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This book brings together Indigenous, Third World and Settler perspectives on the theory and practice of decolonizing law. Colonialism, imperialism, and settler colonialism continue to affect the lives of racialized communities and Indigenous Peoples around the world. Law, in its many iterations, has played an active role in the dispossession and disenfranchisement of colonized peoples. Law and its various institutions are the means by which colonial, imperial, and settler colonial programs and policies continue to be reinforced and sustained. There are, however, recent and historical examples in which law has played a significant role in dismantling colonial and imperial structures set up during the process of colonization. This book combines usually distinct Indigenous, Third World and Settler perspectives in order to take up the effort of decolonizing law: both in practice and in the concern to distance and to liberate the foundational theories of legal knowledge and academic engagement from the manifestations of colonialism, imperialism and settler colonialism. Including work by scholars from the Global South and North, this book will be of interest to academics, students and others interested in the legacy of colonial and settler law, and its overcoming.

This chapter examines the role of the judiciary, the Registry, and defence counsel at the International Criminal Court with a view to assessing whether defendants’ rights are adequately protected at the Court. Part I examines the critical role played by the judges of the Court as those ultimately responsible for safeguarding the fairness of all judicial proceedings. Part II considers the role of the Registry in protecting defendants’ rights. While potentially less apparent to those unfamiliar with the Court, the Registry plays an integral role in this task by, inter alia, facilitating the appointment of legal representation, managing the Court’s legal aid program, and managing the Court’s detention centre. Part III then reviews the structure and provision of defence counsel of the Court, including the guaranteed right to counsel, competency requirements for counsel, ethical obligations of defence counsel, the unique Office of the Public Counsel for Defence, and the Court’s legal aid regime. Finally, section IV assesses whether defendants’ rights are adequately protected. The Rome Statute, Rules of Procedure and Evidence, Regulations of the Court and the Registry, the Chambers Practice Manual, Code of Judicial Ethics, and Code of Professional Conduct for Counsel together define a comprehensive regime for protection of the rights of defendants at the Court. Many have lauded this as an improvement over prior courts and tribunals. Nonetheless, many critiques have been levied regarding insufficient resources for defence counsel and inadequate legal aid funding as well as institutional inequality between the defence and prosecution. Actual, robust implementation of this regime is critical for true equality of arms and full guarantee of defendants’ rights.

We live in a moment of renewed and highly visible action on the issue of sexual violence. Rape culture is a real and salient force that dominates campus climates and student experiences. Canada has drafted a national framework, provincial legislation, and institutional policy to address incidences of sexual violence, and students have demanded that their universities respond. Yet rape culture persists on campuses throughout North America. Violence Interrupted presents different ways of thinking about sexual violence. It draws together multiple disciplinary perspectives to synthesize new conceptual directions on the nature of the problem and the changes that are required to address it. Analyzing survey data, educational programs, participatory photography projects, interviews, autoethnography, legal case studies, and existing policy, contributors open up the conversation to illustrate sexual violence on campus as a structural, cultural, and complex social phenomenon. The diversity of methodologies sets this study apart: a problem as complex and far-reaching as rape culture must be approached from a multitude of angles. Decades have passed since student advocates first called for "no means no" campaigns, but universities are still struggling to evolve. Violence Interrupted answers the call by bridging the gap between advocacy, research, and institutional change.

The amendments to the Indian Act over the past forty-four years have done very little to assist First Nations women and their children in their fight to reclaim their identity and their connections to their ancestry. The Act, originally enacted in 1876, has had a few amendments since that time. In 1982, the Constitution Act of Canada was legislated and with it came the Charter of Rights and Freedoms so the federal government was designated to remove any discrimination in all of its legislation. This included the Indian Act. The amendments following were in 1985, commonly referred to as Bill C-31 as well as C-3 in 2011 and S-3 in 2017. These amendments have resulted in many heated and disturbing conflicts amongst First Nations people, including First Nations women and their children who have been directly affected by the sexually discriminating sections of the Act. This chapter provides a historical overview of the Act, its origins and its inherent racist and sexist policies. As well it discusses those amendments affecting First Nations women and her descendants, specifically the registration and membership provisions that continue to discriminate against First Nations Women and her descendants who are both male and female.

Using Palestine as its case study, this chapter posits that judicial trustworthiness represents an important ameliorating factor for transitional justice to take hold and that judicial education constitutes an ameliorating factor that can nurture judicial trustworthiness. Distinguishing trust, distrust and trustworthiness, we explain the importance of judicial institutional trustworthiness as an ameliorating factor. Drawing on literature that identifies institutional trustworthiness as a function of three features: ability, integrity and benevolence, we then explore how the Karamah model of judicial education helped build judicial institutional trustworthiness. Karamah was developed in Palestine and adopted dignity as its overarching theme. Working with an interdisciplinary and international team through Karamah, Palestinian judges invoked dignity as a legal principle, a statement of shared political values and an aspect of their professional identity. In the process, they articulated a framework for thinking about the ability, integrity and benevolence of the Palestinian judiciary. Finally, we chronicle the ways in which the Karamah model of judicial education impacted the judiciary and the judiciary system in Palestine. We end with a note of caution: if rule of law programming, judicial reform and judicial education are substituted for transitional justice measures, conflicts can become even more intractable.

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease known as COVID-19, has infected people in 212 countries so far and on every continent except Antarctica.   Vast changes to our home lives, social interactions, government functioning and relations between countries have swept the world in a few months and are difficult to hold in one’s mind at one time. That is why a collaborative effort such as this edited, multidisciplinary collection is needed. This book confronts the vulnerabilities and interconnectedness made visible by the pandemic and its consequences, along with the legal, ethical and policy responses. These include vulnerabilities for people who have been harmed or will be harmed by the virus directly and those harmed by measures taken to slow its relentless march; vulnerabilities exposed in our institutions, governance and legal structures; and vulnerabilities in other countries and at the global level where persistent injustices harm us all.   Hopefully, COVID-19 will forces us to deeply reflect on how we govern and our policy priorities; to focus preparedness, precaution, and recovery to include all, not just some.  Published in English and French.

"At the time of writing, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease known as COVID-19,1 has infected people in 212 countries and on every continent except Antarctica. As of May 17, 2020, 5,780 people have died in Canada, and worldwide, there are over 313,000 reported deaths. The true death toll is certainly higher, and more will die in the coming months. Vast changes to our home lives, social interactions, government functioning and relations between countries have swept the world in a few months and are difficult to hold in one's mind at one time. That is why a collaborative effort such as this edited, multidisciplinary collection is needed. This book confronts the vulnerabilities and interconnectedness made visible by the pandemic and its consequences, along with the legal, ethical and policy responses. These include vulnerabilities for people who have been harmed or will be harmed by the virus directly and those harmed by measures taken to slow its relentless march; vulnerabilities exposed in our institutions, governance and legal structures; and vulnerabilities in other countries and at the global level where persistent injustices harm us all. We conclude with the hope that COVID-19 forces us to deeply reflect on how we govern and our policy priorities; to focus preparedness, precaution, and recovery to include all, not just some."--

The Supreme Court of Canada has accepted that in the common law of contract a high degree of stability is desirable and incremental changes are to be justified on an evident need to update common law principles to local conditions. In this chapter, the work of the Supreme Court of Canada is described in respect to the law of remedies for contract breach. In particular, the court has justified a slightly more regulatory function in its development of punitive damages and the award of damages for non-pecuniary damages in contracts characterised by power imbalances. The different tack taken concerning specific performance and its impact on mitigation and damages also reflects arguments over different market conditions prevailing in Canada when compared to the United Kingdom.