In a recent paper , Professor Cass Sunstein of Harvard University suggests American Supreme Court justices can be identified as adhering to four distinct personae in their adjudicatory style. Sunstein argues that constitutional law is dominated by those whom he calls: Heroes, Soldiers, Burkeans and Mutes. Ultimately, Sunstein’s point is that judges do not consistently identify as one specific persona, but that the standard theories of constitutional interpretation (originalism, moralism, etc) can lead to the adoption of one or another of the personae depending on the occasion.

While Sunstein’s account is meant to be limited to American constitutional law, his . . . [more]

Access to justice, according to some definitions, includes a public that has some legal literacy – people who are aware of their rights and obligations under the law.

Technology helps promote a form of legal literacy, but some lawyers say it’s a double-edged sword – clients are more willing than ever to participate in the process, says one contributor to the CBA Legal Futures consultation, but they “lack the practical understanding of the limitations of the judicial system to fully appreciate risk.”

Just as some medical patients will research online and then ask their family physician to confirm Dr. . . . [more]

In a decision released yesterday, HM Attorney General v Davey [2013] EWHC 2317 (Admin), the High Court of England and Wales gave leave for applications for committal orders for contempt of court against two men, each of whom had sat as a juror in a criminal case and each of whom had used the internet in contravention of instructions not to do so.

Davey posted the following message to his Facebook account at the end of the first day of the trial:

Woooow I wasn’t expecting to be in a jury Deciding a paedophile’s fate, I’ve always wanted to

. . . [more]

Edward Snowden’s recent disclosures have revealed a need to rethink the way that the current legal structure governing the clandestine activities of intelligence agencies provides for proper oversight by Congress and the public at large.

In a recent case, Heather Sinclair-McDonald, Human Being, asserted that she had waived her rights as a person under the law and therefore the Income Tax Act did not apply to her. She sought an order requiring CRA to pay back all taxes collected from her over the last ten years.

The CRA was able to have the lawsuit dismissed at the outset on the basis that Ms. Sinclair-McDonald’s claim did not disclose a reasonable cause of action.

The court noted that argument made by the plaintiff, that she is a human being and not a person recognized under . . . [more]

The recent floods in Calgary and Toronto have brought considerable attention to the water damage coverage and exclusions of most home insurance policies. Water damage represents approximately 40% of all eligible home insurance claims, and costs the Canadian insurance industry just under $2 billion annually. While most home insurance covers water damage, there are two significant situations excluded in a standard policy: flood and seepage. 

A flood, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, is defined as water flowing overland and entering your home through windows, doors and cracks. This is surface water on what would otherwise be dry . . . [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 technology, research and practice.

Technology

Cool Pics of Cool Things on WhereCoolThingsHappen.com
Dan Pinnington

There are loads of photo sharing and collection sites on the web. One can spend many hours wondering around looking for great pictures. One site worth a visit is WhereCoolThingsHappen.com. It has collections of photos of “cool” places, stays, art, photos, gadgets, transport, outdoor advertisements, food and architecture. . . .

Research

Read About Clients
Shaunna Mireau

The best legal . . . [more]

The Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL – the French privacy authority) has recently found a company in breach of its duty to protect the personal information of its employees because the company used unduly short passwords that were too easy to guess and that were not changed often enough. (See the story on Le Village de la Justice)

According to the CNIL, the employer should have had a password policy that required longer passwords composed of letters, numbers and special characters, and that also required that the passwords be changed frequently.

It was not demonstrated that . . . [more]

One of our columnists, Patrick McKenna, is no longer able to write for Slaw. His twenty columns over the years were a valuable contribution for which we are very grateful. His insights will be missed.

Geneviève Lay has informed us that after two years on board she must withdraw from blogging on Slaw. Fortunately her colleague at Norton Rose Fulbright, Maya Angenot, has agreed to join Slaw as a regular blogger.

Maya is an associate at Norton Rose Fulbright who practices in the areas of civil and commercial litigation, with a particular interest in class action matters, as well . . . [more]

I now continue sharing some of the lessons I learned from walking the historic pilgrimage route in France and Spain, the Camino Frances, over six weeks in May and June. Before we started our journey, the question in our minds was how we were going to sustain walking 20 or 25 (or even 30) kilometres a day, carrying all our belongings? We practiced hiking regularly with our backpacks loaded, but could only really manage time for walking two or maybe three days in a row. How would we walk for 35 days?

After the first two weeks–especially walking through . . . [more]

The Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) has just released its 2012-2013 Annual Report, aussi disponible en français, naturellement.

The Report noted the publication during the year of three informational documents related to the role of technology:

• Guidelines on Benchmarking of Costs
• Court Information Management Policy Framework to Accommodate the Digital Environment
• A Comparative Analysis of Key Characteristics of Court Administration Systems

Judicial conduct, one of the key concerns of the CJC, will be the subject of review:

In the coming months, Council will consider how best to engage stakeholders and other Canadians to explore all and any appropriate avenues

. . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada's award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from forty-one recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Legal Post   2. Le Blogue du CRL   3. Environmental Law and Litigation   4. Michael Geist    5. Legal Feeds Blog