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.
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. This seminar will be taught partly as an advocacy course, encouraging students to apply these concepts to persuasive and coherent oral and written arguments.
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 be involved in almost all of 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 (ex., freedom of expression, equality 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; government action under s.32 of the Charter; standing; selecting the appropriate court and procedure; mootness, interventions; role of the Attorney General; evidence in constitutional cases, proving constitutional facts, the role of experts and drafting effective affidavits, examination of government witnesses, 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.
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 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.
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, and in theatre and live performance, 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 the phenomenon of the “problem athlete”, including the imposition of discipline both at the 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 including in the context of family-owned corporations; (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 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.
International Human Rights Law
This seminar is organized into three modules. The first will provide a foundational background that includes an overview of the history, key concepts, and the underlying international law framework of the international human rights law (IHRL) system. The second module will deliver the substantive core of the seminar’s subject matter and include an introduction to major institutions and processes of the system, an overview of some core doctrine and debates related to a selection of protected human rights (e.g. those related to life, health, freedom from torture, non-discrimination), engagement with certain general concepts and debates about individual rights as well as the system as a whole (including criticisms and controversies), and the various ways in which international human rights law can be used as a legal advocacy tool within the domestic system. The third and final module will examine selected current topics in IHRL, including a review of closely related fields of international law such as international criminal law, international humanitarian law, international refugee law, and indigenous peoples’ rights.
The IHRL system is vast, and the goal of the course is not to provide a comprehensive doctrinal understanding of the entire field. Rather, the objective is for students to come away with a basic familiarity with the fundamental architecture of the system, the resources with which to navigate it, and knowledge of the ways in which international human rights law can be used to inform and support human rights advocacy under domestic legal systems. In addition, through the requirement of a major paper, each student will gain more focused knowledge of a specialized topic of the student’s choice.
Student learning will take place by completion of assigned readings, online posting of brief comments by students, and discussion in class, combined with the preparation of a major research paper.
The class meets once a week in a 3-hour time slot. Guests may on occasion be beamed into the class using a classroom internet connection; certain classes may be scheduled to be fully remote on Zoom where a guest or guests cannot attend in person.