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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

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Last Entry: February 22, 2010 at 09:28:28

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 [...

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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...

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