New Handbook for European Studies Librarians

 University of Minnesota Libraries has published a free Handbook for European Studies Librarians (in e-book or PDF formats).

It has many subsections devoted to specific areas (e.g. "Iberian Studies") and topics (e.g. "Russian Federation: LGBTQIA+ Studies Resources").

Chapter 26 is devoted to European Legal Research:

"Researching the law of any European jurisdiction is often a multi-step process; librarians must first look to the domestic law of the individual jurisdiction, then determine what-if any-impact supranational organizations will have on the analysis. This chapter introduces librarians to the basics of European Union (EU) legal research, and briefly considers the impact of Council of Europe treaties in domestic human rights research. The second half of the chapter provides general guidance on researching the domestic law of a common law or civil law jurisdiction, focusing on how and where to find the law (whether statutes or codes) and cases, generally within the context of the civil versus common law distinction."

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Diversity Survey

The Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization Committee of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is asking members to fill out a diversity survey to get a better understanding of the demographics of the association:

"Your privacy is important to us! No identifying information will be shared. A report will be created from this data in the aggregate. Individual comments may be shared, but only with any identifying information removed. The final report will be available on the CALL/ACBD website."

Organizers estimate it should take 7 minutes to fill out.

The deadline is July 31, 2024.

Recent Government of Canada Publications from the Weekly Acquisitions List

The Government of Canada's Weekly Acquisitions List can be a great way to discover new research reports published by various public bodies and agencies of the federal government. 

It is a record of all publications catalogued in the previous week.

Some of the documents in the most recent list include:

• How to identify misinformation, disinformation and malinformation (Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity)
• Child Support Practices in Canada: Results from the 2022 National Family Law Surveys (Justice Canada)
• Hate Crimes and Incidents in Canada (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)
• Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy:  Halting and Reversing Biodiversity Loss in Canada (Environment and Climate Change Canada)

June 2024 Issue of In Session E-Bulletin of Canadian Association of Law Libraries

The June 2024 issue of In Session has been published. 

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. 

The current issue has news about the upcoming annual conference of the association in Montreal in late June, and more.

New South Wales Law Reform Commission Paper on Racial and Religious Vilification

The Law Reform Commission in the Australian state of New South Wales has issued a so-called options paper on serious racial and religious vilification.

It is part of a consultation on the effectiveness of section 93Z of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) in addressing serious racial and religious vilification in the state. 

The paper briefly outlines some of the options for reform of s 93Z.

That section makes it an offence for a person, by public act, to intentionally or recklessly threaten or incite violence towards another person or a group of persons on any of the following grounds: race; religious belief or affiliation; sexual orientation; gender identity; intersex status; or HIV or AIDS status.

Update to CanLII Ebook on Tort Law

CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, has published an updated version of its free-book Tort Law: Cases and Commentaries.

According to a post on the CanLII blog:

"Originally published on CanLII in September 2021, Tort Law: Cases and Commentaries is an open access casebook designed for use in Canadian common law torts courses."

 "A summary of the changes to this latest version of the casebook are as follows:

• Major content restructure and addition of over 1,000 reflection questions on the readings;
• New chapter on the various torts related to dishonesty and abuse of position;
• Addition of important recent case law from around the common law world, addressing:
• Intentional and dignitary torts (...)
• Negligence (...)
• Private and public nuisance (...)
• Business torts (...)
• Vicarious liability and strict liability (...)
• Defences of lawful authority and illegality (...)
• No-fault compensation systems (...)"

CanLII is a portal funded by Canada’s provincial and territorial law societies to make legal information content (court judgments, tribunal decisions, statutes and regulations, commentary) available to Canadians free of charge.

In recent years, it has been rapidly expanding its offerings of legal commentary, including law reviews, reports, newsletters and thousands of case commentaries.

Open Access Legal Citation Guide Published by CanLII

CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, has published the free Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide:

"The COAL Citation Guide originated with two primary drivers: the belief that we could create a citation guide that will better meet the needs of Canadian legal writers and researchers and the goal of creating a citation guide that will be accessible to everyone, via an open access publishing model (...) "

"This guide will help academics, legal professionals, and others cite legal documents and other sources of information. Please refer to the general rules, information on footnotes and in-text references, and other sections or subsections of this guide, as relevant."

The guide is a collective effort involving many authors, including quite a few law librarians who are members of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries.

Recent Library of Parliament Documents

The Library of Parliament in Ottawa has recently published a number of legislative summaries of important federal bills as well as other documents.

Among them are:

• Gender-based Analysis Plus in Canada: "The Government of Canada uses GBA Plus [Gender-based Analysis Plus ] to assess the impact of legislation, policies, programs and budgetary measures on diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people in an effort to reduce inequalities. The “Plus” in GBA Plus includes a range of identity factors – such as age, disability, education, language, sexual orientation, culture, geography, ethnicity, Indigenous identity, religion, social class and income – that overlap in an intersectional way. The “Plus” is thus aligned with the concept of intersectionality introduced in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, which makes it possible to include multiple intersecting identity factors beyond gender in the analysis of what shapes people’s experiences."
• Scrutiny of Regulations: 50 Years in Review: "Parliament can delegate the authority to make regulations to a person or body specified in an Act. This authority might be given because regulations can be made more quickly than legislation or because Parliament might not have the expertise to legislate technical rules. This authority is usually delegated by way of enabling provisions in legislation that permit ministers, departments, agencies and other authorities to make rules on Parliament’s behalf. The committee’s powers derive from both statutory and sessional orders of reference which make it the committee’s mandate to ensure that this delegated authority is exercised lawfully and appropriately. The committee’s work begins after a regulation has been published in its final form in Part II of the Canada Gazette."
• Legislative Summary of Bill C-20: An Act establishing the Public Complaints and Review Commission and amending certain Acts and statutory instruments: "Bill C-20 establishes the independent Public Complaints and Review Commission (the Commission) to review and investigate complaints against employees of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The Commission replaces the existing Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) which reviews complaints against the RCMP. Currently, no oversight authority is responsible for reviewing complaints against the CBSA."
• Legislative Summary of Bill C-65: An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act: "The bill amends the Canada Elections Act (CEA) to accomplish several distinct legislative objectives, including: providing for two additional days of advance polling; moving the next fixed election date; regulating voting at long-term care institutions; updating the process for voting by mail (special ballot); regulating voting at post-secondary educational institutions; amending the requirements relating to political parties’ policies for the protection of personal information; amending or creating new prohibitions pertaining to the electoral process; amending the regime applicable to third-party financing; granting new powers to the Commissioner of Canada Elections (CCE); and requiring the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to report to Parliament on potential changes to the electoral process."

British Columbia Law Institute Report on Artificial Intelligence and Civil Liability

The British Columbia Law Institute recently published a Report on Artificial Intelligence and Civil Liability that explains how the current law of tort needs adapting to new realities.

Artificial intelligence raises complex issues when it comes to assigning liability for harm to humans, to their property or to other interests.

The report comes out against assigning strict liability for harms produced by artificial intelligence. Under strict liability, there is no need to prove fault on the part of a defendant. Only causation and damage need to be proven.

The authors prefer adapting ideas relating to product liability (p.44):

"The Project Committee considers that product liability law in the common law Canadian jurisdictions provides some answers regarding a just and balanced theory of liability while avoiding the difficulties of the other approaches discussed above. The principles concerning duty of care under product liability law may be applied by analogy to cases involving artificial intelligence without the need to take a definitive position on whether artificial intelligence itself may be characterized as a product."

"We would look to product liability law in regard to the liability of potential defendants situated “upstream” in the chain of events leading to litigation. Upstream defendants would be those involved in the design, development, training and testing of artificial intelligence systems prior to the point at which the systems are placed on the market or deployed in actual use. The liability of “downstream”  defendants, namely operators and other end-users, involves different considerations and is discussed later."

"A developer of a complete system that employs artificial intelligence may be realistically compared to a manufacturer of a complex product with numerous integrated components (...)"

"Product liability law recognizes a duty of care on the part of manufacturers and others who place a product in the stream of commerce towards anyone who may reasonably be foreseen to be at risk of damage or injury if the product is unsafe, not only towards those who acquire the product or who deal in some manner with the manufacturer."

Chief Justice Wagner's Annual News Conference

Yesterday morning, the Rt. Hon. Richard Wagner, Chief Justice of Canada, held a news conference to update Canadians on the work of the Supreme Court of Canada and answer questions from journalists.

Among other topics, Chief Justice Wagner talked about his concerns regarding disinformation undermining confidence in the justice system, including instances where political actors, columnists and social media pundits attacked Court decisions without or before having read them.

He also touched upon the topic of delays in the justice system and the under-funding of courts in many provinces.

The event was broadcast live on CPAC.ca.

Justice Canada Research Digest on Victims of Crime

Justice Canada regularly publishes the Victims of crime research digest. 

It is an annual publication featuring short articles.

The 2024 edition is now available:

"Welcome to the 17th issue of the Victims of Crime Research Digest!"

(...)

"The goal of the Digest is to make research about victims of crime and the criminal justice system accessible to a wide audience, using short articles and clear language. In this issue, we are pleased to include extensive reference lists with several of the articles. These will be great tools for readers who are interested in reading more and diving into more detail on the topics discussed."

"The first article, “Victim-Centred Restorative Justice: Program Design and Implementation“ by Patricia Hughes, looks at how the practice of restorative justice has evolved over the past few decades in Canada and worldwide into a more victim-centred approach to better address victims’ needs. The second article, “Accessing Justice for Victims and Survivors of Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence,” by Susan McDonald, reports on the development of several Independent Legal Advice and Independent Legal Representation projects funded by the Department of Justice Canada. Through a series of qualitative interviews, McDonald examines how these projects are making a difference for victims and survivors. In the third article, “A Brief Overview of Coercive Control and the Criminal Law”, Lisa Ha summarizes the research on and evaluations of coercive control legislation in other jurisdictions, such as England and Wales, Scotland, and Australia. In the final article, Bianca Stumpf summarizes the findings from the 2023 Child Advocacy Centre/Child and Youth Advocacy Centre Operational Survey."

The publication appeared in the most recent Government of Canada's Weekly Acquisitions List. It is a record of all documents published by various public bodies and agencies of the federal government that were catalogued in the previous week.

May 2024 Issue of In Session E-Bulletin of Canadian Association of Law Libraries

The May 2024 issue of In Session has been published. 

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. 

The current issue has news about the upcoming annual conference of the association in Montreal in late June, and more.