On May 21, 2024, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea delivered a groundbreaking advisory opinion on state parties’ climate change obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The unanimous opinion found that state parties have legal obligations to implement measures to prevent, reduce and control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including by enacting laws and regulations. In developing those measures, states must consider the best available science and international treaties like the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

This is the first time an international court . . . [more]

Following ChatGPT’s public release in November 2022, there has been growing discussion about how generative AI intersects with lawyers’ professional obligations as found in codes of conduct. I published some early thoughts on this topic in Slaw.ca (see here and here). Several Canadian law societies have now also published guidance. Providing this sort of information is essential, in my view, for building needed tech literacy in the profession, particularly as AI becomes increasingly integrated into common tools that lawyers already use on a daily basis. Unfortunately, we have already seen that appropriate AI use by lawyers is not inevitable . . . [more]

Most of the semi-permanent controversy concerning articling revolves around whether it should be retained as a requirement for lawyer licensure, and if so, how the profession can ensure there are enough articling opportunities for all licensure candidates. Rarely discussed, but relevant to both inquiries, is a simpler question: How long should the articling term last?

It’s revealing that there’s no single answer to that question. Currently, most Canadian jurisdictions impose a 12-month or 52-week articling period, which may include time spent in a bar admission course. In Ontario, however, the articling term is ten months long, and in British . . . [more]

Much concern was expressed on whether a technological protection measure could be used despite the fair dealing user’s right to effectively lock up a work forever.

Some parts if the answer to this issue have been found by the Federal Court in 1395804 Ontario Ltd. (Blacklock’s Reporter) v. Canada (Attorney General), 2024 FC 829.

This case came to the Court by an unusual procedure. The day before the plaintiff, Blacklock’s Reporter, dismissed its claim of copyright infringement against Parks Canada, Parks Canada filed an application for summary judgment and a counterclaim. After the Court established that the counterclaim could . . . [more]

A growing number of initiatives in the healthcare sector in Canada and in other jurisdictions facilitate access to care beyond what might be considered a medical intervention. The Social Medicine Supportive Housing Project at Toronto’s University Health Network (UHN) stands out as a prominent example in the Canadian context. In 2019, UHN launched a housing project to build homes on its lands with a view to prescribing housing to dozens of patients for whom chronic homelessness and housing precarity translate into thousands of emergency room visits every year. A 2023 article in Maclean’s Magazine discusses the UHN project, which was . . . [more]

Singapore’s courts were a mess in the late 1980s. There was a five year backlog of cases, and the average commercial matter took between five and six years to resolve. Hearing dates were being set as much as two years in the future.

These timelines may sound familiar, if you’re involved with Canada’s civil courts. The numbers are eerily similar here right now.

And yet what happened in Singapore in the 1990s should encourage Canadians who want to see speedier access to justice in our country. A dramatic improvement was delivered, in only ten years. By the end of the . . . [more]

The last two years have seen excessive hype over the text generation functions that large language models facilitate, which doesn’t need to be remarked on here more than it already has. But, I do think it’s important to note that applications like word processors and email have been transformative for the practice of law and other knowledge work over the last 40 years, and this can be considered an expected continuation of this long term trend.

These types of tools all reduce the friction involved in creation of documents and mean that written material can be produced more quickly and . . . [more]

The increased presence of artificial intelligence (AI) in the legal sphere has been a controversial topic in discussions about access to justice. While some claim that AI will act as a great equalizer — ringing in a new age of AI-powered legal assistance for those who most need it — its rise to fame in the legal field instead seems to be catalyzing the opposite reality.^[1] As private AI companies increasingly dominate the practice of law, we are beginning to enter an era of unchecked digital capitalism, where the legal field’s most underserved participants are increasingly falling behind the . . . [more]

Auditing your firm’s marketing activities allows you to examine all marketing and communication efforts to evaluate their effectiveness and alignment with the firm’s overall objectives. Below is a short guide on performing an audit, what to look for, and areas to focus on.

1. Define Objectives and Goals

One of the early items in the audit is to ensure that your marketing activities align with the firm’s overall strategic goals. This will help measure the success of marketing activities against defined benchmarks.

• Review the firm’s strategic plan.
• Identify specific marketing goals, such as increasing client acquisition, improving brand awareness, or

In the dynamic realm of international sports, conflicts and disputes frequently emerge, ranging from doping allegations to contested referee decisions. Resolving these issues swiftly and impartially is paramount to maintaining the integrity of sporting competitions. Enter the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, a pivotal institution tasked with adjudicating such disputes since its inception in 1983. Particularly noteworthy, considering the sports calendar for July 2024 is the CAS Ad Hoc Division, a specialized body established to ensure justice during the Olympics. This brief post delves into the intricacies of the CAS Ad Hoc Division, its . . . [more]

A mediation critic claims “mediators have no teeth”. This is to suggest that mediators have no power. The thinking being that a mediator’s lack of decision making renders them without authority.

Mediation is a process of self-determination for the parties participating in it. The mediator is a neutral facilitator, not an outcome imposer. For that reason, a mediator’s settlement rate is as misleading a statistic as a pitcher’s wins in baseball. Baseball fans know that a pitcher cannot earn a win without their team scoring runs, a task the pitcher is not involved in. Likewise, whether or not a case . . . [more]

If you are searching a looseleaf or text you may find it helpful to restrict your search to just the table of contents.

This can give you a more useful set of results, particularly in situations where the terms used are very common or have multiple meanings. However you may miss some relevant content if the table of contents doesn’t use the precise words or terms you are searching for.

Both Lexis+ and Westlaw Canada allow you to limit your search to the table of contents of a specific title.

Lexis+

In Lexis+, use the Table of Contents (TOC) only . . . [more]