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The establishment of the Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) and Claims Commission (HPCC) in Kosovo has reflected an increasing focus internationally on the post-conflict restitution of housing and property rights. In approximately three years of full-scale operation, the institutions have managed to make a property rights determination on almost all of the approximate 30,000 contested residential properties. As such, HPD and HPCC are being looked to by many in other post-conflict areas as an example of how to proceed. While the efficiency of the organizations is commendable, one of the key original goals – the return of displaced persons to their homes of origin – has to a large degree been left aside. The paper focuses on two distinct failures of the international community with respect to the functioning of HPD/HPCC and its possible effect on returns: a failure of coordination between HPD/HPCC and other organizations working on returns, and the isolation of residential property rights determinations from other aspects of building a property rights-respecting culture in Kosovo.

The following study evaluates the complex association between legal involvement and mental illness. It describes a population of consumers of community mental health programs, comparing those with legal involvement to those without legal involvement, on a number of demographic, clinical and social indicators. It is a secondary analysis of data collected in studies making up the Community Mental Health Evaluation Initiative (CMHEI) in the province of Ontario, Canada. Legal involvement was a significant issue among community mental health program consumers; about one in five consumers had at least some contact with the legal system in the preceding nine months. Legally involved consumers were more likely to be in receipt of social assistance and be unstably housed than those legally uninvolved. However, there were no significant differences between legally involved and uninvolved consumers with respect to severity of symptomatology, current medication use or number of hospitalization days in the past 9 months. A predictive model compared the differential impact of clinical and social determinants upon legal involvement. Analyses failed to uncover a significant relationship between severity of psychiatric symptomatology and legal involvement. Significant predictors of legal involvement included gender, race, drug use as well as housing instability, and receipt of social assistance. Legal involvement was attributable to factors other than the severity of mental illness; these results challenge assumptions that the most symptomatically severe consumers are most at risk of legal involvement. Accordingly, the rate of legal involvement in a sample of community mental health program users must be considered in a broad context, with particular emphasis on social disadvantage.

Since the end of the Cold War, a number of regional conflicts worldwide have devastated innocent populations. The conflicts in Rwanda and in the Balkans come to mind as prominent examples. With these developments the literature about women and war has proliferated.

A multisite evaluation of community mental health services is used to answer two questions: (a) How do diagnosis, functioning, and self–assessments of consumer/survivor initiative (CSI) and assertive community treatment (ACT) participants compare?, and (b) What other supports/services are CSI and ACT participants using? The sample is from an Ontario evaluation of consumer/survivor peer initiatives in four communities (n = 73). The reference group is new (n = 48) and ongoing (n = 134) clients of four ACT teams. Self–help organizations are serving a broader population of individuals who include a significant subgroup of persons with severe mental illness along with others with a mixed picture of higher functioning and greater instability. There is little overlap in the use of these modes of service delivery, which suggests that maintaining options within systems of care is critical to ensuring coverage and access for the broader population.

Government-sponsored gambling is a signficant source of revenue for the Province of Ontario, but it comes at a significant social costs to a vulnerable segment of society. It is estimated that 4.8% of adults who gamble are problem gamblers, but they contribute 35% of Ontario's gaming revenues. Is Ontario responsible at law for harm suffered by problem gamblers in the province's casinos? In this paper, the authors address this question by considering the common law duty of care, particularly in the context of commercial host liability, and its possible extension to the problem gambling context.

The establishment of the Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) and Claims Commission (HPCC) in Kosovo has reflected an increasing focus internationally on the post-conflict restitution of housing and property rights. In approximately three years of full-scale operation, the institutions have managed to make a property rights determination on almost all of the approximate 30,000 contested residential properties. As such, HPD and HPCC are being looked to by many in other post-conflict areas as an example of how to proceed. While the efficiency of the organizations is commendable, one of the key original goals – the return of displaced persons to their homes of origin – has to a large degree been left aside. The paper focuses on two distinct failures of the international community with respect to the functioning of HPD/HPCC and its possible effect on returns: a failure of coordination between HPD/HPCC and other organizations working on returns, and the isolation of residential property rights determinations from other aspects of building a property rights-respecting culture in Kosovo.

This chapter begins with overview of international law protections of a displaced person’s right to return to his or her home of origin. It focuses on the case studies of Kosovo and Georgia and considers the international community’s approach ‘on the ground’. The chapter addresses some of the weaknesses of an approach which relies to too great an extent on property restitution mechanisms as vehicles by which to encourage refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) returns and protect such individuals’ rights to housing and the enjoyment of their property. IDPs’ lack of willingness to return may be related not only to political uncertainty in their area of origin, but also to ways in which they have adapted over time to circumstances in the place where they have taken refuge. The right to return to one’s home of origin, and the corresponding right to housing and property restitution for displaced persons, has been increasingly articulated in peace agreements and UN documents.

The colour of justice in Canada is largely driven by stereotypical assumptions about crime and those who commit it. Over the last few years, the use of race, ethnicity, and religion as indicators of suspicion by the police and security officials has come under scrutiny. The focus, however, has largely been on the American experience. The Colour of Justice provides the first comprehensive look at racial profiling in Canada. Its aim is to foster understanding and reform. The book uses social science evidence, judicial decisions, commission findings, government and police documents, narratives, and media reports to provide the answers to the following questions: When should policing be characterized as racial profiling? Why does it occur? How pervasive is it? What damage does it cause? Is it ever reasonable? How do we stop it? David M. Tanovich is one of Canada's leading experts in the area of systemic racism and criminal justice. As a lawyer, he argued the first appellate case to address racial profiling (R. v. Richards). As a law professor at the University of Windsor, he has written extensively in the area of racial profiling and has been invited across Canada to present his research. His work has been cited by Canadian courts, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and academics in both Canada and the United States.