December 2020 Issue of In Session - E-Newsletter of Canadian Association of Law Libraries

The December 2020 issue of In Session is available online. 

It is the monthly e-newsletter of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) and contains news from CALL committees and special interest groups, member updates and events.

In the current issue, there is news about:

• the call for proposals for the 2021 annual conference
• the 2021 elections to the executive
• deadlines for applications for scholarships and nominations for association awards
• activities of the mentorship program and the Private Law Libraries Special Interest Group
• an upcoming survey of the  Courthouse and Law Society Libraries Special Interest Group on how library plans are functioning at this mid-point time of the pandemic
• the Vendor Liaison Committee's semi-annual call with LexisNexis Canada

International Webinar Next Week on Building the Evidence for Safer Library Re-opening

 The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) is offering 2 webinars next week on Building the Evidence for Safer Re-opening: Overview of the RE-opening Archives, Libraries and Museums (REALM) Project:

"Through the REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums (REALM) Project, OCLC, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Battelle are conducting research on how long the virus survives on materials that are prevalent in libraries, archives, and museums."

"IFLA is happy to host this webinar in order to help libraries globally learn more about the testing process, how to present results to your stakeholders, project resources to inform your local decisions, and what you can expect from the project in the months to come."

The webinars are next Tuesday and Thursday. 

REALM is a collaboration between OCLC, an international library services cooperative, the US government agency Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Battelle, an R&D organization.

Earlier Library Boy posts on the topic:

• REALM Project: COVID Virus Undetectable on Five Highly Circulated Library Materials After Three Days (June 24, 2020)
  
• REALM Project Test 2 Results for COVID Virus Survival on 5 Library Materials (July 21, 2020)
• REALM Project Test 3 Results for COVID Virus Survival on Library Materials (August 18, 2020)
• REALM Project Test 4 Results for COVID Virus Survival on Library Materials (September 8, 2020)
• REALM Project Test Results for COVID Virus Survival on Library Materials (November 23, 2020)

Canadian Bar Review: Special Issue on the R v Stanley Trial

The most recent issue of the Canadian Bar Review is available online. It is the bilingual peer-reviewed legal journal of the Canadian Bar Association.

The issue features a number of articles on the R. v. Stanley trial.

Gerald  Stanley, a white Saskatchewan farmer, was acquitted in a case where he had been charged with second degree murder and manslaughter in the death of an Indigenous man, Colton Boushie. 

In the summer of 2016, Stanley had shot and killed Boushie after he and friends entered the farmer's property.

The Crown argued that Stanley deliberately pointed the gun and pulled the trigger, intending to kill Boushie. Stanley testified that he believed his gun was empty when he approached Boushie, and that the  lethal bullet had discharged by accident.

The acquittal raised a huge controversy, among others reasons because Stanley's lawyers had used  peremptory challenges to exclude all visibly Indigenous people from the  jury that acquitted him. 

Many other questions were raised by commentators about longstanding racial bias in the justice system and the handling of forensic evidence by police in the case.

Law Commission of New Zealand Issues Paper on Class Actions and Litigation Funding

The New Zealand Law Commission has published an Issues Paper on Class Actions and Litigation Funding as part of a consultation on whether the country should adopt a statutory class actions regime and whether third party litigation funding would be desirable, and if so, how it should be regulated:

"Our review forms part of wider and ongoing efforts to improve the affordability and efficiency of litigation. As a mechanism for collective redress, class actions offer the prospect that claimants with a factual or legal issue in common can group their claims together into a single proceeding. Litigation funding provided by a commercial funder may facilitate access to civil justice by covering some or all of a claimant’s legal costs in exchange for an agreed percentage of any compensation awarded."

"At the same time, class actions and litigation funding have attracted some public notoriety in comparable jurisdictions overseas, where media attention has focussed on issues such as the wider impacts of class actions on the business environment and litigation funders’ commissions. The crucial question is whether the potential benefits of class actions and litigation funding in terms of promoting access to civil justice can be realised in a way that manages the risks and outweighs any disadvantages they may give rise to."

"This Issues Paper summarises the various issues that arise and explores some of the options for addressing them. We seek submissions and comment from interested parties. The Commission is committed to taking into account te ao Māori across all of its law reform work. The class action, as a mechanism for facilitating collective redress, may be particularly amenable to analysis from Māori perspectives and we welcome submissions and comment in that regard."

The paper looks at the situation in many other jurisdictions where a class actions regime does exist, including the US, Canada, Australia, and England and Wales.

Earlier Library Boy blog posts on the topic include:

• British Columbia Law Institute Blog Series on Financing Litigation (October 30, 2017)
• Victoria Law Reform Commission Report on Litigation Funding and Class Proceedings (June 20, 2018)
• Australian Law Reform Commission Report on Class Action Proceedings and Third-Party Litigation Funders (January 29, 2019)

Call for Proposals for 2021 Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries

 The Canadian Association of Law Libraries has invited proposals for presentations at its 2021 annual virtual conference.

The event will take place between May 26 and June 4, 2021 under the theme “Legal Information: Outside the Box”:

Each day will be devoted to a different sub-theme: 

• Services & Technology – Monday, May 31, 2021
• Data & Legal Information – Tuesday, June 1, 2021
• History Meets Innovation – Wednesday, June 2, 2021
• Social Justice – Thursday, June 3, 2021
• Resilience & Reinvention – Friday, June 4, 2021

The deadline for proposal submissions is Monday, January 4, 2021. 

People will be notified Monday, January 18, 2021 if their proposal has been accepted. 

Nominations Open for 15th Annual Canadian Law Blog Awards

 The nomination period for the 15th annual Clawbies is now open. 

The Clawbies, or Canadian Law Blog Awards, exist to reward the best and most innovative Canadian "blogs, podcasts, videos, social accounts, legal newsletters, platform commentary, CanLII Connects, whitepapers, and beyond."

As the website explains:

"Nominate up to three digital publications or authors via blog post or tweets (using the hashtag #clawbies2020). Please include a brief explanation of why you think those authors deserve an award!"

"Nominations will be accepted until the end of day on Friday, December 18th, 2020."

"Then stay tuned, because this year’s winners will be announced on New Year’s Eve."

Over the years, quite a few law library efforts have been recognized. Among them:

• Great LEXpectations (Law Society of Manitoba )
• Legal Sourcery (Law Society of Saskatchewan Library)
• Robeside Assistance (County of Carleton Law Association in Ottawa)
• SlawTips (initiative of Slaw.ca - Vancouver law librarian Susannah Tredwell is a regular contributor)
• CALL for Innovation ("The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) partnered with vLex for an exclusive podcast series in which Colin Lachance, interim General Manager of North America for vLex, carried out out brief interviews with CALL / ACBD 2019 conference speakers, exhibitors, sponsors and organizers, about their experience at the May 2019 conference, what’s hot in their world, and their thoughts on the future.")

Study on Economic Value of Law Reform Proposals

I like reports written by law reform commissions, whether here in Canada or from other jurisdictions.

As independent bodies, they often have the time to dive deep into an issue and look at its historical evolution and they often do a comparative analysis of what authorities in other countries have tried to do.

These organizations make recommendations that can go a long way to improve access to justice, modernize the justice system, and reduce harm for vulnerable groups.

I never really thought of the economic benefits of their work, though. Until now.

Two economists recently reviewed and quantified the value of selected projects undertaken over the years by the Law Commission of England and Wales.

They studied 11 projects in all and came up with numbers. 

As in dollars and cents, or pounds sterling if you prefer. 

5 more narrow projects alone could generate £3 billion ($5.2 billion CAD) in benefits to English citizens:

"The economists undertook a contribution analysis to explore whether intended outcomes have been achieved across eleven projects all chosen from recent times. They examined how and why change has happened and assessed the contribution of the project to the change. Contribution analysis is an established tool for assessing impact and is used in situations where precise quantitative modelling is difficult (...)"

"Over the ten-year period examined by the economists the gain to society, the economy and to businesses vastly outstripped the low costs of carrying out the law reform project. The total cost of the Law Commission is less than £5 million per annum and, typically, the Commission can be engaged in up to 20 law reform projects at any one time."

"Even fairly technical reform projects can generate very substantial benefits. The £3 billion benefit referred to as flowing out of only five recent reports demonstrates this:

• The Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty report (2017) would provide benefits worth £1.64 billion over ten years from improved health outcomes and harm prevention.
• The Event Fees in Retirement Properties report (2017) could lead to a rise investment in retirement homes worth £805 million over ten years.
• The Sentencing Code (2018) will reduce court time needed and legal costs, worth up to £256 million over ten years.
• The Taxis and Private Hire report (2014), which is still being considered by Government, could save £242 million over ten years by reducing regulatory burden.
• The Form and Accessibility of the Law Applicable in Wales report (2016) will save £194 million over ten years by making the law applicable in Wales clearer, simpler and easier to access and apply"