This essay examines an international dimension of trust in electronic commerce: how to give legal recognition in one country to electronic documents from another. Recognition involves attributing legal status to electronic messages exchanged across borders. The usual phrase is “mutual recognition”. Mutual recognition means reciprocal recognition: A recognizes B’s e-documents because B recognizes A’s.

It is not logically necessary for cross-border recognition to be mutual. A could recognize B’s reliability standards and thus give effect to its documents even if B does not return the favour. However, in practice it is likely that a country that accepts another country’s standards . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Practice

Glean Wisdom From Women Leading in Law
Emma Durand-Wood

Erin Cowling’s wonderful interview series, Women Leading in Law, is back up and running after a bit of a break. In response to the difficult times we’re in, Cowling notes, “I don’t know about you but I need some good news right about now. And I believe there’s nothing better than reading positive stories about women kicking butt in . . . [more]

Southeast Asian mothers around the world rave about the spice turmeric, not only as an essential ingredient in traditional cooking, but also for its health benefits. Growing up, my mom’s remedy to solve many ailments was to drink turmeric in milk, traditionally known as Haldi Ka Doodh. To my mom, a teaspoon of turmeric in warm milk could cure most health issues.

Cough or runny nose? Haldi Ka Doodh.

Muscle or joint pain? Haldi Ka Doodh.

Deep cuts? Haldi Ka Doodh.

And today, I can still envision her telling me…

Stressed about COVID-19? Haldi Ka Doodh. . . . [more]

I spend a lot of time in this column talking about the future of legal technology. Today, I’d like to give you something a little more practical, and help you use the technology you already have.

Let me share with you the one thing that I wish every lawyer and law student knew about Microsoft Word: Multilevel lists.

In the toolbar of Microsoft Word you will find Multilevel lists just to the right of bullets and numbered lists.

Click on that button, and a menu appears. You’re going to want to click on “Define New Multilevel List…”

In the screen . . . [more]

Although all courts are backlogged during the pandemic, there is probably no more tension right now in our justice system than with family law, especially as parents struggle with social distancing while sorting out the exchange of children.

For some family law litigants, less pressing matters such as obtaining the exclusive possession of a matrimonial home has been pushed through the courts, as in Alsawwah v. Afifi.

Justice Kurz, in granting the motion for exclusive possession to the Respondent, indicated that much of the materials were unnecessary, distracting, and unhelpful to the resolution of the motion. On this . . . [more]

One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all appeals as well as leaves to appeal granted so you will know what the SCC will soon be dealing with (April 16 – May 15, 2020 inclusive).

Appeals

Bankruptcy and Insolvency: Discretionary Authority of Supervising Judge; Litigation Funding
9354-9186 Québec inc. v. Callidus Capital Corp., 2020 SCC 10 (38594)

The supervising judge here was appropriately . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Ju stice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

RESPONSABILITÉ : Les défendeurs ont exploité et maltraité une femme de 89 ans, laquelle a notamment dû, en raison de leurs comportements fautifs, s’enfuir en plein d’hiver d’une résidence pour personne âgée où elle était gardée contre son gré et entreprendre un recours afin de faire déclarer nul un . . . [more]

The global scale of the current pandemic has led to what feels like a remarkably unprecedented level of solidarity in a world pulling together (while standing apart) amid this common cause of fighting the spread of Covid-19. In the area in which I work (from home) of scholarly communication, publishers have been not only creating public access to Covid-19 collections of research and professional resources, from Elsevier’s COVID-19 Clinical Toolkit to Wiley’s Coronavirus Resources & News. Wellcome Trust has reaffirmed its 2016 “Statement on Data Sharing in Public Health Emergencies,” which has been signed by every major biomedical publisher . . . [more]

Each Friday, we share the latest job listings from Slaw Jobs, which features employment opportunities from across the country. Find out more about these positions by following the links below, or learn how you can use Slaw Jobs to gain valuable exposure for your job ads, while supporting the great Canadian legal commentary at Slaw.ca.

Current postings on Slaw Jobs (newest first):

• Managing Director (Full-time) | Toronto, ON
  (Legal Information and Resource Network (LIRN)

Written by Lewis Waring, Paralegal, Student-at-law, Editor, First Reference Inc.

Effects of unionization on the employment relationship

Unions have a variety of significant effects on the employment relationship and greatly affect the rights and obligations of employers and employees. The repercussions of unionization are so significant that the law surrounding unionized workplaces is considered to be an entirely distinct area of law from law surrounding non-unionized workplaces.

One such difference related to unionization is the legal path workers are allowed to take when confronted with a human rights issue in the workplace. In such a case, a non-unionized worker could . . . [more]

Knowledge management (KM) professionals know that there are several elements that will make or break the success of a KM initiative. One such element is mostly humans: Will the lawyers in your organization actually adopt the industry leading enterprise search system that you are spending big bucks on?

At the same time, anyone who has a close or remote encounter with the law in Canada has CanLII.org open on one or several devices. The site, heavily used by Canadian lawyers, is a good example of a widespread adoption of technology by the legal profession and the judiciary. Also, if you . . . [more]