This course canvasses important areas of constitutional law that the mandatory first-year course does not address. It examines, inter alia current federalism issues, including the social union negotiations; constitutional amendment, including the process or succession; the judicial branch of government, and in particular the impact of the Judges Reference; the internationalization of domestic constitutional law and changing notions of sovereignty; and the Charter's mobility rights, language rights, and democratic rights. Overall, it identifies underlying themes in constitutional law and explores different approaches to constitutional adjudication.
A survey of the role of administrative agencies within the Anglo-Canadian legal system focusing primarily upon consideration of the extent to which agency and executive action is subject to judicial review and control.
Examination of the foundations of the law of evidence in civil and criminal trials in Canada. The principles, rules, statutes and procedures are examined from a critical perspective with emphasis on the history, rationale and reform of rules and statutes affecting the admissibility of evidence. The topics examined are admissibility, relevance, character evidence, opinion evidence, hearsay evidence, competence, privilege and confessions.
Examination of the basic features of business corporations. The following topics, among others, are considered: corporate personality, the process of incorporation, the powers and duties of directors and officers, shareholder rights and remedies.
Agriculture is a highly regulated industry in most jurisdictions; Canada and Saskatchewan are no exception. Farmers have historically claimed that common law rules of property and contract do not meet their needs. Governments have seen it to be in their interest to intervene in a way that ensures stability in both the agriculture and consumer communities. The result is a complex set of legal institutions regulating the relationships among farmers and the financial, marketing, and transportation organizations with which Saskatchewan agriculture operates, as well as the relevant federal statutes and the case material interpreting both provincial and federal statutes will be examined.
Examination of the maintenance and property rights as between husbands and wives and also spousal claims for the maintenance and custody of the children of the marriage on marriage breakdown. These issues are canvassed by having regard to both the federal and provincial legislation in force in the area of family law.
A chronological study of the procedural steps, rules and related substantive law in a civil action from the moment of the decision to sue to the trial of the matter. The context of the adversarial process in an action is examined by reference to the policies underlying civil procedure, the role and authority of the lawyer, the organization and jurisdiction of the courts, limitations of actions and costs. The civil action is examined through a focus on principles of jurisdiction and venue, type and manner of commencement of proceedings, pleadings, multiple claims and parties, and discovery. The course will involve the drafting of documents.
This is a “Legal Perspectives” course that introduces students to important theoretical questions in the context of constitutional law. These questions include the nature of law, the relationship between law and politics, the nature of judicial reasoning, the relationship between democratic practice and judicial review, the scope of the constitutional norms of equality and liberty. These issues will be explored using recent constitutional cases and scholarly writings.
This is a "Legal Perspectives" course intended to introduce students to the literature and approaches of what is presently known as "critical legal studies". Major themes developed in the work of "crits" and "fem-crits" include: the artificiality and arbitrariness of formal legal systems, the indeterminacy of rules, the duplicity of the public/private distinction, the use of myths of legal neutrality and objectivity to maintain hierarchy and conditions of social inequality, and the role of images and rhetoric of freedom and equality in obtaining compliance with institutional mechanisms of control and oppression. Many of these themes and problems were previously analyzed by the legal realists.
A "Legal Perspectives" course, examining some of the principle writings of Ronald Dworkin and the leading critics of his views. The course will examine Dworkin's critique of Legal Positivism, his theory of adjudicative decision making and its epistemological underpinnings, and the relationship between legal theory and liberal theories of rights and equality in his writings. Each topic will be examined in the context of the debates between Dworkin and his critics generated by these issues.