University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog

More opportunities for Students

I wanted to let you know that the application for the Institute for Humane Studies' Summer Seminars is now open. At these week-long seminars, participants examine society through the lens of liberty while hearing lectures from leading scholars and expanding their network. Seminars take place in a variety of locations across the U.S. and participants receive a scholarship that covers housing, meals, and books. The application deadline is March 31^st and students can find out more here: http://www.theihs.org/summer-seminars.

Also, if you are a student who would be interested in exposing and ending corporate welfare? Crony Chronicles will be distributing free student activism kits to campus groups that want to engage their campus in this conversation. For more information, visit http://cronychronicles.org/student-center/free-student-activism-kits/ or students can fill out this short form to request a FREE kit today: http://www.tfaforms.com/264104.

Sharks (and Leadership Lessons from a Shirtless Dancing Man!)

So. If you have followed my posts to date, you might have noticed a trend. Yes... sharks!

Over the next month or so I plan on using this blog to help drum up support across the country for private members bill C-380 (Ban on Shark Fin Importation) that will be debated this February.

You can follow the progress of the bill here. You can use the awesome Open Parliament initiative to learn more here.

Also, to get you motivated and pumped up to help sharks and jump on board with this national initaitve, a sweet inspirational Ted Talk is linked below!

World Legal Map

The University of Ottawa has this really neat map of the world's legal systems. (h/t Legal Theory)

No speech for 'bible scholar'

I had posted earlier about the bible scholar impersonator being charged for fraud and other charges. The intermediate appellate court in New York just released its opinion on the appeal from the convictions, and the result is that there are no speech protections for impersonators.

Eugene Volokh gives his most excellent (as always) analysis of the case.

My Syllabus

I will be teaching next fall for the first time in a while. If you are in my class, then you may want to read my syllabus. That way, you can get a headstart.

Ethical Coke

The top dog at Coca-Cola sat down for an interview with the Financial Times. In addition to having an interesting background, history, and outlook, I was impressed by this question and his answer:

In recent years business schools have put greater emphasis on ethics  and corporate and social responsibility. Is this something that can and should  be taught?

Read his answer and the rest of the interview - it is quick and interesting.

Rescue Bambi = Go to Jail?

In Indiana, at least, if you decide to rescue a poor baby deer, the state will sweep in and try to kill the deer. Resist, and jail is your destiny. You can't make this stuff up.

As if that is not bad enough, International Liberty , in the same post, lists more regulatory prosecutions gone bad including:

• A women jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside.
• Threatening to send a woman to jail because someone whistled at a whale.
• A video about how the EPA tried – and fortunately failed – to destroy a family.

Read the rest in at the end of the post.

Small steps...

This article from the NY Times suggests that shark fin consumption might be starting to subside in China. This is great news and reflects as education and public opinion remain a critical tool as we move towards reconsideration of our use of animals and the natural world. In addition to lobbying and information dissemination achieved by larger environental organizations (such as PEW), this article also hints at the importance of grass-roots education and awareness and the role that celebrities and public figures can play.

Congratulation to Business

Congratulations to Dean Joseph Doucet at the Faculty of Business for getting his school back in the rankings!

Age Discrimination

It seems that age, for now, is a suspect class that can found a cause of action in human rights law, in Alberta.

As my colleague Pat Paradis states, in the story, this is unprecedented.

I suspect that the Alberta Court of Appeal will have the final say on this, although the Supreme Court held otherwise many many years ago (on different grounds). This may cause the Supremes to take another look at this.

Adverse Possession

If you studied adeverse possession in property law, and wondered when does this ever happen, wonder no more. This dude in Florida has been openly notriouly squatting in a mansion waiting for his time to run. BoA is now fighting back.

Higher Credit Card Charges in the US

Starting soon, you may see a surcharge on your credit card bill if you pay a merchant by credit card. This is the result of  a class-action settlement in the US. In Canada, there is a similar class-action case pending before the competition tribunal, so the outcome of the case may yield a similar result.

Regardless, while it may seem like a victory for retailers, in the long-run, this may actually hurt them even more. With online retailers selling pretty much anything you can buy, and with competition rampant, we may actually revert back to the old days with no surcharges.

Another IJ Victory

The Institute for Justice scored another victory at the trial level when they defeated attempts by the US Federal government to seize a ma-and-pa run hotel on the grounds of asset forfeiture.

The Court rejected the government's claims that somehow the hotel owners were somehow legally connected to the few drug uses in the motel's rooms.

I have been very critical of these civil asset forfeiture claims in the past, as they require the state very little to show that the owner of the asset actually was part of any criminal activity. I should say that the Canadian experience has been much more humane than the American experience, which is why IJ has been fighting these fights in the US. Nonetheless, we need to be vigilant up here to prevent innocent property owners being caught up in these overzealous sweeps of power.

No Spousal Support in Quebec

well not quite, but today the Supreme Court of Canada held that Quebec's seperate treatment of married couples and unmarried couples was not a constitutional problem.

Two points:

1. After impressing me with their pithy pith and substance yesterday, they had to revert to their long and convulted judgments with dissents and sub-dissents and section xyz analysis etc.

1. Here is how I would have written the decision:

Kids, here is the easy way to understand this case: common law couples only exist in common law jurisdictions. Quebec is a civil code jurisidiction - hence, when you are not married in Quebec, you are not a common law couple. Period. No spousal support when you break up. If you want the spousal support then follow Beyonce's rule:

'Cause if you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it
If you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it
Don't be mad once you see that he want it'
Cause if you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

BEYONCE KNOWLES - SINGLE LADIES LYRICS

Congratulations to Michael Walker

Michael Walker, former Executive Director of the Fraser Institute, has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Congratulations.

Shortest SCC Case?

The majority decision's in today's SCC case is four (4) paragraphs long! That may have made it the shortest decision to date, but Justice Fish saw the need to dissent and added another whopping eighteen (18) pargraphs. Ugh - this should have been one of those situations where the CJ took Fish J. aside and said, maybe "I dissent" would be sufficient - we are trying to set a record here.

For that matter - the majority could have eliminated the middle two paragraphs and nothing would have been lost.

To Justice Karakatsanis and on behalf of law students everywhere: thank you for this short decision. 

Summer Internship Deadlines

Students:

I wanted to quickly make you aware that the application deadlines for the Institute for Humane Studies' Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program and Journalism Internship, as well as the Heritage Foundation Internship Program are coming up on January 31st. These paid internship programs offer hands-on experience for students who are interested in a variety of fields, such as public policy, journalism, marketing, development, and more.

How do you pronounce it again?

How fantastic is this? Yale Law School has put together a pronunciation dictionary of US Supreme Court case names, including phonetic spellings and audio clips. The goal of the dictionary is to assist lawyers, judges, teachers, students, and journalists correctly pronounce often-perplexing case names. 

So who wants to do a Canadian version? And how is "Prokofiew" pronounced anyway? 

 

 

International Humanitarian Law Student Writing Competition

Do you happen to have a great paper on international humanitarian law lying around?  

The third annual International Humanitarian Law Student Writing Competition is now accepting academic papers on the topic of international humanitarian law from students currently enrolled in a law degree program in the US and abroad. The purpose of the Competition, which is put on by the American University Washington College of Law Centre for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the American Society of International Law's Lieber Society,  is to enhance scholarship and deepen understanding among students in this important area of international law. Last year, the Competition received over 50 submissions from 13 different countries. The winning authors will present their papers at the Spring 2013 conference hosted by the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, DC. 

The deadline for submitting papers is Thursday, January 31, 2013,  at 12:00pm EST.

More more information, including Competition Rules, click on this link. 

 

You are a fat *$%

That sounds really rude and inconsiderate, but it is the recommendation of a bioethicist to combat obesity. In order to curb obesity, the scholar recommends fat shaming.

This is the result of the modern state invading our private spheres. The scientists who point to public resources being spent on health then seek to use whatever tools they have to achive their social goals, no matter how demeaning or violative of human dignity their proposals are.

Perhaps, we should add bioethicists to the list of professions whose members are cold and uncaring.