Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An analysis of the Canadian constitution from a theoretical and comparative perspective. Amendment, entrenchment, civil rights.

COURSE DETAILS:

COURSE DETAILS:

This course sheds light on the interplay between the wording of Canda’s formal constitutional documents and the shifting constitutional reality driven by judicial interpretation and constitutional conventions. Students considering law school will benefit from this introduction to constitutional law, while anyone interested in Canadian politics will gain insights into how Canada's constitution works in theory and practice.

You will learn about the vast discretion judges have, the principles they use to interpret the Constitution, and the on-going evolution of Canada’s constitutional framework.

The central focus will be on the Constitution’s division of responsibility for specific areas of public policy between the federal and provincial governments. The course will also explore interaction between law and politics in our constitutional conventions, the informal rules that dramatically modify how some of the formal Constitution operates in practice. You should take away from this course an appreciation of how intertwined politics and law are, both in the work of judges and in the informal rules governing Canada’s political actors. Brief overviews of the Charter of Rights and Aboriginal rights are included to round out an understanding of Canada’s constitution. Please note that rights issues are covered in depth in POL 421 - Rights, Equality, and the Charter.

Students should be aware that close attention to detail is required and considerable memory work is essential to preparing for the midterm and final exams in this course.

COURSE ORGANIZATION:

This course will consist of weekly video lectures, accessed asynchronously, and a weekly one-hour in-person tutorial beginning in Week Two. Each week’s lecture videos should be watched before attending the tutorial.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: