I recently learned of a new AI-detection software that I was curious to test.

What a Human Eye Can Pick Up

This spring, two faculty members asked me for some help in determining whether student papers may have been generated by AI.

I found a few non-determinative clues such as, the lack of footnotes for key concepts, the lack of pinpoint citations in footnotes, and writing that is generalized, high-level or non-analytical.

But up until now, I hadn’t heard of any AI detection software that could help.

AI to the Rescue?

So I was curious to try out QuillBot – . . . [more]

This article offers a concise overview of the Council of Europe’s (CoE) recent efforts in shaping global artificial intelligence (AI) governance. The newly adopted Framework Convention on AI has important implications for member states and beyond, notably Canada. Organizations and employers beginning to navigate the AI landscape will want to assess the widespread impact of this treaty on businesses worldwide. . . . [more]

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

The Trouble with Big Data: How Datafication Displaces Cultural Practices. By Jennifer Emond, Nicola Horsley, Jörg Lehmann & Mike Priddy. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. Includes index. ISBN 9781350239623 (hardcover) $143.95; ISBN 9781350239654 (eBook) Open Access.

Reviewed by Brianna Storms
Information Resources Librarian
Queen’s University

The authors of the open-access book . . . [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]

Each month, we tell you which three English-language cases and French-language cases have been the most viewed* on CanLII in the previous month and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this past month, the three most-consulted English-language decisions were:

1. R. v. Tayo Tompouba, 2024 SCC 16 (également disponible en français ici)

[24] The purpose of language rights is to “protect official language minorities in this country and to insure the equality of status of French and English” (Beaulac, at para. 41). These rights are “a fundamental tool” for the preservation . . . [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]

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 Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Pour commettre l’actus reus de l’infraction prévue à l’article 320.16 C.Cr., il faut conduire un moyen de transport qui est impliqué dans un accident avec une personne ou un autre moyen de transport et omettre de s’arrêter, de donner ses nom et adresse ou d’offrir de . . . [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