Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

The development of laws and their application to the citizen and social groups. Special consideration will be given to civil liberties. Breadth-Social Sciences.

COURSE DETAILS:

Laws are created, interpreted and enforced in the context of an interplay between the legislative and executive branches of government, and the judicial branch.

This course is divided into three parts. Part I provides a general overview of the constitutional framework within which the law is created and administered in Canada, followed by consideration of the political and legislative processes, and concluding with the courts and the legal process including the basic elements of legal reasoning.

In Part II of the course we will consider the roles of the central actors in the creation and administration of law: legislators (including members of the executive) and judges. We will look at the interrelationship between judges and legislators including the debate surrounding the proper roles of each with reference to the concepts of judicial activism and judicial restraint.

In Part III of the course we will look at specific issues which have been, and in many cases continue to be, the subject of both political debate and legal argument in Canadian society: abortion, physician-assisted death, safe-injection sites, pornography, hate speech, religious freedom, same-sex marriage and drug legalization.  

There will be one 3-hour lecture each week.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: