A round-up of the Canadian Bar Review
Here's a quick peek at latest the from legal scholarship on emerging issues in law.
In the latest volume of the Canadian Bar Review:
Recognizing Indigenous law
Current efforts towards the revitalization of Indigenous law are likely to translate into greater demands for recognition by the Canadian legal system, writes Sébastien Grammond, a Federal Court Justice. This author first tries clarifying several concepts, including Indigenous law and legal traditions, from the perspective of legal pluralism. He then compares two models of relationships between legal systems that Canadian courts use to carve space for Indigenous laws: delegation and recognition. He then analyzes who makes the decision to delegate or recognize, how the contents of Indigenous law are conveyed, its scope of application and constraints on its contents. Finally he addresses the establishment of respectful relationships between decision-makers, especially in the context of administrative law.
Ethical discretion in reporting a child in need of protection
Everyone has an obligation to report when they have reason to believe that a child is in need of protection, including lawyers—except where that information is protected by solicitor-client privilege. If the information is confidential a lawyer is required to report their suspicion, but a lawyer can only report privileged information pursuant to an exception. Deanne Sowter, a doctoral candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School, examines the future harm exception and the debate about its permissiveness.
The evolution of life sentences
Debra Parkes, Jane Sprott and Isabel Gran remark that very little data has examined what life sentences for murder actually mean for those convicted in Canada. In beginning to fill that gap by examining data on both the parole ineligibility periods imposed by sentencing judges and how long people are serving before a grant of full parole over time from 1977 to 2020, the authors found statistically significant increases over time in judicial parole ineligibility periods and in how long people are serving beyond their first full parole eligibility date. They also found that Indigenous persons serve longer periods of time past their parole ineligibility date, and conclude that sentencing for murder has become increasingly harsh over time with no public safety rationale for this increase.
The duty of honest performance: A tort dressed ion contract clothing
The duty of honest performance is a contractual duty rather than a tortious one, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in CM Callow Inc v Zollinger. Anna S.P. Wong, a MPhil candidate at the University of Oxford, contends that the duty to act honestly, a welcome addition as it is to the realm of private-law obligations, represents an infusion of tort logic into contract law. To preserve the coherence of orthodox contract law as a distinct field of liability, the duty should be reclassified under tort. Its breach should be recognized as a tortious wrong, attracting compensation for reliance, not expectation, losses.
La force majeure invoquée par le créancier
En raison de la crise sanitaire liée à la pandémie de la Covid-19, la force majeure connait un regain d’attention jurisprudentielle, affirme Jérémie Torres-Ceyte de l’Université de Montréal. Plusieurs affaires récentes jettent un éclairage particulier sur une question largement ignorée jusqu’alors, soit celle de la force majeure invoquée par le créancier d’une obligation. Les perspectives ouvertes par l’admission d’une telle possibilité dans notre droit sont incontestablement de nature à séduire certains acteurs juridiques. Toutefois, cette admission n’irait pas sans poser de nombreux défis pour l’ordonnancement de la théorie générale du contrat. L’auteur tente de démontrer ici qu’il s’agit en réalité d’une fausse question qui connait déjà des solutions bien établies qu’il n’apparait pas opportun de remettre en cause.
