Life of a Law Student: Law Students

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Law Students Blogs

Law Students

Life of a Law Student

Features a growing body of recorded courses meant to be shared among law students and those considering the study of law.
By Neil Wehneman

Post Frequency: 0.3/day

Last Entry: September 19, 2009 at 19:05:33

The Art of the Law School Transfer

Posted on September 19, 2009
As many of you know, I transferred law schools after my 1L year. Many law students consider transferring after their 1L year, generally to move to a higher ranked school. I transferred because I was marrying someone out of state (and dropping a little in the law school rankings), so I didn’t have the same [...

A Plea to New Law Students

Posted on September 16, 2009
Among other things, I am Firearms Instructor. When I tell people this, it’s usually a 50/50 split as to whether their eyes are filled with fear or interest. Minds have been conditioned by the media and social biases that “Guns are bad.” When I counsel students at the college where I work who are starting their [...

LoaLS #1 on Online Schools Blog Choice

Posted on August 03, 2009
I found out this morning that Life of a Law Student is the top choice over at OnlineSchools.Org on their list of 100 Best Blogs for Law School Students. “Law school is an arduous ordeal few are prepared to undertake. In recent years, the proliferation of technology has made it easier for students to get study [...

Fixing Podcasts

Posted on April 30, 2009
Greetings, folks! So, in the course of migration from Podango, several of our podcasts had become corrupted. I have begun restoring the process from DVD backup, though it will take a while. Criminal Law has been fixed as well as Property Law — the others will need to be manually edited since our automated process for [...

To access blog feed reader register for free. (You will also learn about new ways to read and access the freshest law blogs.)

Feed Woes Update

Posted on January 07, 2009
It pays to be a programmer sometimes. I just finished writing a script to migrate our database so the podcasts, which previously pointed to the Podango feed, now point to a valid source location. You can now listen to our podcasts through the website or you can subscribe to the various classes at our feedpage — [...

Of Feeds and Technical Difficulties

Posted on January 03, 2009
Greetings, folks… As of December 31st, 2008, our primary feed provider, Podango, decided to reorganize and switch from a free-based service to a fee-based service. In true internet fashion, they gave everyone about a weeks notice to switch everything over and forward their RSS feeds...

It?s Time For Finals!

Posted on December 11, 2008
It’s time for finals and, in the spirit of reviewing, Fitz found this great video on YouTube. Enjoy!

The Constution, Bill of Rights and Bankrupcy Procedures

Posted on October 11, 2008
Fitz, over at The Law Pod, has updated his iPod Touch and iPhone resource with the Constitution and the Amendments along with the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. Interestingly, you can browse to the pages directly on your PC or Macintosh, but only with Safari (Apple’s browser) or Google’s “Chrome”, but only because it used [...

Federal Rules

Posted on October 06, 2008
Fitz, over at The Law Pod, has a great resource for your iPhone or your iPod Touch. Law Pod?s web applications can be quickly and easily installed on your iPhone or iPod Touch by following the directions on the law pod home page. The Law Pod currently features the following web applications: - Federal Rules of Civil [...

News and Views #23: New Feeds And Nominations

Posted on September 15, 2008
In this episode, we let you know that our two new feeds are both finally up — Introduction to Criminal Justice is a 100-level Criminal Justice course for Delaware Tech and Criminal Judiciary is a 200-level Criminal Justice course at Delaware Tech...

Criminal Judiciary #2: Law and Crime

Posted on September 12, 2008
In this episode of Criminal Judiciary, we get a brief overview of the history of our law and its English roots. Common law, civil law and criminal law and basic legal concepts are explained and we learn the different between “beyond a reasonable doubt” and “beyond a preponderance of the evidence...

In Our Thoughts?

Posted on September 11, 2008
I just wanted to take a brief moment to recognize the 7th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, 2001. The injured and those who were lost and their survivors are in my thoughts today.

Intro to Criminal Justice #1: Justice and Public Safety

Posted on September 09, 2008
Benjamin Franklin was once quoted as saying, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” There’s a balance that must be struck between maintaing individual rights while balancing them against the interest of public safety...

News and Views #22: New Feeds and Podcast Awards!

Posted on August 30, 2008
This is a quick podcast to tell you about a couple of new feeds we have no for the Fall and to request your help! To begin with, Episode 1 of our Criminal Judiciary podcast is up and available! By tomorrow, I’m hoping to have up the first episode of the Introduction to Criminal Justice podcast [...

Criminal Judiciary #1: House v. Bell

Posted on August 30, 2008
With a new semester comes new courses; with new courses comes new content! Criminal Judiciary is a 200-level undergraduate course offered at Delaware Tech as part of their Criminal Justice program — the course will cover the history, traditions and philosophies of our system of justice in addition to covering many landmark cases and court [...

I Don?t Know What I?ll Do This Summer

Posted on August 11, 2008
Steve Luther is a law student who’s trying to find the right summer job — the pressures of deciding whether to follow his conscious or his wallet ultimately throw his life into turmoil, so he does what any of us would do… he turns it into a four minute work of fiction he made to [...

News and Views #21: D.C. v. Heller

Posted on August 07, 2008
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. No other sentence has been the root of so much contention, confusion and controversy when it comes to the Bill of Rights...

News and Views #20: Introducing Rob Wiltbank

Posted on August 04, 2008
Rob Wiltbank will be taking up the mantle as Project Lead for Life of a Law Student. As an established IT industry professional and a Criminal Justice as Pre-Law student, Rob will be adding undergrad content as he continues to push forward to expand the project.

Website Software Updated

Posted on August 04, 2008
I’ve updated the site to the latest version of the software available by WordPress — if you come across any oddities or issues, please let me know! Additionally, I’ve gotten my introduction recorded and will be publishing that podcast very soon, so keep an eye out on the News and Views feed.

Getting Back on Track? An Update.

Posted on July 31, 2008
Greetings, folks. I’m looking to get things back on track, albeit in baby steps. My name is Rob Wiltbank and I’ll be lending a hand to Neil for the foreseeable future with Life of a Law Student. Between law school, some personal commitments and, of course, being a good husband, it’s going to be [...

Plan for this Semester

Posted on January 30, 2008
I know many of you are getting tired of seeing new blog posts but no new content. I understand. It’s killing me that I haven’t had the opportunity to add much to the site in some time. Unfortunately, I see now that my 18 credit hour schedule is not going to be as friendly as I [...

Vote for Law Student Run JURIST in Webbys

Posted on January 29, 2008
Hi LoaLS Readers, I am a 1L at the University of Pittsburgh, and avid LoaLS reader. As I told Neil in my e-mail, the resources he has have been extremely helpful to me in my first year. Neil is letting me post here about the 2008 Webby Awards and JURIST, the site I write for...

Why the Site (Still) Isn?t Fully Working

Posted on January 19, 2008
The company that runs the back-end CMS I use (Podango) is still experiencing problems. They transitioned servers last night, and now I’m unable to log in to my control panel to manage audio and troubleshoot the problems with the recently uploaded audio...

Update: Technical Glitches and Episode Backlog

Posted on January 09, 2008
Hey all, So last semester is over, and a new semester is about to begin. You may have noticed a few episodes up, but they are taking time to get up (and often don’t work if you go to listen to them). Here’s what’s going on. The back-end Content Management System I use was taken [...

Copyright Law #4: Fixation

Posted on December 28, 2007
Copyright applies upon tangible fixation. In this episode, we will examine what is meant by “fixation,” including the question of whether a copy of a work in RAM is tangibly fixed. Note: Due to temporary technical issues, this episode lacks an intro and outro (they will be provided shortly)...

Copyright Law #3: Introduction to Copyright III

Posted on December 28, 2007
Copyright in the United States is affected by both the Federal Constitution, and international law such as the Berne Convention. Additionally, international law is often used to justify increases in rights for the sake of “harmonization.” We conclude this last introductory episode by briefly comparing and contrasting several areas of the law that [...

Copyright Law #2: Introduction to Copyright II

Posted on December 28, 2007
Copyright applies to a wide variety of works, even types of expression that are newly created (and not explicitly referenced in the copyright act). However, some items of “intellectual creation” are outside of copyright, such as ideas or works of the federal government...

Copyright Law #1: Introduction to Copyright I

Posted on December 28, 2007
In this, the first episode of Copyright Law, we begin a high-level overview of what copyright is. Almost everyone is a copyright holder, with specific exclusive rights over their original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium. We close this episode with a look at three views of the justification [...

Fundamentals of Copyright #11: Non-Copyright Concerns

Posted on December 28, 2007
Copyright is not the only law you have to be aware of when considering whether or not to use a work. Patents, trademarks, trade secrets, contracts, and other issues may provide an additional “layer of protection” beyond just copyright. Download Standard Podcast

Fundamentals of Copyright #10: Other Limitations and Exceptions

Posted on December 28, 2007
Fair Use is not the only limitation or exception to the exclusive rights of copyright. In this episode, Prof. Crews walks through several other limitations and exceptions. Download Standard Podcast

Fundamentals of Copyright #9: Fair Use IV

Posted on December 28, 2007
In this final episode on Fair Use, Prof. Crews reviews and wraps up Fair Use. Additionally, Prof. Crews discusses hard and fast “guidelines” that are often promulgated in the fields of education and libraries. Download Standard Podcast

Fundamentals of Copyright #8: Fair Use III

Posted on December 28, 2007
Fair Use provides guidelines, but very few hard and fast rules. As an example, sometimes using large amounts of a copyrighted work (perhaps even all of the copyrighted work) will qualify as a Fair Use, while sometimes using only a small amount of a copyrighted work will not qualify as Fair Use...

Fundamentals of Copyright #7: Fair Use II

Posted on December 28, 2007
In this second episode of Fair Use, Prof. Crews examines two actual court cases applying Fair Use. The first case concerns photocopying by Kinko’s, and the second case concerns 2 Live Crew’s parody of the song “Pretty Woman.” Download Standard Podcast

Fundamentals of Copyright #6: Fair Use I

Posted on December 28, 2007
The “exclusive rights” of copyright aren’t exactly exclusive. There are numerous exceptions and limitations to these rights, with Fair Use being the most important of these. In this first episode on Fair Use, Prof. Crews examines the four statutory factors of Fair Use...

Fundamentals of Copyright #5: The Five Exclusive Rights and Moral Rights

Posted on December 28, 2007
The core of copyright revolves around the five exclusive rights. These rights include the right of reproduction, distribution, public display, public performance, and the creation of derivative works. The concept of “moral rights” are also discussed...

Fundamentals of Copyright #4: Duration of Copyright II

Posted on December 28, 2007
The duration of a copyright is treated slightly differently if the work is a “work made for hire.” In this episode, Prof. Crews defines “work made for hire,” and looks at the specific issues regarding these works. Download Standard Podcast

Fundamentals of Copyright #3: Duration of Copyright I

Posted on December 28, 2007
Copyright lasts for a very long time. For works created after 1977, the term of copyright is life of the author plus seventy years. However, previous copyright acts had different rules, and those rules will affect the duration of pre-1978 works. Prof...

Fundamentals of Copyright #2: Basic Mantra and Some Exceptions

Posted on December 28, 2007
In this episode, Prof. Crews looks at the basic mantra of copyright: copyright applies instantly and automatically to original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Some of the exceptions to copyright are examined, such as facts, ideas, and works of the federal government being outside of copyright...

Fundamentals of Copyright #1: High-Level Overview of Copyright

Posted on December 28, 2007
In this, the first episode of Fundamentals of Copyright, Prof. Kenneth Crews gives a high-level overview of copyright law. Essentially, the law gives specific rights to the holder of a copyright and then carves out certain exceptions. Copyright is granted automatically to a wide range of works, and lasts for a very long [...

Technical Problems

Posted on December 04, 2007
It’s been brought to my attention that audio is unavailable at the moment. This is a problem with our external host. I am looking into it, and hope for things to be resolved shortly. In the meantime, you might want to check http://lifeofalawstudent...

Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law #5: Constitutional Review

Posted on November 28, 2007
In this podcast we will consider the issue of constitutional review, specifically whether section 7 of the charter is violated by deportation. Singh v Minister of Employment and Immigration (1985) Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration) v Chiarelli (1992) Suresh v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) (2002) Download Standard Podcast

Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law #4: National Status

Posted on November 28, 2007
In this podcast, we will consider the different types of status that may be held by an individual in Canada - Citizen, Permanent Resident, and Foreign National. We will begin a preliminary examination of the effect a different status can make on one’s rights, which shall be expanded upon throughout the course...

Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law #3: Sovereignty and Open Boarders, Part 2

Posted on November 25, 2007
This episode is a continuation of the discussion of open boarders from the previous podcast. We will focus on the writings of Catherine Dauvergne and Donald Galloway. Download Standard Podcast

Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law #2: Sovereignty and Open Boarders

Posted on November 25, 2007
In this podcast, we will consider some of the theories of state sovereignty and the arguments for and against open boarders. This topic will span two podcasts. The first will focus on the writings of Carens and Walzer. Download Standard Podcast

Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law #1: Introduction

Posted on November 25, 2007
This is the first podcast in Canadian Immigration and refugee law. We begin by considering the historical evolution of immigration within Canada and then turn to some early immigration cases to consider the role that racism played in the immigration process...

We?re Not Dead Yet!

Posted on October 08, 2007
Hey everyone. Just an FYI: I have not forgotten about or abandoned LoaLS. The transition back to law school has required significantly more time than I had expected. I also had to spend a great deal earlier this semester writing an appellate brief for Moot Court...

Canadian Constitutional Law #37 - Remedies and Reform

Posted on August 23, 2007
In this podcast we will discuss remedies within the constitution, and the process of constitutional reform within Canada. This is the final podcast in Canadian Constitutional Law. Schachter v Canada (1992) Vriend v Alta (1998) Download Canadian Constitutional Law 37

Canadian Constituional Law #36 - Aboriginal Rights

Posted on August 22, 2007
In the second-last podcast for the course, we move outside the Charter and consider the constitutional entrenchment of aboriginal rights in sec 35 of the Constitution Act 1982. Even though these rights are entrenched outside of the Charter, we will see how jurisprudence has imposed limits upon aboriginal rights in a style very similar [...

Canadian Consitutional Law #35: Language Rights

Posted on August 16, 2007
Language rights are very important in Canada as a result of the historical French-English tension. However, sections 91 and 92 do not assign administration of language-related issues to a specific level of government, so it is treated as an ancilliary sphere over which both levels of government have some control...

Canadian Constitutional Law #34: Economic and Social Rights

Posted on August 16, 2007
Why does the Charter focus on legal and politcal rights, to the exclusion of economic and social rights? What does this absence mean for Canadian citizens? Could economic and social rights be read into the charter under an existing section? That’s what Gosselin tries to do in Gosselin v Quebec, without success...

Canadian Constitutional Law #33: Equality Rights

Posted on August 16, 2007
In this podcast we will be discussing section 15 of the charter, equality rights. It is important to understand the difference between formal equality (American model) and substantive equality (Canadian model). We will consider the case of Law v Canada, which contains a very thorough analysis of equality rights by Iacobucci J...

Canadian Constitutional Law #32: Section 7 continued, Assisted Suicide

Posted on April 13, 2007
Continuing on with our look at section 7 rights, we will now consider the case of Rodriguez v BC (AG). A woman with Lou Gehrig’s disease seeks a declaration that she may legally seek doctor-assisted suicide when her condition deteriorates to the point that she wishes to end her life...

Canadian Constitutional Law #31: Life, Liberty, and Security of the Person

Posted on April 13, 2007
Moving on to section 7 of the Charter, the first and broadest of the legal rights (ss7-14), we consider life, liberty, and security of the person. This is often used in a criminal law setting, but the cases we looked at in class were more unique. In this podcast, we consider the meaning [...

Canadian Constitutional Law #30: Hate Speech

Posted on April 06, 2007
Is hate speech a form of expression? Can it earn the same Charter protection as dissident political speech? In this podcast, we will discuss hate speech, focusing mainly on R v Keegstra. We will briefly compare the Canadian and American conceptions of hate speech...

Canadian Constitutional Law #29: Freedom of Expression

Posted on April 06, 2007
What constitutes expression? Does it have to be speech, or can it include actions such as picketing? What restrictions on expression are justified? In our second podcast on fundamental freedoms, we will consider the importance given to free expression in our constitution (sec 2(b))...

Canadian Constitutional Law #28: Freedom of Religion

Posted on March 10, 2007
Can you take your kirpan to school? Not even if it’s in a box under your clothes? These are the questions of section 2(a), freedom of religion. We’ll talk about the evolution of the concept of freedom of religion and look at two cases as examples...

Canadian Constitutional Law #27: Section 33, Notwithstanding Clause

Posted on March 10, 2007
Section 33 of the Charter allows sections 2 and 7-15 to be overridden if parliament or a provincial legislature expressly declare that a law shall operate notwithstanding the charter. This section is almost never invoked by the government because of the political repercussions, but it was considered by the supreme court in Ford v [...

Canadian Constitutional Law # 26: Section 1 Analysis

Posted on March 09, 2007
If you listen to only one Canadian Constitutional Law podcast, it should be this one. Or maybe number 5, since that had both the landmark persons case and the concept of the constitution as a living tree. Well, let’s say if you listen to only two, this should be the second...

Canadian Constitutional Law #25: Application of the Charter and Charter Standing

Posted on March 09, 2007
Whose behaviour is bound by the Charter? Sec 32 tells us it applies to government (as opposed to private actors), but in practice this is more difficult to define than it would seem. We will look at a series of cases which define the limits of the Charter’s application...

Canadian Constitutional Law #24: Judicial Review in Light of the Charter

Posted on March 07, 2007
In this short episode we will discuss the viewpoints of several authors on the issue of judicial review and its role in a democracy. We will consider the writings of W. Bogart, A. Petter, P. Monahan, and Hogg and Bushell, then look at a quick excerpt from Vriend v Alberta...

Constitutional Law (Samuel) #2: Mootness

Posted on February 21, 2007
In Samuel Berbano’s second of a series of podcasts on justiciability doctrines, we’ll analyze the question of Mootness as it relates to Federal Article III courts. These courts are bound to take only cases which commentators call a “case or controversy” requirement...

Canadian Constitutional Law #23: Approaches to Charter Interpretation

Posted on February 10, 2007
Well, it’s February and we made it to the Charter (if I only I could make it to spring break…) In this podcast we’ll talk about the advent of the Charter and some approaches the court has developed for its interpretation. Interpreting a constitutional document is different from regular statute interpretation, so Dickson [...

Canadian Constitutional Law #22: Implied (and Real) Bill of Rights

Posted on February 10, 2007
Were there any protections in place for our rights before the Charter? In this podcast we first look at the “implied bill of rights”, a concept drawn from a series of pre-Charter cases that seem to hint at the idea that there may be a sphere of fundamental freedoms needed for a democracy which is beyond [...

Canadian Constitutional Law #21:Racism in the Law, Pre-Charter Era

Posted on February 10, 2007
In this podcast we will look at three cases as examples of how racism in the law was dealt with before the charter entrenchment of rights. Without a constitutional document protecting rights, we see that the court could only strike racist legislation on the basis of division of powers...

Canadian Constitutional Law #20: International Economic Obligations

Posted on February 10, 2007
In this podcast we discuss some of Canada’s international economic agreements, and how they are impacted by division of power issues regarding the economy. We will look at some ways in which the constitution is “amended” in practice - that is, the methods that may be employed to achieve a distribution of power between [...

Foundations of Canadian Law #6: The Hart-Fuller Debate

Posted on January 31, 2007
This podcast we will do a brief overview of the Hart-Fuller debate. What happens when two overeducated professors duke it out in the Harvard Law Review? Hart defends the positivist stance that law and morality are separate, while Fuller maintains that law must encompass a certain amount of morality to explain its binding [...

Foundations of Canadian Law #5: Rules and Obligations

Posted on January 31, 2007
As Foundations abruptly stops being simple, I attempt to explain the philosophies of HLA Hart and Ronald Dworkin regarding the nature of law, legal systems, and the source of our obligations to obey. Hart’s positivism views law as seperate from morality (more on this next podcast), and explains obligations as a product of social [...

Foundations of Canadian Law #4: Conceptions of Justice

Posted on January 31, 2007
What is justice? Is it the same as law? What happens when laws are unjust or harmful to us? In this episode we discuss Aristotle’s Ethics, Plato’s Republic and Dialogues, and Sophocles’ Anitgone. We will discuss different conceptions of justice, and the moral dilemna that arises in regards to obeying laws which [...

Foundations of Canadian Law #3: Aboriginal Title

Posted on January 31, 2007
This podcast we look at the landmark Delgamuukw case, in which the Supreme Court recognized the aboriginal title held by several First Nations in BC. This title is not the same as ownership, it is the sui generis right to exclusive use and occupation of the land, inalienable but to the crown...

Maritime Law #4: Recovery of Non-Pecuniary Damages (with Prof. Force)

Posted on January 31, 2007
If you have taken civil procedure or listened to one of Neil’s podcasts on the subject, you may be familiar with the Erie doctrine. In matters of admiralty law, the reverse Erie doctrine applies; common law is created by the federal judiciary. Such federal common law rules are even binding on state courts hearing an [...

Constitutional Law (Samuel) #1: Standing

Posted on January 28, 2007
Plaintiffs have standing when the court finds that there is (I) an legally-recognised harm to the plaintiff, (II) a reasonable causal connexion between the injury to the plaintiff and the complained-of conduct of the defendant, and (III) a likelihood that an affirmative ruling will vindicate the rights of the plaintiff.

Canadian Constitutional Law #19: Economic Regulation II

Posted on January 24, 2007
In our second podcast on economic regulation, we look at the federal government?s power to legislate for trade under sec 91(2), control over trade and commerce. Beginning with the parsons case, this has been interpreted as containing 2 branches: power over international or interprovincial trade and commerce, and a second branch of power over general [...

Canadian Constitutional Law #18: Economic Regulation I

Posted on January 24, 2007
Who has jurisdiction over economic regulation? This is an area that could fit under the federal power of trade and commerce (sec91(2)), or the provincial power over property and civil rights (sec92(13)). In general, intraprovincial trade is considered to be a provincial matter and interprovincial and international trade is considered a federal matter...

Foundations of Canadian Law #2: Court System

Posted on January 15, 2007
In this episode we look at the structure of the court system in Canada. The most important feature to remember is that Canada is a unified (as opposed to a dual) court system. So our courts sit in direct hierarchies, with the Supreme Court serving as the final court of appeal for both federal and [...

Foundations of Canadian Law #1: Civil Law History

Posted on January 15, 2007
This is the first podcast in a class called Foundations of Canadian Law at McGill University. In Foundations we tend to cover a wide variety of topics related to law such as philosophy, aboriginal title, history, rights, rules and morals, etc., so many of these episodes can stand alone...

Canadian Constitutional Law #17: Provincial Regulation of Morality

Posted on January 15, 2007
Nude dancing, prostitution and stamping out communism are just some of the issues the provinces have attempted to tackle. Since morality is considered a valid criminal purpose (see Margarine reference from episode 15 of the last term’s podcasts), and criminal law is a federal power, how have the courts interpreted provincial attempts to regulate [...

Canadian Constitutional Law #16: Review

Posted on December 20, 2006
In about 40 minutes we recap the whole term. We will begin term two in January with provincial regulation of morality. Download Standard Podcast

Canadian Constitutional Law #15: Federal Criminal Power

Posted on December 20, 2006
Under 91(27) the federal government has the plenary (total) power to make criminal laws for Canada. This power has been interpreted very broadly by the courts to include legislation that can appear more regulatory than criminal so long as it contains a prohibition and punishment, with a valid purpose (usually protecting the public from an [...

Canadian Constitutional Law #14: POGG National Concern

Posted on December 20, 2006
To conclude our discussion of POGG, we will look at the second major branch of this concept as national concern. What makes something national concern? What criteria must it meet? The foundational case on this subject is R v Crown Zellerbach Ltd, in which justice Le Dain establishes a test to determine whether an area [...

Canadian Constitutional Law #13: POGG Emergency

Posted on December 20, 2006
The federal government has the power to make lakes for the “Peace Order and Good Governance” (POGG) of the country under s91. But what does this mean? In the first of two podcasts on POGG we will look at POGG as an emergency power, as seen in the Laskin-Beetz debate in the Anti-Inflation Reference 1976...

Canadian Constitutional Law #12: Paramountcy Doctrine

Posted on November 24, 2006
This is the last doctrine for a while! Paramountcy dictates that in areas of concurrent jurisdiction (remember the double aspect doctrine?), if there is a conflict between statutes the federal government will have final say. In this podcast will we observe a drunk driver have his licence both suspended and restricted (confusing, no?) [...

Canadian Constitutional Law #11: Interjurisdictional Immunity Doctrine

Posted on November 24, 2006
We continue our study of the many, many doctrines of Canadian Constitutional theory with the Interjurisdictional Immunity Doctrine, which exempts certain federal undertakings (think Bell Canada) from provincial laws which are otherwise valid. In this podcast you will learn: where labour laws go to die...

Canadian Constitutional Law #10: Ancillary Doctrine, Double Aspect Doctrine

Posted on November 24, 2006
In this podcast we celebrate the conclusion of my memo by studying two more doctrines! The Ancillary (also called Necessarily Incidental) doctrine is sometimes used to uphold a specific provision that infringes on another government’s jurisdiction when the provision is part of a larger valid scheme...

Constitutional Law II #31: Public Displays and Free Exercise

Posted on November 18, 2006
In this, our final episode for Constitutional Law II, we will examine public religious displays (such as nativity scenes and the Ten Commandments), as well as briefly consider the Free Exercise of religion. Lynch v. Donnelly (SCOTUS, 1984) Allegheny County v...

Constitutional Law II #30: More Tests and School Prayer

Posted on November 18, 2006
In this episode we will examine the coercion test, the history / tradition test, the “stupid legislator” test, as well as briefly examining school prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Marsh v. Chambers (SCOTUS, 1983) Lee v. Weisman (SCOTUS, 1992) Santa Fe Independent School District v...

Constitutional Law II #29: Establishment and School Funding

Posted on November 18, 2006
Can the state provide funding to a private, religious school? The answer, as in many situations is, “it depends.” In this episode we’ll look at some of the various ways that private-school funding has been deemed an establishment, and other ways in which it was not...