Course or Seminar Category: Family Law

Taxation Law

This is a foundational course in the JD program. It focuses on the basic provisions of the Income Tax Act (ITA) and fundamental principles and policies. The ITA is the biggest statute in Canada, raising about 2/3 of total tax revenues to finance public spending programs that Canadians want and affecting every aspect of commercial and personal life of most Canadians. It embodies the balance of equity and efficiency and the give-and-take reached by Canadians through the democratic process over the past 100 years.

As part of the legal system governed by the rule of law, the ITA recognizes taxpayers’ right to minimize taxation and “speaks” as precisely as possible to specify who is taxable and for how much. This course is thus “perfect” for learning key legal skills – statutory interpretation, problem solving and policy analysis.

The course uses an “easy-to-read” textbook and supplement it with the ITA and landmark court decisions. Guest speakers may be invited to offer insights on key issues and practical application of the law. Students are expected to be attend classes in person and be part of the learning community.

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.

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.

Taxation Law

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.

Trusts

This course will introduce students to trusts, a historic concept which today is used in many flexible applications. Trusts figure in a wide range of legal specialties such as tax, estate, property, family, securities, construction and pension law.

This course will cover the foundations of trust law: principles of fiduciary relationships, specific nature of a trust, how trusts are created or arise at law, and their variation and termination. We will examine duties and powers of trustees and how trustees are replaced. We will look at various types of trusts, including: charitable trusts, resulting trusts, and constructive trusts. Throughout the course, we will consider possible breaches of trust and available remedies, an area of interest to future litigators.

Weekly format will be:
-about 45 minutes pre-recorded weekly lecture
-within the regularly scheduled in-person class time – about 2 hour lecture and about 45 minutes unrecorded “workshop time” to facilitate discussion and skills development

By registering for this course, students acknowledge that short portions of submitted assignments may be subsequently used in class, on a “no name” basis, for review and education purposes in compliance with the Fair Dealing Guidelines for York Faculty and Staff.

Wills and Estates

A basic and fundamental course in the law of Wills and Estates, including: an examination of will planning and drafting; consequences of not having a will; steps involved in the administration of an estate; the impact of legislation dealing with basic income tax issues, matrimonial entitlement, and the support of dependants; mental incapacity issues and the appointment of substitute decision-makers for incapable persons; and the resolution of estates disputes, including a review of available alternative dispute resolution procedures.

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.

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.