Theory and Practice of Mediation offers students an interactive opportunity to develop an understanding of the utility and impact of mediation within the context of the dispute resolution spectrum. Students will gain knowledge through lecture, group discussions and exercises, and simulated mediations. As well, the seminar provides an opportunity for students to undertake a paper assignment to examine both theoretical and practical issues discussed during the term. Students will be engaged in a hands-on learning opportunity to explore negotiation, mediation styles and tactics, while being mindful of ethics and professional obligations.
Course or Seminar Category: Labour and Employment Law
Labour Arbitration
This seminar is intended to provide an overview of the labour arbitration process applicable to unionized workplaces. The seminar primarily addresses grievance arbitration and med-arb as alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. It may also introduce interest arbitration. The seminar will examine both procedural and substantive issues, including the regulatory framework, arbitral jurisdiction, pre-arbitration and arbitration processes.
Labour and Employment Law and Policy Colloquium
Labour markets in Canada and elsewhere are rapidly shifting if not transforming. Whether in places like Canada where the norm was the standard employment relationship, based on the ideal of full-time, full-year, continuous employment, or in the global South in which informal work relations have prevailed, efforts are afoot to rollback long-term commitments (including by imposing part-time and temporary work), erode or undercut protections and impose austerity. These changes pose a significant challenge for laws and policies governing work relations. Not only are these laws/policies in a state of flux, but arguably our current regimes are incapable of ensuring the needs of ordinary working people and their kin are met.
The seminar explores how laws and policies respond to and shape the changing nature and conditions of work. We will do so by focusing on controversies in the content, scope and boundaries of labour/employment law and policy. We engage in open-ended exploration, questioning prevailing assumptions, including widespread acceptance of binary distinctions between law and policy, labour and employment, theory and action. We will also consider the authority of the state and its production of ‘Others’ as a basis for reckoning with tensions, paradoxes and contradictions in law/policy surrounding capitalist work.
While it takes Canada as the point of departure, the scope widens to tease out the implications in the global context. The pace and intensity of work restructuring makes this an exciting yet perplexing time to engage with the subject matter. In all, the intent is to thrust students into the heart of the most pressing challenges of work regulation in these times — to interpret the world with a view to supporting transformative change. You can expect to be exposed to a range of critiques, from reformist to radical, and supported to think hard about work injustices in late capitalist life, including through evaluation of theories and proposals for social transformation.
Seminar sessions will consist of class discussion, student presentations and, from time to time, we will welcome guest speakers to support our learning and engagement. Given the requirement of a prerequisite, we will approach the course as an advanced treatment of labour and employment law and policy.
Globalization & the Law
This course asks students to consider the changing role of law (both domestic and international) in the context of globalization. It will include a critical consideration of the framework concept of ‘globalization’, as well as an examination of its implications both for the law of the state and law beyond the state. The course provides an introduction to emerging practices of transnational governance, both those generated by international institutions such as the WTO, the ILO or the World Bank, as well as the wide range of ‘informal’ norms generated by corporations and business networks, consulting and law firms, sectoral organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and expert communities – and by the interactions of some or all of these actors. The premise of the course is that the study of emerging transnational legal regimes needs to be contextualized within a broader understanding of political, social, cultural and economic transformations associated with globalization. To that end, the course will be organized as a series of modules utilizing a range of interdisciplinary materials and drawing on case studies in a number of key areas where global transformations are most acute and/or turbulent. Themes to be considered will include the changing role of the state, models of transnational governance including international economic institutions and networked governance, the expanding role of nonstate actors in these governance models, and the ways in which these changes differentially impact states in the North and the South.
Entertainment & Sports Law
This seminar course comprises two components:
1. Entertainment Law
The entertainment law portion of the seminar will focus on matters of essential concern to persons in the entertainment industry and their legal advisors. Upstream, we will examine chain-of-title to underlying rights, acquisition of primary, format and subsidiary rights, and perfecting rights from technical and creative personnel, including copyright and other legal considerations. A discussion of personal service contracts will include an examination of the basic terms and types of agreements between service providers and their engagers. Downstream, we will examine distribution and other exploitation of entertainment properties, and the use of incentives as an instrument of government policy in the development of both an indigenous and non-indigenous entertainment sector in Canada. We will also review business modelling, financing and related legal considerations in film and television, music recordation and publishing, the literary arts, theatre and live performance, influencer and social media business models, and industry issues with deep fakes and synthetic characters, including tax implications, international treaties, government regulation and the sources and vehicles of financing.
2. Sports Law
In the sports law portion of the seminar, we will examine the legal relationship between the athlete and his or her engager, including the concept of the standard player contract and individual and collective bargaining/negotiation versus traditional legal concepts of conduct that is otherwise anti-competitive or in restraint of trade. We will also consider impact of the 2025 House Settlement by which the NCAA must now remunerate student athletes for use of their name, image, likeness and voice, and the phenomenon of the “problem athlete”, including the imposition of discipline both at the school, team employer and league level, and related judicial review. Lastly, we will examine interference with contractual and economic relationships between athlete and engager, including the concepts of inducing breach of contract and tampering in the sports context.
Dispute Settlement: Alternatives to Resolving Disputes
Students are introduced to an analysis of the dispute resolution continuum and will be required to identify where and how, through the different processes, dispute resolution is achieved. Students will gain an appreciation of the historical development and current application of various dispute resolution processes, including litigation, arbitration, negotiation, and mediation. The process of litigation as applicable to the adversarial system of justice will be examined. The seminar focuses on an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to dispute resolution as well as the appropriateness of when to use them. Students will also gain a practical understanding of the theoretical aspects of certain processes available for resolving disputes within the legal system as a applicable to the Province of Ontario, including litigation and methods of alternative dispute resolution including negotiation, lobbying and mediation. The seminar will provide an opportunity to develop and practice some of the techniques of dispute resolution under the supervision of members of academic staff. Teaching methods include: lectures/seminars (Socratic and otherwise), facilitated class discussions, interactive small seminar and larger group exercises.
Corporate Governance
This seminar focuses, at an advanced level, on contemporary debates in corporate governance, particularly in light of recent North American and international developments. Particular attention is paid to how these developments are situated both within theories of corporate governance and within the history of the development of corporate governance laws and norms in Canada and internationally. Among the subjects considered are: (1) the purpose and theory of the corporation and a re-evaluation of the divorce of corporate control from ownership; (2) the duties and responsibilities of directors and officers; (3) the role and responsibilities of institutional investors including private equity and hedge funds, and proxy advisory firms; (4) the move from shareholder capitalism towards stakeholder governance and the interests of constituents such as employees, consumers and the environment; (5) ESG and anti-ESG issues including diversity on boards, human rights issues in supply chain management and climate change; (6) TRC #92 and economic reconciliation with Indigenous communities; (7) the effect of emerging technologies such as AI and blockchain and cybersecurity issues on corporate governance practices; and (8) comparative corporate governance and ongoing reforms at national and international levels.
Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal
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.
Theory and Practice of Mediation
Theory and Practice of Mediation offers students an interactive opportunity to develop an understanding of the utility and impact of mediation within the context of the dispute resolution spectrum. Students will gain knowledge through lecture, group discussions, simulations, placements in the Toronto Small Claims Court (circumstances permitting), and final evaluated mediations. As well, the seminar provides an opportunity for students to undertake a paper assignment to examine both theoretical and practical issues discussed during the term. Students will be engaged in a hands-on learning opportunity to explore negotiation, mediation styles and tactics, while being mindful of ethics and professional obligations.
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.