Feasible or Impossible? During the past decade there have been significant developments in the field of international environmental law due to the factual understanding that environmental issues transcend national borders and legal systems. However, the scientific uncertainty about the long‐term effects of international environmental risks often allows nations to justify postponing compliance...
The Ethics of Regulating Robot Sex The summer of 2015 has been a monumental season for robots. Just this July, a robotics company called Softbank released a humanoid robot that it claims is able to sense users’ emotions. Even more impressive, scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York developed a robot that broke new ground in demonstrating self-awareness. The robot’s...
For at least as long as The Paper Chase has been an element of our popular imagination, it seems there have been two dominant features of the first year law school curriculum: the case book and the Socratic method. Does this signature pedagogical approach really teach first years to “think like a lawyer?” Or is it an ineffective and antiquated form of teaching? Might it even be, as critics...
Supreme Court Rules Ecuadorean Plaintiffs Allowed to Pursue Enforcement of Judgment Against Chevron In Yaiguaje v. Chevron Corporation, the plaintiffs, representing about 30,000 Ecuadorean villagers, seek damages from the defendant for injuries resulting from environmental pollution. They originally filed their claim in New York federal court in 1993, believing Ecuadorian courts to be ill...
From Arthurs to Wright, where will your favourite Osgoode dean rank? “Look to your left, look to your right…”: the classic go-to of any law dean’s welcome address to the incoming students. Historically the saying would end, “one of you won’t be here by the end of the year,” an attempt to underline the cutthroat, competitive nature of law school. That said, deans have adapted and varied the...
Children’s Rights in Ghana This article was published as part of the Osgoode chapter of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR) media series, which aims to promote an awareness of international human rights issues. To get involved, visit CLAIHR at It is no secret that the ideals law strives to achieve and what occurs in reality are often vastly different. International law, and...
A story of Ukrainian refugees seventy years later At the end of the summer, just before returning to classes at Osgoode Hall, I made my annual summer trip to my hometown of Winnipeg. While there, I visited my Ukrainian Baba, and came across the following two photos. On the left is a photo of my Dido in a refugee camp in 1944, alongside other Ukrainian refugees. On the right is my Baba in 1945 in...
Brad Wall Stirs the Genetically Engineered Pot Recently, the Premier of Saskatchewan, Brad Wall, came out and asked federal leaders to explain their viewpoints on genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Mr. Wall is obviously very concerned about their opinion, since Saskatchewan relies heavily on many of these crops, specifically GE canola, for their economy. As far as I know the candidates have...
Boutique Firms and Sole Practitioners There are few marketing plans that exist today without a digital strategy. Digital marketing necessities such as achieving search engine optimization (SEO) allow marketers to ensure their content is effectively reaching the targeted market – whether in the legal field or other. As such, competition is fairly stiff between legal content providers for medium...
Preparing Tomorrow’s Lawyers Today Last December, I had lunch with a group of friends who I hadn’t seen since I started law school. So much had happened since the last time we were all together, making us eager to catch up and share what we’d been up to. Naturally, we all took turns sharing stories about our lives, but something shifted when it was my turn to speak. Faced with questions about...
Why hosting the Olympics would be the worst thing to ever happen to Toronto Pardon the hyperbole. The Great Fire of 1904 was certainly worse, and the decision to build the Gardiner expressway would at least be on the short list. Did you know that not only does it completely ruin the lakeshore, but they also tore down a popular amusement park to build it? If you didn’t have the pleasure of living...
“We live in rapidly changing times,” writes Osgoode’s Associate Dean Trevor Farrow. Ethical questions are “continuously changing as a result of global trends.” The “complexity of today’s world is an issue for all lawyers.” Needless to say, globalization has been in vogue in the academy for more than a decade, not just in professional circles. So why is there so much talk and so little impact? Why...
Early Thoughts on Second Class Citizenship in Canada In May 2015, Bill C-24—ironically titled the ‘Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act’—came into effect. For the first time ever, Canada imposed a tiered level of citizenship. While the government has touted the bill as a cost-effective method for fighting terrorism, legal experts around the country have suggested the main effect is the creation...
Tracking the various Omnibus Bills implemented by the Harper Government Omnibus bills: one of Harper’s favourite tools; used akin to the invisibility cloak in Harry Potter, as most of the public has no idea what changes are being made to many laws which change our daily lives. Generally, omnibus bills cover a diverse range of topics, and it is a single document accepted in a single vote by the...
Spoiler Alert: They Aren’t News With students headed back to university campuses this September (or August, as the case for some of us may be), one of last year’s most fraught topics is returning to relevance for fall 2015: the question of whether or not university professors should be required to include trigger warnings on classroom syllabi. The debate around the pros and cons of trigger...
The Four Best and Worst Ways the Strike Affected Student Caucus As a Student Caucus representative and 1L student, I found myself thrown into discussions in a context I hadn’t contemplated in my legal education: a labour dispute. In my personal political adventure on Student Caucus in the midst of crisis, I partook in Osgoode’s quest for exemption from the academic activity ban and for the holy...
Sailing in the Uncharted Waters of 3D Printing In 1974, a joke written by David Jones in the New Scientist unknowingly predicted the development of an innovation that decades later would be called “the third industrial revolution.” Though his proposal imagined a laser that when shined through liquid plastic monomer caused it to solidify was intended to be tongue-in-cheek, it was only three years...
A Canadian-Israeli’s (Surprisingly Optimistic) Perspective on the Recent Elections and What the Future Holds for Israel Israel has a new government, and not everyone is happy—including many progressive Israelis. As a Canadian Jew by birth and an Israeli by choice, I offer a perspective shared by many here and in Israel—and it is a surprisingly optimistic one. I am always worried about...
An interview with Nejeed Kassam, CEO of Networks for Change Nejeed Kassam graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2014. Currently articling at Ricketts Harris LLP, he is the CEO of Networks for Change (NFC), a social enterprise that celebrated a soft launch of their flagship product, Keela, at the United Nations in February 2015. Keela.co is a collaborative project management platform designed...
Per jus ad justitiam. Through law to justice. So reads the Latin phrase on the regal crest of Osgoode Hall Law School. I have always understood that phrase quite literally—the law ought to be used to pursue justice. There are some, however, who seem to interpret it to mean that our understanding of the law ought to inform our understanding of justice. This puts the cart before the horse—and it is...
With present concerns over the ongoing strike at York University, it’s easy for the environment to take a back seat on our list of priorities. However, rather than making us forget the importance of environmental protection, the labour disruption should remind us of that issue. The labour movement started about a century before the modern environmental movement, but the two phenomena have...
The Old Adage Doesn’t Fail A wise old man once said, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Why bother messing around with something if it was absolutely amazing the first time around? Many would believe that you ought to stick to what works! The Pebble Technology team took that to heart when they designed their third-generation smartwatch. In February 2015, the company launched pre-orders for its...
Preventing Parallel Imports of Trademarked Goods through Copyright Law Traditionally, trademark owners have primarily relied upon exclusive distribution agreements between manufacturers and distributors to control the flow of their goods within the market. However, the territorial restrictions in these agreements are subject to privity of contract and, therefore, suffer from the third party...
I was having lunch with some law school friends last semester. We were discussing some of the careers our peers had before coming to law school. I noted that one of our classmates had been a food blogger in her pre-law school life. My friend shouted, “that’s my dream job!”Her exclamation made me laugh. What on earth are you doing in law school, I thought, if you really want to be a food blogger...
The hidden discrimination against vegetarians, and why it actually matters One of the fundamental rights protected by the Charter is the right to freedom of conscience and religion. This right is so important that the Charter also prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion. And while recent case law has held that these rights do not extend to the more marginal or fringe religious sects and...