The second annual Constitutional Symposium at the University of Alberta on October 4 was a great opportunity for legal practitioners to keep current in constitutional law. It was presented by the Centre for Constitutional Studies in association with the Legal Education Society of Alberta, with a wide audience in mind, including: criminal defense lawyers; labour lawyers; human rights lawyers and members of administrative tribunals; and lawyers specializing in aboriginal law and Charter litigation.
If you were unable to attend but would still like to keep up to date in constitutional law, you can now order the following Constitutional Symposium seminar papers:
- Administrative Law, Judicial Deference, and the Charter by Professor Matthew Lewans – discussion of the effect of the SCC decision in Doré v. Barreau du Quebec on the doctrine of judicial deference in administrative law.
- Under the Influence: discrimination under human rights and section 15 of the Charter by Professor Jennifer Koshan – reviews the approaches to discrimination under both human rights legislation and the Charter, considering the Supreme Court’s historical approaches; presents a case study from the Alberta Court of Appeal – Wright v College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (Appeals Committee); and considers the arguments for and against keeping the approaches under human rights legislation and the Charter distinct.
- Whose Senate is it anyway? by Professor Peter J. Carver – examines the issue of senate reform, starting with the proposed Senate Reform Act, the Quebec government’s reference to the Quebec Court of Appeal, and the upcoming reference to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in November 2013.
- Métis Rights Update by Professor Catherine Bell – examines the Manitoba Métis Federation Inc. v. Canada case that the Manitoba Métis Federation sought to bring to the negotiation table with the federal and provincial governments in order to reconcile the history of Crown conduct and its impact on the Manitoba Métis people.
- Aboriginal Consultation and the Energy Resource Development Process in Alberta by Kirk N. Lambrecht, Q.C. – discusses the conflux between resources development in Alberta and aboriginal consultation.
- Alberta’s Métis Settlements and the Co-management agreement by Professor Wayne Renke – examines the 2013 amendments to the Co-Management Agreement (under the Métis Settlements Act).
- Digital Search & Seizure and Section 8 of the Charter: Recent Developments at the Supreme Court of Canada by Professor Steven Penney – examines the digital search cases heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 terms.
- Uncertainty Abounds: A Primer on Section 9 of the Charter and Police Detention and Arrest Powers – Drawing heavily on Criminal Procedure in Canada, this paper provides a primer on s 9 of the Charter, the constitutional guarantee “not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned” (Constitution Act).
- Canadian Obscenity Law 20 Years after Butler: the Mainstreaming of Violent Pornography by Professor Janine Benedet – considers the courts’ application of R. v. Butler in the twenty years since the Supreme Court handed it down
To find out more information about these seminar papers, visit Educational Resources
