This course analyzes the legal treatment of non-human animals, interrogating the limits of
the prevailing property concept that treats them as objects when they are also sentient
subjects with some legal rights. Topics explored include emerging alternatives to the
persons vs property debate; federal anti-cruelty protections and provincial welfare
legislation in Canada; and Indigenous laws and perspectives on non-human animals.
Course or Seminar Category: Equality Social Justice and Human Rights Law
Refugee Law
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.
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.
Legal Ethics
Legal ethics may be one of the only subjects in law school that every lawyer will encounter in practice. This course invites students to deeply engage, both conceptually and practically, not only with foundational principles of legal ethics, but also with lawyers’ duties and responsibilities to clients, to the profession, and to the wider community. We will discuss and evaluate the tools lawyers may (or may not) have in approaching complicated legal ethical problems that present themselves, often unexpectedly, in a lawyer’s professional life. We will explore current practical dilemmas in selected practice areas. We will also explore the influences of the adversary system on the pursuit of justice. (Please note that cameras are required to be on during class time in this remotely delivered course.)
Disability & the Law
This course examines disability as a legal category with implications for the rights of persons with disabilities. Students will be introduced to alternative conceptions and theories of disability and impairment, and will examine how law constructs and regulates the lives of individuals with disabilities. Throughout the course we will examine statutory provisions and jurisprudence in different areas including: family, reproduction, death and dying, health, human rights, education, social assistance and economic supports to understand how disability is defined and regulated by law. This course analyzes and evaluates how law can best achieve the goals of social justice, inclusion and equality for individuals with disabilities.
This course offers in-class instruction in an interactive lecture/discussion/presentation format. Students are expected to read the assigned materials before class and to participate in class discussions. From time to time, guests will be invited to speak about their area of expertise and/or their experience of law and disability.
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.
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.