Established technologies like the internet and social and emerging ones like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics, are transforming how we live, work, and interact. These changes raise a host of complex law, policy, ethical, and governance challenges in a range of domestic and global contexts, including internet censorship, the role and regulation of social media platforms, disinformation and online abuse, legal automation, algorithmic discrimination, privacy, surveillance, fintech, and cyber-warfare. Among the kinds of questions pursued in this course: Who is responsible when technology causes harms? Do we have to forego privacy for either technological innovation or security? How best to regulate social media, if at all? What can we do to prevent algorithmic discrimination and other forms of technology-enabled human rights abuse? What is “ethical” AI and how can we incentivize it?
These issues and other significant challenges and controversies in the law, policy, and governance of emerging technologies will be contextualized and brought to life via case-studies and real world scenarios involving issues that are often currently in the news and unfolding in real time outside the classroom in government, industry, and civil society. The course aims to introduce and provide a foundation in law and technology issues — to identify them, understand and think critically about them, and manage them in practice.
Administrative decision-makers are delegated authority by statute to implement legislative policy and deliver government services in a wide range of fields including public health and safety, immigration, labour relations, social benefits, securities regulation, business licensing and approvals, tenancies, professional regulation, communications and broadcasting and environmental protection, among others. For most people, interaction with the law is through one, or more, of these administrative decision-making bodies. Administrative law is the study of the rules that regulate the decision-makers exercise of this delegated power, including rules about fairness, transparency, justification, independence and compliance with the constitution and the decision-makers own jurisdiction. This course is an introductory overview of administrative law. The course will provide students with the necessary tools to engage meaningfully with the various statutory schemes and principles governing the administrative state, to think critically about the court’s role in reviewing administrative decisions, to question and compare the manner in which legislative policy is delivered by a variety of different administrative bodies and to reflect on what this communicates about the relative value the state places on different policies and services.
Administrative law is the law of public decision-making. It applies to a diverse group of public officials who exercise delegated power and deliver public programs and services. This group of public officials (i.e. administrative decision-makers) includes the Landlord and Tenant Board, the Ontario Social Benefits Tribunal, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, the Parole Board, the Canadian Judicial Council, the Benchers of the Law Society of Ontario, Cabinet (at the federal and provincial levels), municipal councils, many university decision-makers, public inquiries, and so on. Administrative decision-makers make countless decisions that impact the daily lives of individuals and communities, and many of these decisions involve a great deal of discretion. Administrative law aims to ensure that these decisions are transparent and justified, are unbiased and made according to fair procedure, are consistent with constitutional demands, and are within the scope of the decision-maker’s power. In this course, we will critically examine whether administrative law achieves these aims. We will explore the following kinds of questions: How and why are certain public powers delegated to administrative decision-makers? What role do these decision-makers play in the structure of Canadian public life and in the lives of individuals? What principles should govern the design of administrative decision-makers to protect against and address individual and systemic bias? How do administrative bodies carry out their mandates and exercise their powers? What legal rules and principles govern administrative decision-making? What legal rights do individuals have when they access public services? Of what relevance is administrative law for Indigenous self-governance? What role does administrative law play in both undermining and advancing reconciliation? What are the principles and who are the actors of Aboriginal administrative law? When are courts justified in intervening in the decisions of public authorities? What remedies are available when public officials act unfairly, unreasonably or unlawfully? In answering these questions, we will seek to examine the rules of administrative law, the experiences of those affected by the administrative state, the ideals of justice that shape the law, the policy debates underlying administrative law, and the realities of practice in the administrative realm.
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 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 online modules, 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 November 29.
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.
Competition is good. In most industrialized countries, including Canada, this belief in the value of competition – that consumer and businesses prosper in a competitive and innovative marketplace – is a backbone of domestic and global economic policy. This belief is also the underpinning for the creation and enforcement of global and domestic competition/antitrust laws, including Canada’s Competition Act. The Competition Act seeks to maintain and encourage competition in Canada, primarily through public and private enforcement. Competition law, enforcement and policy feature prominently in political debate and in the press, particular due to concentration concerns and the vigorous enforcement of competition laws. This course aims to provide students with a basic understanding of competition law, enforcement and policy and the analytical tools necessary to assess (1) the impact of such on a firm’s behaviour and consumer well-being, and (2) how law can be applied to a firm’s business conduct. Key topics considered in detail in this course are: (1) all aspects of Canada’s Competition Act, including its reviewable practices and criminal offences; (2) the respective roles, investigative powers and decision making powers of the Canadian Competition Bureau, the Commissioner of Competition, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, the Competition Tribunal and the Courts; (3) mergers; (4) collusion among competitors; (5) abuse of dominance or monopolization; (6) deceptive marketing practices; and (7) private enforcement.
Why take this course?
Individuals and firms, both small and large, require advice to ensure their conduct does not violate the criminal and civil provisions of competition law, is in compliance with all regulatory requirements, and does not result in exposure to civil suits by competitors, customers and suppliers. As a result, a basic knowledge of competition law is useful to anyone whose practice will have commercial aspects. Practitioners whose work may benefit from some knowledge of competition law include:
· Corporate and commercial practitioners (whether in a transactional or litigation practice) regardless of size of firm;
· Plaintiffs’ side lawyers (including tort lawyers);
· Criminal defence lawyers;
· Intellectual property lawyers;
· Lawyers who advise clients in industries subject to regulation;
· In-house lawyers who counsel business people about the legality of business plans and communications in the regular course of business; and
· Government lawyers.
This is a four hour course in which we will deliver an overview of securities regulation in Canada from a practitioner’s perspective. We will review the Ontario Securities Act, regulations and policies, and will reference certain securities laws in other jurisdictions as well. We will study certain key securities regulatory concepts and how they intersect with today’s corporate finance markets. Our review will include: the meaning of terms such as “security”, “trade” and “distribution”; primary and secondary distribution of securities; prospectus offerings; private placement exemptions and resale rules; regulation of the trading markets including various stock exchange rules; capital pool companies and SPACs; continuous and timely disclosure; takeover bid legislation; mergers and acquisitions; primary and secondary market civil liability; and regulatory enforcement issues. Our goal is to have our students leave the course with a solid grounding in Canadian securities law as well as a good understanding of how these laws impact corporate finance in Canada.
This course will: (a) introduce students to statutory language; and (b) give students the opportunity to develop practical skills in the interpretation and application of statutory provisions. Various topics will be discussed, including:
1. Judicial approaches to statutory interpretation;
2. Interpretive Theory;
3. The nature of “legislative intent”;
4. Maxims and Rules of Interpretation, both common law and statutory;
5. Interpretive Presumptions;
6. Judicial notice;
7. Practical considerations in legislative drafting; and
7. Evidence of legislative intent.
The overall emphasis is on the language of the law and the practical application of statutory language and concepts.
This course introduces the fundamental principles of the Canadian federal income tax system. We will concentrate on building a taxation vocabulary and exploring the social, political, and economic factors that shape the development of tax law. By the end of the course, students should understand why societies tax, who and what they tax, and how they do so; be familiar with the general structure and principles of the Canadian federal income tax system; and develop skills in close, critical reading and interpretation of primary and secondary legal sources.
The central focus of the course is on the tax principles for the treatment of revenue, losses, and expenses earned or incurred by individuals. We will further discuss general tax policy issues and situate the income tax within the broader Canadian tax system. To ensure students gain a practical understanding of tax law, the course will also introduce the tax administration and dispute resolution frameworks.
Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to hone their skills in interpreting complex statutory provisions and applying them to a variety of fact patterns. The course employs a combination of lectures, videos, quizzes, and problems for both group and whole-class discussion, providing numerous opportunities for active learning.
For those who fear numbers, take heart. This course focuses on the legal rules underpinning our income tax system, not on mathematics. Any math used in class or tested on the exam is limited to simple computational exercises to illustrate tax rules and their application.
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.