Course or Seminar Category: Constitutional and Administrative Law

Environmental Law

This course is an introduction to Canadian environmental law. Major issues in environmental law are brought to life via guest lectures, videos, and exercises drawn from real-world environmental controversies. Course topics will include legislative jurisdiction and federalism, pollution regulation and regulatory instrument choice; climate change; toxic substances; environmental compliance and enforcement; economic instruments of regulation; public participation and environmental rights; judicial review of administrative action; common law environmental actions; environmental/impact assessment; endangered species law; review of environmental regulation in other jurisdictions, for comparison.

Additional principles and experiences will be gleaned from inherently related matters including indigenous issues, environmental sciences, natural resources and waste management, land use planning and brownfield development, and environmental case law. The practice of environmental litigation is addressed in the Willms & Shier Environmental Law Moot.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• understand the jurisdictional framework and core principles of environmental law in
Canada;
• understand the sources of federal, provincial and local environmental law in Canada, including key legislation, regulatory instruments, and court decisions and assess the effectiveness of the environmental legal regimes
• understand the structure and operation of the main agencies and institutions that
play roles in the development and implementation of environmental law in Canada;
• evaluate developments in environmental law in Canada, with some comparison to
other jurisdictions; and
• examine, in depth, selected case studies of environmental law in Canada in order
to understand the political/economical/societal dimensions of environmental regulation.

Family Law I

The course is intended to provide an introduction to the legal regulation of the family in Canadian and provincial law. The course is divided into six sections in order to facilitate an examination of the creation of the family unit, the regulation of the ongoing family, and the problems of family breakdown.

The first three classes present an introduction to various definitions of the family and provides relevant sociological and demographic context to the range of viable definitions. An overview of the seminal issues and tensions in family law will be canvassed. The introductory materials also cover the constitutional dimensions of family law.

The introductory materials are followed by a series of classes on the creation of the family. Several weeks of classes will cover adult relationship formation (including marriage) and the creation of parent-child relationships including adoption and reproductive technologies.

This is followed by a series of classes on the dissolution of the family. It is in this section that students will be exposed to the technicalities of divorce, along with topics such as the private ordering of dissolution (via mechanisms such as contract, mediation, and collaborative lawyering).

The fifth section covers the consequences of dissolution for adults by an examination of property division on dissolution, dealings with the matrimonial home, and spousal support.

The sixth and final section of the course deals with the consequences of family dissolution for children and covers issues such as custody and access, and child support.

In examining the rights and responsibilities of family members, we will explore questions such as: What is a family? What is a spouse? What is a parent? The answers to these questions are no longer as settled as they once seemed. We will consider the law’s answer to these questions, and the extent to which the legal regulation of the family is responding to changing and diverse family forms. Attention will be given to the issues of gender, race and class.

The course will be taught from a critical and policy-oriented perspective. The course emphasizes the role of law in defining and enforcing family arrangements, and the rights and responsibilities of family members. The course pays particular attention to law reform and policy choices in the legal regulation of the family in Ontario. The objective of the course is to provide a social, political and economic context within which legislative policies and judicial approaches can be understood and critically evaluated.

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

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.

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.

Insurance Law

Are personal injury lawyers ambulance chasers?  Are insurance companies only interested in denying claims and generating profits for their shareholders?  There are many misconceptions about the insurance industry despite the important role that insurance law plays in regulating so many areas of our lives.  Through this course, students will achieve a better understanding of the role that an insurance law lawyer plays in advancing and defending claims arising out of a motor vehicle collision, a slip and fall accident, or a long term disability claim.  Through a case study approach, student simulations and by attending litigation events involving real litigants, students will experience first-hand the application of insurance law and procedure. This will also involve an analysis of the Rules of Civil Procedure, the Rules of the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT) and case law generated by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario, the License Appeal Tribunal and multiple levels of the Superior Court of Justice.  

Students are required to participate in one of the following insurance litigation events throughout the term: an examination for discovery, a mediation session, a LAT case conference, a LAT Hearing, a pre-trial hearing and a day of trial.    The course instructor will facilitate this process.  Students will be required to prepare a paper of 5 pages at the end of their real world litigation experience.

Civil Liberties

This course focuses on the constitutional dimensions of liberty in Canada. We will examine laws that restrict fundamental freedoms (such as emergency restrictions on freedom of movement during the COVID-19 pandemic, the proposed Online Harms Act, limitations on pro-Palestinian expression and peaceful assembly during the Israel-Gaza war, limitations on collective bargaining rights and the right to strike). We will also examine laws that aim to enhance the exercise of fundamental freedoms (such as anti-SLAPP legislation), and assess them from the perspective of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We will focus on the Charter provisions that protect freedom of conscience and religion (s.2(a)), freedom of expression and the press (s.2(b)), freedom of peaceful assembly (s.2(c)), freedom of association (s.2(d)), international and interprovincial mobility (s.6), and the right not to be be deprived of liberty except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice (s.7). The course aims to establish a theoretical and doctrinal foundation for each of the rights and freedoms studied, and to consider how they relate to each other. Through a series of case studies focused on current controversies, ongoing litigation and legislative debates, the course will consider the appropriate scope of civil liberties, and what limits on them can be upheld as reasonable and demonstrably justifiable pursuant to s.1 of the Charter. We will also evaluate the increasing resort by provincial legislatures to s.33 of the Charter to insulate legislation from judicial invalidation based on violations of fundamental freedoms, legal rights and equality rights. The approach throughout will be contextual and critical, with an eye to Canada’s international human rights obligations and comparative lessons.

Collective Bargaining Law

This course provides an introduction to legal regimes governing collective employee representation in Ontario and beyond. Students will gain appreciation for collective bargaining legislation and its particular scope and parameters of protection. Consideration will be given to the role of the state in protecting freedom of association through statutory certification procedures, the articulation of exclusive bargaining rights and the duty to bargain in good faith. Students will confront the underlying commitments of states in governing collective employee representation, how the Canadian model compares to other systems abroad, the influence of international labour law on collective bargaining regimes, and the deficiencies of existing regulations. Moreover, considerable attention will be given to the increasing impact of technology in workplaces, its challenges to existing regulations, and how collective labour rights represent a vital instrument to govern technological issues at work.

Conflict of Laws

In a world of cross-border communication, trade and travel, crossborder disputes arise in every field of private law. A good understanding of the subject is vital for most careers in legal practice and scholarship and it provides an important foundation for the study of other international law subjects. Once based on arcane principles and complex doctrines, the conflict of laws has changed dramatically over the years to facilitate the flow of products, wealth and skills across borders and to ensure that disputes with connections to other provinces and countries are resolved fairly.

This course provides a solid grounding on the basic questions of whether a court has authority to decide a dispute and whether it should exercise that authority; what effect the court should give to the judgments of courts in other provinces or countries; and which law a court should apply to determine the issues in dispute. Also considered are the particular rules that have been developed for key areas of private law.

The rules applied by Canadian common law courts are compared with the rules applied in other common law countries — the United States, Québec, and Europe. This course also addresses the special rules that apply in federal and regional systems.

Criminal Procedure

This course will provide students with an overview of the Canadian criminal process. It will begin with an exploration of police investigative powers. The authority of Canadian police to detain, search/seize, question and arrest will all be considered in detail. Special attention will be given to the limitations imposed on each of these powers by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  The course will then shift to a consideration of the criminal process after charges are formally brought, including intake procedures, bail, disclosure (the effects of non-disclosure and/or lost evidence), election and plea, preliminary inquiries, the right to trial within a reasonable time and plea-bargaining. The course will then focus on the trial, including trial venue, jury selection and trial procedure. This will be followed by an overview of the law of sentencing, and a brief consideration of appeals.