopolitical and ethical considerations of ICL, such as during the creation of new international courts/tribunals (arguably new legal systems) and the conduct of international investigations. The course will consider how ICL relates to and interacts with international humanitarian law (also known as the law of war or the law of armed conflict), international human rights law and public international law.
Four of the key features of the course include the following.
(1) Examining, analyzing and applying ICL to contemporaneous and ongoing situations, such as those in Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Ukraine.
(2) Surveying, comparing and evaluating the past and ongoing evolution of ICL, which is a relatively new field of law. As part of studying this evolution, students will view it through the lenses of:
· Institutions starting from the International Military Tribunals at Nuremburg and for the Far East, to the ad hoc and permanent tribunals/courts established in the 1990s and 2000s (e.g., International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, International Criminal Court), to the recent accountability mechanisms (e.g., UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL);
· Crimes such as the four ‘core crimes’ (i.e., war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression), terrorism (as considered and applied at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon), and the recently proposed crime of ecocide, and
· Types of individuals and entities accused of atrocity crimes, such as natural persons, corporations and States.
(3) Identifying, understanding and incorporating new technologies and techniques in building ICL cases (e.g., investigator or prosecutor roles) and responding to such cases (e.g., defence counsel or legal representative of victims roles), such as open-source videos and photos from social media, satellite imagery, mobile phone call data records and remote video-link interviews.
(4) Viewing, analyzing and critiquing ICL through the perspectives of victims, accused, investigative bodies, prosecution offices, defence entities/counsel, victims’ legal representatives, civil society, judges, affected States and third-party States.
Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law
The principal aim of this section of the course is to develop critical understanding of those parts of Canadian constitutional law that pertain specifically to Indigenous peoples. Topics will include the notions of sovereignty and self-determination, relevant British imperial law, the honour of the Crown and the enforceable Crown obligations to which it gives rise, federal and provincial legislative authority, section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, Aboriginal rights and title, treaties and treaty rights, and Indigenous self-government (statutory and constitutional). The plan is for one class session, late in the term, to feature Toronto lawyers who represent or advise Indigenous clients, discussing practice-related issues.
The course will also acknowledge the reality, the coherence and the efficacy of Indigenous law. Early in the term, an Indigenous law scholar will spend one class session introducing the students to an Indigenous legal order. But Indigenous law will figure somewhat less prominently in this section of the course than it does in some other sections, because the instructor, who is not Indigenous, has neither authority nor permission to pronounce on matters internal to any Indigenous legal order. Students whose primary interest is in Indigenous law may prefer another section of this course, or may wish to supplement this course with a companion course whose specific focus is Indigenous law.
This course satisfies the prerequisite requirement for the Intensive Program in Aboriginal Lands, Resources and Governments. It may also be useful background for advanced seminars about Indigenous Peoples and the Law.