Course or Seminar Category: Equality Social Justice and Human Rights Law

Legal Ethics

This course introduces students to ethics and professional responsibility in the legal profession. A core question will involve how we – individually and collectively – should act. Our focus will be both conceptual and practical. Students will be expected to participate extensively. The course has three main learning objectives.

Knowledge. The first objective is two-fold: to look at what the landscape of the legal profession is, can and should be; and then to situate lawyers and their conduct in that landscape. We will look at ethical codes that govern lawyers, their relationships with clients and the profession. We will also look more broadly at various aspects of lawyering and the profession, including self-regulation, the nature of the adversary system, demographics, ethical tensions between zealous representation and a commitment to the public interest, various practice contexts, access to justice and innovation.

Skills. The second objective of the course is to help students to think about what ethical issues arise in practice, how they arise and how they can – and in some cases must – be dealt with. To help develop these skills and identify available tools and resources, in addition to the assigned materials, we will regularly use hypothetical problems and exercises to spark thinking and active in-class discussion.

Reflection. The third objective – primarily through participation, a group presentation and a final paper – is to encourage students to identify and reflect on issues and topics of specific interest to them.

Legal Information Technology: Data Analysis & Coding for Access to Justice

In this course, students will engage with law as data, using new legal technologies that promise to shift how lawyers practice in coming years, with a particular emphasis on exploring implications for access to justice. The aim is to examine not how the law regulates new legal technologies, but rather how these technologies can or should be used by legal professionals to advance the rights and interests of marginalized groups.

The course will use a hands-on experiential pedagogy. That is, students will engage directly with new legal technologies – including by completing several small coding projects involving legal data analysis. In addition to exploring these technologies, students will critically reflect on their ethical, professional, social, and economic impacts, focusing on implications for low-income and otherwise marginalized groups.

No prior coding experience is required. The course recognizes that students may bring a range of prior skills and knowledge. Both learning and evaluation have been designed to allow students who are beginners to coding and legal data analysis opportunities to successfully explore a new area, while also allowing students who already have relevant technical skills – as well as students who want to push their skillsets further – to take on more advanced projects. As such, participation is weighted heavily and final projects can be completed with limited coding.

The course involves both synchronous and asynchronous components. After an initial synchronous introductory class, the first half of the course will be delivered asynchronously, through online modules and small coding projects. The instructor will be available for online troubleshooting sessions and for other support during the hours notionally set aside for classes in the weeks when modules and small coding projects are completed. Once the initial modules are completed, a synchronous discussion class will be held to explore ethical, professional, social and economic impacts, with some critical readings provided. The second half of the course will involve students working independently on a final project either individually or in groups (with the course instructor available for troubleshooting), presenting a draft of that project to colleagues for feedback, and finalizing the project.

Synchronous sessions will be delivered in a hybrid (hyflex) format, meaning that students can elect to attend any given synchronous session either in person or remotely via Zoom. Classes will be scheduled in 3-hour blocks.

Topics:

(1) Introduction to Coding & Access to Justice (Module 1: Automating the boring stuff)

(2) Data Gathering & Cleaning (Module 2: Finding legal datasets and creating new ones)

(3) Data Analysis (Module 3: I have some legal data, now what?)

(4) Artificial Intelligence (Module 4: Using generative AI to advance access to justice)

(5) Student Presentations of Draft Final Projects

Law & Social Change: The Law Commission of Ontario Workshop – Approaches to Law Reform

The Law Commission of Ontario Workshop – Approaches to Law Reform explores “law reform” as a distinct field of legal expertise, advocacy, and strategy. Each class is led by one or more expert practitioners experienced in developing and directing different approaches to law reform. Students will work with the practitioners and course instructors from the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) to develop their own concrete, sophisticated, and actionable law reform proposal.
Students are free to develop their own law reform proposal. For example, a proposal may address:
Politicization of Ontario’s process for appointing judges
Platform misogyny and youth safety online
Platform influencer and content creator rights and obligations
Regulating “deep fake” images, audio and video used to harass, extort, defame, etc. development of the students’ law reform proposal.

Students who complete the course will gain a practical, hands-on understanding of how:

“Law reform” engages a sophisticated mix of social, political, economic, and legal considerations, as well as community coalition building, media messaging, and others.
Lobbyists and political staff participate in law reform and are regulated.
Government ministries and the legislature develop laws, respond to test case litigation, and respond to court-ordered law reform.
Cutting-edge law reform is happening in Indigenous law and in response to artificial intelligence.
Think tanks, non-governmental organizations, single-issue proponents, and public interest advocates engage politicians with “early signals” and the need for law reform.
Coroner’s Inquests and Commissions of Inquiry contribute to law reform.

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.

Family Law I

The course is intended to offer an overview of family law and to provide a foundation for later, more specialized seminars or research projects. It provides an introduction to some of the issues and problems relating to law and the family, focusing on three contexts: the creation of the family unit, the regulation of the ongoing family, and issues arising at family breakdown. Topics to be explored include marriage, reproduction, adoption, child care, family violence, child protection, divorce, property, support, domestic contracts, custody and access, and dispute resolution.

The course is taught from a critical and policy-oriented perspective. Throughout the course, we will examine the assumptions of gender, class, race, religion and sexual orientation on which family law is based, and consider the appropriateness of these assumptions.

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 assessed. Particular attention will be paid to current provincial and federal law reform initiatives relating to the legal regulation of the family.

Globalization & the Law

Globalization is both a material and conceptual process that acts on and through the law. This seminar critically positions questions of the ‘global’ in conversation with the idea of law, legality and legal thought. Taking a historical approach, we will investigate how legal institutions and concepts evolved, travelled, and were transplanted across the globe in response to specific economic and political events and pressures. Students will critically engage with the process of ‘globalization’ to explore how power is distributed through law across hegemonic and oppressed legal jurisdictions. With an eye towards social and liberation movements, we will explore the extent to which global, local and ‘glocal’ law can be relied on to advance – and restrict – emancipatory projects. Finally, we will look at the recent turn to populism across the world to ask how and why nationalism has been one response to global interconnectedness and ideas of justice.

This seminar will be delivered using a combination of teaching methods including class discussions; mini-lectures; in-class exercises and guest lectures.

Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law

This is a unique Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law course experience that covers a variety of topics through a focus on treaties and a practical experiential-learning based approach to Indigenous rights litigation. This course is designed to simulate real-world legal practice where collaboration is essential for success. Students will work in teams to analyze and prepare a complex legal case as part of a larger group advocacy project. Students who enjoy working with others and sharing ideas are more likely to find this course particularly rewarding.
The course will provide a survey of the procedural and substantive elements of litigating Indigenous rights from the perspective of a lawyer practicing exclusively in this area of law on behalf of First Nation clients and communities. 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.
This course consists of weekly lectures and in-class discussions. Evaluation methods encompass in-class quizzes, weekly reading assignments, participation and group work. This course also fulfills the prerequisite requirements for the Intensive Program in Indigenous Lands, Resources and Governments.

Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law

This course provides a critical survey of state law as it relates to Indigenous peoples and lands in what is now known as Canada.

Topics may include but are not limited to: historical context and constitutional framework; Indigenous law and constitutionalism; Aboriginal rights and title; self-government; treaties and treaty rights; the Indian Act; the obligations of the federal and provincial governments; and Indigenous identity.

This course fulfills the prerequisite requirement for the Intensive Program in Indigenous Lands, Resources and Governments.

Lectures will be recorded.

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.

Law and Social Change: Israel/Palestine and International Law

This seminar will examine a wide variety of legal issues raised in the various stages of conflict in Israel/Palestine considered primarily from the perspective of international law. We will survey these issues as they arise in both the occupied Palestinian territory (the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip) as well as within Israel proper. The legal frameworks engaged include international humanitarian law/law of armed conflict, including the law of belligerent occupation, international human rights and international criminal law, as well as Israeli civil and constitutional law. In addition to critically considering how these bodies of law describe, frame and analyze the conflict, we will also consider the implications of these framings for obligations found under the domestic legal systems of third states, including Canada. The course will cover the significant developments in Israel/Palestine, beginning in the early 20th century and extending to the events of October 7th and their aftermath, all through the lens of international law. For each issue, there will be some background readings and then presentation of opposing legal positions. Topics will include the legality of Israel’s policies and practices of occupation; local government, land, water, and education policy; the treatment of the Arab minority in Israel; free trade agreements and the human rights obligations of corporations operating in territory controlled by Israel; the historical and contemporary role of the United Nations in overseeing the conflict; counterterrorism and counterinsurgency law and policy; the right of resistance, self-determination and state recognition; allegations of state responsibility for genocide as well as state and non-state actors’ individual criminal liability for various international crimes, including at the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.