Library Boy

International Bar Association Publishes First Global Report on Impact of Social Media on Legal Profession

2012-02-16T21:18:00.000-05:00

Last week, the International Bar Association (IBA) published The Impact of Online Social Networking on the Legal Profession and Practice, the first comprehensive report on the potential impact of online social networking within the legal profession.

The IBA conducted a 31-question survey of some 60 bar associations and/or law societies from 47 jurisdictions (all continents were represented). Questions were related to the appropriateness of the use of online social networks by legal actors, with a particular focus on judges and lawyers.

Among the highlights:

Almost 70 per cent of respondents felt that it is acceptable for lawyers and judges to have each other as contacts on online social networks.
Over 90 per cent of respondents considered it unacceptable for lawyers and judges to post comments or opinions about fellow lawyers, judges, parties, or cases in progress on online social networks.
The vast majority of respondents from jurisdictions comprising a jury system found it unacceptable for jurors to post comments or opinions about the judges, lawyers, parties, and/or cases which they are observing on online social networking sites.
While a majority of respondents found it unacceptable for lawyers, judges, and jurors to post updates about proceedings (by posting ‘status updates’, ‘tweeting’, blogging, etc) on online social networks while a matter is pending before the courts strictly for informational purposes, the majority deemed the conduct acceptable for journalists.
Over 85 per cent of respondents deemed it acceptable for lawyers to access and use the information found on the online social networking profiles of the parties in a case, which forms part of the public domain, as evidence in proceedings.
Nearly 95 per cent of respondents from jurisdictions containing a jury system thought that, in addition to routine instructions,jurors should receive specific instructions limiting their online communications and use of online social networking sites.
Only 15 per cent of respondents felt that lawyers’ use of online social networks negatively affects the public’s confidence in the integrity and professionalism of the legal profession, while almost 40 per cent of respondents felt that judges’ use of online social networks negatively affects the public’s confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, thereby undermining judicial independence.
85 per cent of respondents thought that law students should be informed by their law schools as to the potential risks and disadvantages associated with the use of online social networking within the legal profession.
Over 75 per cent of respondents considered the advantages of online social networking to outweigh its disadvantages.
80 per cent of respondents stated that there is a need for ethical/professional codes and standards to be adapted to online social interactions affecting the legal profession and practice, as they cannot be adequately applied in their current form.
Over 90 per cent of respondents stated that there is a need for bar associations, societies, and councils, or, alternatively, for the IBA to construe guidelines regarding the use of online social networking sites within the legal profession and practice.

As a follow-up, a global social media project plan will be launched at the IBA Latin American Regional Forum Conference in Bogota, Colombia, 14–16 March 2012.

Report on Provision of Legal Information in British Columbia Public Libraries

2012-02-15T18:17:00.004-05:00

Courthouse Libraries BC has been running an outreach program since 2007 called Law Matters At Your Local Library. It helps public libraries enhance their legal information collections and provides training for public library staff.

Its latest report entitled Talking to Librarians about LawMatters: Promising Practices has just been published on the Clicklaw website.

"Since 2007, the LawMatters program has provided grants, training and support to help the 243 BC public libraries provide legal information to people in every community, and help people know where to look and how to take the first or next step for legal information. LawMatters has been particularly concerned with enhancing public access to legal information in small communities where there tends to be less access to legal services."

"With the program now in its 4th year, the goal of this report is to identify 'promising practices' in public libraries which enhance their ability to provide legal information to the public. We focused a small telephone survey on 20 small and medium size public libraries to inquire further about how LawMatters is working for them and about any special practices they use to enhance legal reference services in their community. We also noted the promising practices of LawMatters identified by these libraries and the several collaborative practices between Courthouse Libraries BC and the public libraries."

Additional details about the LawMatters initiative is available on the Courthouse Libraries BC website.

Law Library Benchmarks 2012-13 Survey

2012-02-15T18:12:00.002-05:00

Primary Research Group is updating its study on Law Library Benchmarks and seeks participants from law libraries in the United States and Canada to complete a survey. The survey closes on February 27, 2012.

"Primary Research Group, Inc., a publisher of surveys, monographs and research reports, is planning to publish a new edition of Law Library Benchmarks, a survey of law libraries. University, corporate, law firm, government agency, int'l organization and other law libraries are eligible. Participants receive a free pdf copy of the report when it is published. Your institution will be listed as a participant but the information that you provide is absolutely confidential; all data is amalgamated in a statistical package; no data is presented for individual institutions."

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

2012-02-15T18:10:00.001-05:00

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of February 1-15, 2012 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Law Commission of New Zealand Consultation on Alternative Criminal Trial Processes

2012-02-14T17:04:00.003-05:00

The Law Commission of New Zealand has launched a consultation process on how criminal trials are conducted.

In particular, the Commission wants to examine whether there may be better ways to serve the interests of justice – particularly in cases involving sexual offending.

It raises a number of possible options for reform of pre-trial and trial processes that seem inspired by its pre-consultation research into the practices of inquisitorial legal systems such as those in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Canadian Judges Trying to Figure Out What To Do About Twitter in the Courtroom

2012-02-13T19:48:00.003-05:00

The most recent issue of The Lawyers Weekly reports that Canadian judges are trying to figure out what to do about the use of social media such as Twitter in the courtroom:

"In behind-the-scenes debates, Canada’s judges are trying to devise a consistent and principled approach to media tweeting and other social media use within their courtrooms (...)"

"The judiciary’s internal debate about tweeting came to light after Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin warned, in a Jan. 31 speech to Carleton University, that live dissemination of court proceedings by Twitter and other social media can pose a risk to fair, accurate and complete court coverage 'and its correlative - continued public confidence in the judicial system'. "

"Despite this risk, so far few Canadian courts have devised guiding principles - let alone specific rules -for in-court social media use by journalists and other spectators."

"The result has been that individual judges have had to contend on their own with the growing number of media requests to 'tweet' live from the courtroom, especially in high-profile trials."

"The Canadian Judicial Council (CJC), which oversees federal judges, has been wrestling for more than a year with this thorny issue, but has yet to produce guidelines or best practices to help courts across the country craft their own policies."

New European Court of Human Rights Factsheet on Hate Speech

2012-02-12T15:51:00.001-05:00

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg has published a series of Factsheets that describe important jurisprudence of the institution on a number of subjects.

The ECHR recently added a new Factsheet on hate speech. It includes key cases and pending applications before the Court.

The ECHR hears complaints from individuals living in any of the member states of the Council of Europe about violations of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Council of Europe is one of the continent's oldest political organizations, founded in 1949. It has 47 member countries.

Free Webinar February 29 - Taming the KM Monster

2012-02-12T15:45:00.003-05:00

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries is joining with the American Association of Law Libraries and the Legal and Knowledge Management Divisions of SLA to present a free webinar on knowledge management this February 29th:

"Learn how librarians are using their expertise to develop connections within their organizations that deliver value by meeting the needs of internal and external customers. Discover how you can implement KM initiatives in your organization using existing tools and creative problem solving. Internal knowledge sharing, information silos and developing products that integrate internal and external data which vendors can’t duplicate create added value for attorneys, managers, directors, and other professionals. This talk provides tips on how to start small, market your successes, and build on those successes for larger-scale initiatives, discusses how to define KM in a way that fits your organizational culture and mission, which, in turn, sets realistic expectations of what KM can and cannot achieve."

Manitoba Law Reform Commission Report on Limitation of Actions in Conversion and Detinue

2012-02-09T19:31:00.006-05:00

This week, the Manitoba Law Reform Commission released its report on Limitations of Actions in Conversion and Detinue.

From the Executive Summary:

"This report originates from the Manitoba Law Reform Commission's Limitations report published in October, 2010. In the Limitations report, the Commission recommends the adoption of a basic two-year limitation period for all claims running from the date of discovery, and a 15-year ultimate limitation period running from the day on which the act or omission on which the claim is based took place. The Commission deferred making recommendations in respect of actions in conversion and detinue with the intention of issuing a separate report on that subject."

"Conversion and detinue are torts which protect a person's possessory interests in personal property against wrongful interference. The torts' characteristics give rise to unique concerns in respect of limitations. This report examines the specific problems associated with limitations of actions in conversion and detinue, including: successive transactions, the protection of good faith purchasers of converted or detained goods from ongoing liability; the effect of the expiry of a limitation period on title to converted or detained goods; limitations and theft-related conversions; and, limitations and concurrent actions in conversion and detinue."

"The report reviews and analyzes recent law reform initiatives in respect of limitations of actions in conversion and detinue, and makes recommendations for specific provisions in a new Limitations Act to deal with these types of claims. The Commission's recommendations include a provision that the ultimate limitation period should run from the first date the personal property is converted or detained; a provision for a good faith purchaser exception to the ultimate limitation period; and a provision extinguishing title to converted or detained goods at the expiry of the ultimate limitation period. The Commission concludes that special statutory rules are not required to address theft-related conversions or concurrent actions in conversion and detinue."

"With this report, the Commission completes its work in respect of a modern Limitations Act for Manitoba."

The report examines the rules in a number of other Canadian provinces and in the UK (briefly).

Earlier Library Boy posts on limitations include:

Manitoba Law Reform Commission Report on Limitations of Actions (July 5, 2009): "The Manitoba Law Reform Commission recently published a Draft Report for Consultation on the province's Limitations of Actions Act: (...) 'The Limitation of Actions Act was originally enacted in 1931. Although amended three times since then (in 1967, 1980, and 2002) it is fundamentally based on an amalgam of limitations provisions that originated in England centuries ago. In other words, it is highly dated, and it is showing its age. The Act badly requires modernization, and in this report the Commission has identified what it sees as the primary areas requiring modernization, as well as the best ways of accomplishing that goal. In light of the work that has been done in recent years in other Canadian jurisdictions, the Commission sees no need to reinvent this wheel. For the most part, in this report we have described the structure of the 'modern' limitations regimes found in other jurisdictions, and analyzed whether they are suitable for Manitoba and how, if at all, they ought to be adapted for Manitoba’s conditions'. "
British Columbia White Paper on Limitation Act Reform (September 17, 2010): "The government of British Columbia has published a White Paper aimed at reforming the province's Limitation Act (...) Among the major recommendations in the White paper: moving from a variety of basic limitation periods to a single two-year basic limitation period for all civil claims ; eliminating the special six-year ultimate limitation period for negligence claims against doctors, hospitals and hospital employees. All lawsuits will be governed by a single ultimate limitation period of either 10 or 15 years"
Manitoba Law Reform Commission Report on Limitations (October 30, 2010): "The most important proposal is for the abolition of the various categories of claims set out in the current Act, and their replacement with a single, basic two year limitation applicable to all claims unless they are otherwise dealt with."

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of the Security of Tenure of Military Judges Act

2012-02-08T19:34:00.003-05:00

The Library of Parliament has recently published its legislative summary of Bill C-16: An Act to amend the National Defence Act (military judges). The short title of the bill is the Security of Tenure of Military Judges Act:

"Prior to the passage of Bill C-16, military judges were appointed by the Governor in Council with security of tenure for a term of five years. Military judges could be removed during their tenure only by the Governor in Council on the recommendation of an Inquiry Committee created under the National Defence Act. Terms were renewable on the recommendation of a Renewal Committee until judges reached the age of retirement set out in articles 101.15, 101.16 and 101.17 of the Queen’s Regulations and Orders for the Canadian Forces (QR&Os). In making a recommendation regarding reappointment, the Renewal Committee was prohibited from considering a judge’s record of judicial decisions."

"On 2 June 2011, in the case of R. v. Leblanc, the Court Martial Appeal Court declared sections 165.21(2) to 165.21(4) of the National Defence Act and articles 101.15, 101.16 and 101.17 of the QR&Os to be invalid and of no force and effect. The Court suspended the declaration of invalidity for six months to give Parliament an opportunity to amend the legislation."
"Bill C-16 responds to the Leblanc decision, and aims to remove any impression of outside influence on the decisions of military judges. The bill provides security of tenure for military judges until a fixed age of 60 years, subject only to removal for cause on the recommendation of an Inquiry Committee. The bill repeals current provisions of the National Defence Act relating to the tenure and reappointment of military judges..."

The bill received Royal Assent on November 29, 2011 and is now chapter 22 of the Statutes of Canada, 2011.

Has Canada Become The New Constitutional Law Superpower?

2012-02-07T12:53:00.003-05:00

A New York Times article entitled ‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World outlines the diminishing international infuence of the United States Constitution.

The article in yesterday's edition points to an article in the New York University Law Review that shows that the U.S. Constitution is no longer seen as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere, as once was the case.

Who has become more influential as a source of inspiration? According to former Israeli Supreme Court president Aharon Barak, cited by the New York Times, Canada:

" 'Canadian law,' he wrote, 'serves as a source of inspiration for many countries around the world.' The new study [in the New York University Law Review] also suggests that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, adopted in 1982, may now be more influential than its American counterpart. "

UK Supreme Court on Twitter

2012-02-06T19:48:00.002-05:00

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, that country's highest court, has begun tweeting. It will tweet about judgments and other selected news.

It inaugurated its Twitter account by providing live coverage of the swearing-in of a new justice.

Tweeting has been allowed from its courtrooms since February 2011. The Court itself now joins the Twitterati.

Background:

Supreme Court to tweet proceedings (The Telegraph)
Britain’s Highest Court to take up posting realtime news on its latest judgments on Twitter (Washington Post)
Assange fate could be revealed on Twitter (Sydney Morning Herald)
UK Supreme Court to take up tweeting (CBS)

Seeking Nominations for the 2012 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing

2012-02-05T15:39:00.002-05:00

Nominations are open for the 2012 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing.

Every year, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) honours a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for profit, corporate or non-corporate) that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a work, series or e-product that makes a significant contribution to legal research and scholarship.

Nominations should address the following criteria:

excellence and innovation
quality of editing, including features which enhance useability (table of contents, indices, searchability)
significant contribution to a body of legal literature
fills a gap in the literature

The deadline for nominations is March 23, 2012. The award will be presented to the recipient at a reception during the 2012 CALL Annual Meeting in Toronto in May.

CanLII Strategic Priorities 2012-2014

2012-02-02T19:52:00.004-05:00

CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, has published a document on its strategic priorities for 2012-2014.

CanLII, whose funding comes from members of Canada’s provincial and territorial law societies, makes Canadian jurisprudence and statutes available for free via the Internet.

Its strategic priorities are:

Secure permanent role as foremost source of free law in Canada
Continually enrich content to meet needs of public and professional users
Deliver easy to use professional grade tools and a compelling site experience
Continuously promote and defend free access to law

Among future plans, CanLII mentions:

"When it comes to accessing content on or through the CanLII site, CanLII will strive to expand its users’ access to high value legal materials. This may involve incorporating secondary sources into CanLII, but it could also occur through facilitating searches of materials hosted elsewhere as CanLII’s interests go beyond growing its own site and extend to pursuing partnerships that advance the goals of other leading legal information providers. Potential partners include not-for-proft as well as for-proft institutions with an interest in expanding the free availability of their legal materials."

"CanLII will also seek out opportunities to improve understanding. For example, working with educational and other organizations, CanLII will explore opportunities to develop specialized services such as topic compilations and open access casebooks, and other professional user-generated content."

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

2012-02-01T19:51:00.000-05:00

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of January 16-31, 2012 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2012 Conference Details Now Available

2012-01-31T19:27:00.003-05:00

Information about the 2012 conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries is now online.

The conference takes place in Toronto from May 6 to May 9, 2012 at the the historic Fairmont Royal York.

The website includes details about the conference program, travel, accommodation, and social events.

European Court of Human Rights 2011 Annual Report

2012-01-30T19:51:00.004-05:00

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) based in Strasbourg has released its annual report for 2011. There are also some interesting statistical tables that come with the document.

Among the highlights:

In 2011, more than a third of the judgments delivered by the Court concerned four of the Council of Europe’s forty-seven member States: Turkey (174), Russia (133), Ukraine (105) and Greece (73). In 2011, the Court delivered 1,157 judgments
Since the reform of the Convention system on 1 November 1998, there has been a considerable increase in the Court’s caseload. Barely ten years after the reform, the Court delivered its 10,000th judgment. Its output is such that more than 91% of the Court’s judgments since its creation in 1959 have been delivered between 1998 and 2011
More than a third of the judgments in which the Court found a violation included a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, whether on account of the fairness or the length of the proceedings. 15% of violations found by the Court concern Article 3 (Prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment). Lastly, more than 23% of violations found by the Court concern the right to life or the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment (Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention)

The ECHR hears complaints from individuals living in any of the member states of the Council of Europe about violations of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Council of Europe is one of the continent's oldest political organizations, founded in 1949. It has 47 member countries.

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of First Nations Financial Transparency Act

2012-01-28T16:43:00.002-05:00

The Library of Parliament recently released its legislative summary of Bill C-27, the First Nations Financial Transparency Act:

"The proposed legislation, which applies to over 600 First Nations communities defined as 'Indian bands' under the Indian Act, provides a legislative basis for the preparation and public disclosure of First Nations’ audited consolidated financial statements and of remuneration, including salaries and expenses, paid by a First Nation or any unincorporated entity that it controls to its elected officials. The bill also requires the publication of this information on a website maintained by or for the First Nation, and on the website of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC). Additional provisions of the legislation allow for the application of court remedies and administrative measures to enforce compliance with its requirements."

(...)

"Many First Nations leaders have expressed an opposing view of Bill C-27. Most have argued that the bill is unnecessary given current legal and policy-based financial reporting and disclosure requirements, and have called for an alternative approach to transparency and accountability that has the potential to strengthen the relationship between First Nations and the federal government (...)"
"The legislation has attracted emphatic support from some non-Aboriginal organizations. Colin Craig of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation welcomed the bill’s expanded disclosure requirements on band-owned entities, and stated that the bill 'will help band members separate the good apples from the bad ones and will help taxpayers understand how their money is being spent on reserves'."

"The Fraser Institute also released an article arguing that Bill C-27 may be compared to other financial reporting and disclosure laws in the private sector, and that '[w]hat such laws do, whether vis-à-vis business or First Nation governments, is require that shareholders and residents be given transparency and actual hard numbers'."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill in Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.

Statistics Canada Report on Criminal Victimization in the Territories

2012-01-28T16:36:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week, Statistics Canada published an article on Criminal victimization in the territories, 2009 in its journal Juristat.

Canada's Northern territories are Nunavut, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

Among the highlights:

In the provinces, both self-reported and police-reported data show that the vast majority of crimes in 2009 were non-violent in nature. The picture drawn from self-reported data in the territories, however, is slightly different. These data show that nearly half (46%) of all self-reported incidents in the territories in 2009 were violent
In 2009, 34% of residents of the three territories aged 15 and over reported to the General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization that they had been the victim of at least one criminal incident in the 12 months preceding the survey
Of the 38,000 self-reported incidents in the territories that were violent, assault was the most common crime reported. The remainder of reported incidents were crimes against the household (35%) or thefts of personal property (19%). In contrast, the vast majority (70%) of self-reported criminal incidents in the provinces were non-violent
About 1 in every 5 violent incidents in the territories was reported to have been committed by a current or former spouse or partner. Rates of spousal violence were highest for young adults aged 15 to 34, Aboriginal people and those living in a low income household
For non-spousal violent incidents in the territories, most victims (66%) said they knew the perpetrator, and 78% said the incident could be related to the offender's alcohol or drug use. A weapon was present in close to one-quarter (24%) of all non-spousal violent incidents, and more than one-third (36%) of violent incidents resulted in physical injury
More than 9 in 10 residents of the territories reported being satisfied with their personal safety. The majority of residents (88%) of the territories believed the police were doing an average or good job in ensuring the safety of citizens

U.S. Judges Report Little Juror Misuse of Social Media

2012-01-26T18:49:00.001-05:00

Despite anecdotal evidence of jurors misbehaving when using the Internet and social media (for instance, the recent article on Slaw.ca English Court Jails Juror Who Used Internet Search), a recent survey of members of the U.S. federal judiciary reveals that the problem appears less widespread than many assume.

The Federal Judicial Center was asked by a committee of the policy-making Judicial Conference of the United States to survey federal judges on the issue (response rate was 53%).

"The results, based on the responses of 508 responding judges, indicate that detected social media use by jurors is infrequent, and that most judges have taken steps to ensure jurors do not use social media in the courtroom. The most common strategy is incorporating social media use into jury instructions (...) Also common are the practice of reminding jurors on a regular basis not to use social media to communicate during trial or deliberations, explaining the reasons behind the ban on social media, and confiscating electronic devices in the courtroom. Judges admit that it is difficult to police jurors."

Only 30 of the 508 judges who responded reported instances of detected social media use by jurors during trials or deliberations.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the situation is similar in Canada.

Maybe all the fuss over Juror (Mis)Behavior in the Information Age is exaggerated. Of course, it is also possible that a lot of the illicit juror tweeting, Google searching, LinkedIn'ing and Facebooking may very well escape the attention of judges. Most judges find out about juror misuse of Net media from tattling by other jurors or lawyers (perhaps lawyers who feel they are losing the case?).

Research Project on Self-Represented Litigants

2012-01-25T21:10:00.003-05:00

Julie Macfarlane, law professor at the University of Windsor, is conducting a research project that is collecting the personal stories of self represented litigants:

"Our goal is to provide justice system policymakers with information about the experiences, motivations, expectations and needs of self-represented litigants like yourself in both civil and family courts. The information you provide about your experiences can influence future decisions regarding justice system reform (...)"

"A Final Report will be written for each province and directed to the Provincial Attorney-General. In addition, a National Report highlighting the most important messages from the research will be presented to the Federal Minister of Justice, each Provincial Attorney-General, the Canadian Bar Association, the Chief Justice of Canada’s Action Committee on Access to Civil and Family Justice, the Directors of Provincial Legal Aid and other important decision-makers in justice reform."

Earlier Library Boy posts on the topic include:

Canadian Judicial Council Statement on Self-Represented Litigants (December 17, 2006): "Self-represented litigants are often unaware of the workings of the justice system and can feel overwhelmed by all the rules of procedure. The set of principles proposed by the Council should guide judges, court administrators, members of the Bar, legal aid organizations in assisting self-represented ligitants understand how the justice system works."
CALL 2007 Conference - Canadian Courthouse Library Survey (May 6, 2007): "Leaders of the Courthouse and Law Society Libraries SIG [of the Canadian Association of law Libraries] unveiled the results of a survey regarding public access (...) 27.6% of libraries have developed resources to assist members of the public in finding legal information or legal advice consisting of prepared printed brochures and research guides. These materials included electronic sources, pathfinders, online forms and Internet sites. 34.5% of the libraries indicated they were involved in access to justice projects with other organizations: training sessions for public librarians and university students, moot court tournaments for high schools or newspaper article series on public legal education ..."
CALL 2007 Conference - Public Access to Legal Information (May 7, 2007): "At the 2007 conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries being held in Ottawa until Wednesday, there was a session today on 'The Ultimate End User: the Public's Access to Law Libraries and Legal Information'. There were 3 presentations dealing with how law libraries and public libraries can respond to the growing number of self-represented litigants, as well with the generalized growth in the appetite of the public for legal information. "
Judges Struggling to Deal With Increased Number of Self-Represented Litigants (November 1, 2010): "This week's issue of The Lawyers Weekly includes the article Judges grapple with unrepresented litigants that quotes Judge François Rolland, chief justice of Quebec’s Superior Court, on the growing and disturbing trend towards self-represented litigants (...)"
Dealing With Self-Represented Litigants (August 22, 2011): "Precise statistics are hard to come by. Still, in a survey of lawyers attending the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Family Law Summit last June, Queen’s University law professor Nicholas Bala found that 80 per cent of the 167 respondents reported they were encountering SRLs more often."

[Source: Clicklaw Blog]

Voting Patterns in 2011 on the Supreme Court of Canada

2012-01-24T19:07:00.002-05:00

In the most recent issue of The Lawyers Weekly, Cristin Schmitz examines the voting patterns and the written output of the justices of the Supreme Court of Canada in 2011 [some of the tables on the free web version of the paper are unavailable].

Overall, the analysis shows that Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote the most:

"The examination of the Supreme Court’s voting patterns and written output in 2011 reveals that the nine judges cranked out 64 judgments, but spoke with one voice in only 36 of them. In the other 28 cases, there were dissents or concurrences diverging from the majority’s reasoning."

"This means the court issued unanimous reasons in just 56 per cent of its judgments in 2011. That compares with 67 per cent in 2010."

(...)

"Although the chief justice has laboured at the court for nearly 23 years (11 years as top judge), she authored or co-wrote more unanimous and majority opinions than any of her colleagues in 2011, even taking into account that three of her judgments were brief oral rulings from the Bench. "

"The 68-year-old judge issued 12 unanimous and majority opinions in 2011 — including the blockbuster Insite ruling — and did so despite juggling administrative, representational, and other duties, including chairing the Canadian Judicial Council, the Canada Council and the National Judicial Institute."

Human Rights Watch Releases 2012 World Report

2012-01-23T20:14:00.002-05:00

The international advocacy group Human Rights Watch has released its most recent annual report on the state of human rights in the world:

"This 22nd annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide in 2011. It reflects extensive investigative work that Human Rights Watch staff has undertaken during the year, often in close partnership with domestic human rights activists."

"The introductory essay examines the Arab Spring, which has created an extraordinary opportunity for change. The global community has a responsibility to help the long suppressed people of the region seize control of their destiny from often-brutal authoritarian rulers. Standing firmly with people as they demand their legitimate rights is the best way to stop the bloodshed, while principled insistence on respect for rights is the best way to help these popular movements avoid intolerance, lawlessness, and summary revenge once in power."

The report does not only focus on the Middle East of course. There are a number of thematic essays as well as reports on countries from all continents.

AALL Webinar on Using Stories to Teach Legal Research

2012-01-22T17:14:00.002-05:00

The American Association of Law Libraries is offering a webinar on February 22 (11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Central Time) on Developing and Using Stories to Teach Legal Research:

"In preliterate times, storytelling was the primary way of disseminating culturally relevant information and educating members of a society. Today, storytelling still serves as an effective communication technique in trial practice, business administration, and library science. While little used in law librarianship, storytelling has the potential to transform the way law librarians convey legal research techniques and legal information to law library patrons. This comprehensive webinar will introduce educational storytelling, and include a demonstration of a legal education story as well as methods for collecting, developing, and evaluating potential stories."

Speakers are Vanessa Christman, director of the El Dorado County Law Library (Lake Tahoe, California), and Beth Wrenn-Estes, lecturer in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.

Law Reform Commission of Ireland Consultation Paper on Mandatory Sentences

2012-01-22T17:01:00.003-05:00

The Law Reform Commission of Ireland has published a Consultation Paper on Mandatory Sentences.

The Consultation Paper contains a detailed analysis of the development of the law in Ireland on mandatory sentences, as well as analysis of similar laws enacted in other jurisdictions such England and Wales, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada.

The only completely mandatory sentence in Ireland is the life sentence for murder – judges have no discretion here and must impose a life sentence, and do not even have the power to suggest any specific minimum sentence.

The Commission also examined other presumptive mandatory sentences, such as those introduced in 1999 for certain drugs offences and in 2006 for certain firearms offences. The drugs offence law states that 10 years should be imposed where the street value is over €13,000, but also allows for a lesser sentence in exceptional circumstances. The Commission also examined other mandatory sentences law which require judges to impose higher or consecutive sentences where the convicted person is, for example, a repeat offender.

In its document, the Commission makes a number of recommendations, among which:

while the use of the entirely mandatory sentence may be applied to the offence of murder, it should be amended to provide that, on the date of sentencing, the court should be empowered to indicate or recommend that a minimum specific term should be served by the defendant, having regard to the particular circumstances of the offence and of the offender
the presumptive sentencing regime, as it applies in the case of certain drugs and firearms offences, should not be extended to any other offences but should be reviewed because, while it has succeeded in one objective, namely, an increased severity of sentences for certain drugs and firearms offences, it has not been established that it has achieved another general aim of the criminal justice system, namely reduced levels of criminality. The Commission notes that, in particular, the presumptive drugs offences regime has had the following results: a discriminatory system of sentencing where all cases are treated alike regardless of differences in the individual circumstances of the offenders; the adaptation of the illegal drugs industry to the sentencing regime by using expendable couriers to hold and transport drugs; that these relatively low-level offenders, rather than those at the top of the drugs industry, are being apprehended and dealt with under the presumptive regime; a high level of guilty pleas in order to avoid the presumptive minimum sentence; and a consequent bulge in the prison system comprising low-level drugs offenders

UK City Councils To Offer Legal Advice in Libraries

2012-01-19T19:10:00.003-05:00

The city councils of Birmingham and Westminster in the United Kingdom are teaming up with a videoconferencing firm to offer legal advice via webcam in public libraries:

"The plan is now to be in 100 locations within 12 months and 360 locations in 24 months (...) Services will in time be extended to cover non-legal issues such as debt problems."

"Users will access the service through a dedicated computer screen and webcam in a secure location in the library."

United Nations Oral History Collection

2012-01-19T18:54:00.002-05:00

The United Nations Oral History Collection has made available select transcripts and audio files of interviews with prominent players in the organization's often turbulent history.

Interviews were conducted by United Nations staff and Yale University researchers on events surrounding the founding of the Organization, the writing of the UN Charter, and various international crises.

One of the interviewees is Canada's former UN Ambassador Paul Heinbecker. He discusses his experiences on the Security Council.

There is an earlier Library Boy post related to the history of the UN from October 30, 2008 entitled United Nations Launches Online Audiovisual Library of International Law: "(...) the Historic Archives contain documents and audiovisual materials relating to the negotiation and adoption of significant legal instruments under the auspices of the United Nations and related agencies since 1945".

New Listing of Law Reform Commissions on Legal Research & Writing Website

2012-01-18T19:36:00.004-05:00

Ted Tjaden, author of the Irwin Law book Legal Research and Writing, created a companion website with loads of links to research-related resources.

He has added a new section of links on Law Reform Commission reports.

[Source: Slaw.ca]

Library of Parliament Publication on Assisted Human Reproduction in Canada

2012-01-18T19:28:00.004-05:00

The Library of Parliament recently made public its study of the Legal Status at the Federal Level of Assisted Human Reproduction in Canada (dated 6 September 2011):

"The world’s first 'test-tube baby,' the result of fertilizing a human ovum in vitro and transferring the resulting embryo to a woman’s uterus, was born in England in 1978. This achievement followed decades of clinical and laboratory research. It also catalyzed interest in a new area of medical ethics as multiple technological advances, along with their implications for genetics, posed new ethical questions and responsibilities."

"This paper provides an overview of the many steps that have been taken in Canada to establish a legislative and regulatory framework for reproductive technologies and related research. This background includes a description of the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies, early attempts at legislation and a discussion of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, in force since 2004, including its list of prohibited activities. Finally, the constitutional challenge to the legislation that was brought by the Attorney General of Quebec and was ultimately heard by the Supreme Court of Canada is reviewed. This paper does not examine how activities related to assisted human reproduction may be regulated by the provinces."

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

2012-01-17T14:09:00.001-05:00

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of January 1-15, 2012 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill to Abolish Wheat Board Monopoly

2012-01-16T18:07:00.005-05:00

The Library of Parliament recently made public its legislative summary of Bill C-18, the proposed Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act:

"The Canadian Wheat Board currently holds a monopoly on the export, and on the interprovincial transportation, buying and selling, of wheat and wheat products in Canada. It is the single-desk selling and price-pooling marketing board for all wheat and barley production from the Prairies and the Peace River basin ... that is destined for export markets or for domestic human consumption. The Board is funded entirely by producers (although the government does guarantee certain liabilities of the Board) and is not a Crown corporation. It is currently governed by a 15-member board of directors, five of whom are appointed by the Governor in Council and 10 of whom are elected directly by producers."

The proposed legislation foresees a transition to an open market for western Canadian wheat and barley.

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill on the LEGISinfo website.

Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan Consultation Paper on Waiver of Legal Fees for the Needy

2012-01-14T17:46:00.004-05:00

The Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan recently released a consultation paper on Needy Person Certificates and Waiver of Fees:

"Access to the courts has been described as 'one of the foundational pillars protecting the rights and freedoms of our citizens. In BCGEU, Chief Justice Dickson stated: 'There cannot be a rule of law without access, otherwise the rule of law is replaced by a rule of men and women who decide who shall and who shall not have access to justice.' As the costs of litigation and other legal services rise, concern about financial barriers to access to justice is increasing. In 2006, the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) stated that 'advocating for access to justice for poor people”
had become its “top priority.' (...)"

"There are no simple answers to the problem of access. Changes in procedures to assist unrepresented clients, improvements in legal aid programs, support for legal clinics such as Community Legal Assistance Services for Saskatoon Inner City (CLASSIC), and encouragement of private lawyers who are willing to act pro bono are among the strategies that have been identified. This consultation paper discusses another piece of the search for solutions: waivers of fees for individuals who are unable to pay the cost of litigation."

International Association of Law Libraries 2011 Website Award

2012-01-12T21:21:00.002-05:00

The 2011 Website Award of the International Association of Law Libraries (IALL) went to the Kenya Law Reports.

The winner was announced in December at an IALL meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Award seeks to recognise and promote free legal information websites that are authoritative, comprehensive, up-to-date, useful, and user-friendly.

Other nominees in 2011 included:

A list of winners from previous years can be found on the IALL website.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Webinar on RFPs

2012-01-11T19:22:00.003-05:00

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries is hosting a webinar on Building an RFP: Deconstructing the Process on Thursday, January 19 (1:00 - 2:30 PM EST):

"Buying technology is a major commitment - of time, money and credibility. Making sure you get the system that fits the needs of its users is an immense challenge, not only because those needs are so diverse, but because they can be difficult to articulate. In addition, you may have a specific process in your organization that you need to follow. Creating a successful Request For Proposals (RFP) is truly an art. David Whelan (Law Society of Upper Canada) and Paul Berry (Ontario Legislature) have each successfully lead a team through a technology acquisition, but the methods followed were quite different."

"David will be describing two different paths that he follows to create his RFPs - one formal, and one informal - eliciting requirements, documenting them in a way that is meaningful to vendors and selectors, and which accurately reflects what the users want to DO with the technology."

"Paul's approach to writing the RFP flies in the face of convention. Rather than coaxing stakeholders to describe their needs in product-agnostic terms, Paul’s cross-disciplinary team analyzed forty-eight software offerings and defined requirements by documenting each member’s reasons for rejecting a given product. In a series of meetings which resembled the panel discussions of "Canada Reads", a short list emerged containing seven products that each team member was willing to live with."

"Learn how to balance inflated user expectations and sales hyperbole - and keep your sanity."

Cost and registration information can be found on the webinar web page.

Evaluation of Single Search Implementation at North Carolina State University

2012-01-10T19:49:00.003-05:00

The journal College & Research Libraries has made available a pre-print entitled How Users Search the Library from a Single Search Box written by three librarians at North Carolina State University.

Increasingly, the trend in libraries is to experiment with the implementation of various forms of "federated search" (providing a portal for the simultaneous searching of information from multiple sources) or with "web-scale discovery" tools (tools that search through a centralized unified index of an institution's licensed and local collections).

From the abstract:

"Academic libraries are turning increasingly to unified search solutions to simplify search and discovery of library resources. Unfortunately, very little research has been published on library user search behavior in single search box environments. This study examines how users search a large public university library using a prominent, single search box on the library website. The article examines two semesters of real-world data, totaling nearly 1.4 million transactions. Findings include that unified library search is about more than the catalog and articles, though these predominate. Additionally, a small number of the most popular search queries accounts for a disproportionate amount of the overall queries."

Earlier Library posts on single search include:

Implementing a Federated Search Product (October 22, 2008): "The Nov. 2008 issue of the AALL Spectrum has an article entitled The Wise Researcher: One library’s experience implementing a federated search product (...) The authors caution readers that federated searching can present some drawbacks. For example, the big commercial providers like Westlaw and Lexis do not allow federated search tools into their databases and some providers have not yet developed the code to allow the federated search tools to connect to them. As well, the increased convenience may come at a cost: many of the advanced search features and limit options offered by individual databases are not available in federated searching."
Federated Search Report and Tool Kit (October 24, 2008): "The British site FUMSI features a new article by Jill Hurst-Wahl called Introduction to Federated Search ... The article is an excerpt from a larger Federated Search Report and Tool Kit available for purchase online. "
Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference - Web Scale Discovery (March 3, 2011): "...another big theme that emerged at the conference is what is called 'web scale discovery' or WSD (...) Basically, WSD tools claim to offer a unified search of all of a library's offerings through a single interface. Contrary to federated search, WSD tools are based on a pre-harvested centralized unified index of an institution's licensed and local collections. Services such as Serials Solutions Summon, WorldCat Local, Primo Central or EBSCO Discovery pre-index material from subscription databases, library holdings, dissertations, institutional repositories, e-book subscriptions, etc. to allow fast, simultaneous searching. We briefly looked into WSD at my place of work but decided not to pursue things further for a few reasons. In particular, not all vendors of legal research materials play along and will allow their content and metadata to be harvested into a unified index. And these tend to be relatively expensive products."
OCLC Report on Single Search: The Quest for the Holy Grail (August 23, 2011): "The prominence of multidisciplinary research, the increase in the use of primary materials, and the desire to make new connections across disparate materials all would be advanced by the offering of single search to open up all the collections to the researcher (...) OCLC Research facilitated the working group of nine single search implementers through discussions about the opportunities for, and obstacles to, integrated access across an institution. They told their stories, categorized a list of issues, and created and answered a questionnaire looking for similarities and differences in their approaches. This brief report summarizes those discussions and highlights emerging practices in providing access to LAM [libraries, archives and museums] collections, with a particular emphasis on successful strategies in the quest for single search."
AALL Spectrum Article on Discovery Tools in Law Libraries (November 30, 2011): "The most recent issue of the AALL Spectrum, a monthly publication of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), has an article on Discovery Layers in Law Libraries - A progress report on how our institutions are implementing this new technology (...) The author ... ran into some of the same problems we did at my place of work when we looked into discovery tools: 'Most concerning are the restrictive and expensive licensing policies of the largest legal information publishers [i.e. Westlaw and Lexis - my note],whose materials are by and large unrepresented in discovery layer systems because of these restrictions. What is the benefit of marketing such a tool to our students and faculty if their most vital sources of information are nowhere to be found in the system?' "

Information Technology and Libraries Changes to Open Access Format

2012-01-10T19:39:00.005-05:00

The journal Information Technology and Libraries has announced that it will become an open-access, electronic-only publication, beginning with the March 2012 issue (volume 31, issue 1):

"This change will help ensure the long-term viability of the journal by making it more accessible, more current, more relevant, and more environmentally friendly. ITAL will continue to feature high-quality articles that have undergone a rigorous peer-review process, but it will also begin expanding content to include more case studies, commentary, and information about topics and trends of interest to the LITA community and beyond."

LITA is the Library and Information Technology Association, a division of the American Library Association.

IFLA 2012 Conference Call for Papers: The Surprising World of Government Libraries

2012-01-09T19:38:00.002-05:00

The Government Libraries Section, the Government Information and Official Publications Section, the Law Libraries Section and the Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section of IFLA are jointly inviting proposals for papers to be presented at a two-hour programme at the next IFLA General Conference to be held on August 2012 in Helsinki, Finland.

IFLA is the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.

The theme of the programme will be "The Surprising World of Government Libraries: trends in survival and prospect of new services":

"Government Libraries are facing a transition period. Between some states looking for slash budgets due to the crisis and the ongoing revision of library services because of information technology’s advances, the role of librarians in this scenario must be addressed. This is a Call for Papers to solicit people to share their experiences and case studies that demonstrate how librarians can make a difference and manage complex situations within government structures, including the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary branches"

The deadline is February 10, 2012.

2011 ABA Journal Blawg 100 Unveiled

2012-01-07T16:49:00.002-05:00

The ABA Journal has published the results of the popular vote winners of its 5th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100 contest.

There were 12 different categories. The Canadian group blog Slaw.ca (to which I occasionally contribute) was nominated in the Legal Technology category but did not win.

The ABA Journal is published by the American Bar Association.

David Mao is the New Law Librarian of Congress

2012-01-05T17:33:00.003-05:00

David Mao this week became the 23rd Law Librarian of Congress. The Law Library of Congress was established in Washington in 1832 by the United States Congress and is the world's largest law library.

Before joining the library, Mao worked for the Congressional Research Service. He also held positions at Georgetown University and the law firm Covington & Burling.

The Law Library of Congress blog In Custodia Legis published an interview Mr. Mao earlier this week:

"The Law Library issued its Strategic Plan for 2011–16, and, in the short term, I aim to continue the progress toward achieving the goals set out in that plan."

"One of the major goals of the Law Library is the formation of the One World Law Library (OWLL). This will bring authoritative and authenticated global legal and legislative information from the Law Library of Congress and external sources under one domain and provide access to these resources in a seamless way for the researcher (...)"
"One of the most interesting facts I’ve learned is that the Law Library holds the world’s most geographically comprehensive collections of foreign legal materials."

"The physical and digital collections contain the earliest and the latest publications and reflect the legislative histories of past, current and future jurisdictions. It’s rather astounding to think that, even if a nation hasn’t yet been officially formed, the Law Library will have all the materials necessary for someone to create the legislative history of that nation once it comes into being."

2011 CLawBies – Canadian Law Blog Awards

2012-01-03T20:05:00.002-05:00

The 6th Annual Canadian Law Blog Awards (or CLawBies) were "handed out" on New Year's Eve:

"If this is your first encounter with the CLawBies, allow us to fill in the basics. We are looking for the best law blogs in Canada. Every December, we ask Canadian lawyers and legal professionals to nominate candidates via blog posts or Tweets — once again, encouraging contact and new relationships between nominators and nominees and strengthening the bonds within our unique community (...)"
"As usual, we also offer two caveats. The first is that the CLawBies are based on no fixed criteria, only our personal sense of what makes a blog essential, informative and engaging — another set of judges might reach different and equally reasonable conclusions. And secondly, please accept our standard advisory not to take the CLawBies (or any other blog awards) too seriously."

There are categories for:

Best Canadian Law Blog
Best Practitioner Blogs
Legal Culture Award
Non-Legal Audience Blog
Friend of the North Award (US / UK blog that discusses Canada from time to time)
EuroCan Connection Award
Legal News
Best Practice Management Blog
Law Library Blog
Legal Technology
Practice Group Blog
Best New Blogs
Best Law School/Law Professor Blog

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

2012-01-03T20:02:00.000-05:00

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of December 16-31, 2011 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

US Supreme Court Chief Justice's Year-End Report on Judiciary

2012-01-02T15:05:00.003-05:00

US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts published his year-end report on the American federal judiciary on the weekend.

In the report, Roberts indirectly addresses the controversy over whether two justices on the Court should recuse themselves in an upcoming case on the constitutionality of a healthcare law:

"Some observers have recently questioned whether the Judicial Conference’s Code of Conduct for United States Judges should apply to the Supreme Court. I would like to use my annual report this year to address that issue, as well as some other related issues that have recently drawn public attention. The space constraints of the annual report prevent me from setting out a detailed dissertation on judicial ethics. And my judicial responsibilities preclude me from commenting on any ongoing debates about particular issues or the constitutionality of any enacted legislation or pending proposals. But I can provide some clarification on how the Justices address ethical issues and dispel some common misconceptions."

Among other things, Roberts describes the principles that govern judicial recusal.

No Law-Related Terms in 37th Annual List of Banished Words

2012-01-02T14:50:00.002-05:00

Lake Superior State University (LSSU) in Sault Ste.Marie, Michigan has published its 37th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

And the winners are:

amazing
baby bump
shared sacrifice
Occupy
blowback
man cave
the new normal
pet parent
win the future
trickeration
ginormous
thank you in advance

The complete archive of banished words is on the university website. The list started in 1976 and is based on submissions by the general public. LSSU receives well over 1,000 nominations annually through its website, lssu.edu/banished.

As one can see, none of this year's winners are law-related. However, in the past few years, law-related buzzwords have attracted the attention of language lovers / critics. Earlier Library Boy posts on that include:

American Dialect Society Words of the Year 2005: Legal Expressions 'Patent Troll', 'Extraordinary Rendition' Make List (January 11, 2006): "A few other law-related terms scored highly in the 'most euphemistic' category (hmmmm, I wonder why): 'internal nutrition: force-feeding a prisoner against his or her will' and 'extraordinary rendition: the surrendering of a suspect or detainee to another jurisdiction, especially overseas' (in order to be tortured by a friendly dictatorship with less regard for the niceties of courts and a legal defense)."
'Plutoed' Voted Word of the Year by American Dialect Society (January 7, 2007): "In its 17th 'word of the year' contest, the American Dialect Society chose 'plutoed': 'To pluto is to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet' (...) There were a number of law-related terms considered for this 2006 edition, including data Valdez: an accidental release of a large quantity of private or privileged information. Named after the 1989 oil spill by the Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound, Alaska; waterboarding (winner in the most euphemistic category): an interrogation technique in which the subject is immobilized and doused with water to simulate drowning; reported to be used by U.S. interrogators against terrorism detainees."
Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year (December 3, 2007): "Locavore refers to an environmentally conscious shopper who seeks out locally grown foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives (...) To tase is the only one that has any relation to legal issues."
Most Annoying and Overused Buzzwords (November 23, 2009): "There is an article in this week's edition of The Lawyers Weekly about all those irritating buzzwords that have invaded the professions, including the law. Among the phrases discussed in the article are: leverage, viral, disconnect and interface. And 'outside the box'. "

Ireland Law Reform Commission Consultation Paper on Missing Persons

2011-12-21T19:31:00.005-05:00

The Law Reform Commission of Ireland has released a Consultation Paper on Civil Law of Missing Persons:

"The main feature of current law in this area is that there is a presumption that a missing person is alive for up to 7 years, and that a presumption of death applies after 7 years. These presumptions may be rebutted by contrary evidence, so that a person can be presumed dead where they have been missing for less than 7 years; and an absence of 7 years does not always lead to a declaration of presumed death."

"In the Consultation Paper the Commission examines how the existing law in this area deals with, for example, succession rights of family members, payment of any life insurance policy and the ongoing legal status of a marriage or civil partnership. The Consultation Paper also deals with the precise circumstances in which a declaration of presumed death (in some countries, also referred to as a declaration of death in absentia) may be issued before or after 7 years have elapsed. The Commission also examines the effect that long absence (or a declaration of presumed death) has for the civil status of a missing person. This is especially important if he or she returns after a long time; in turn, this raises civil status questions such as whether his or her marriage remains valid, whether parental responsibilities to any children remain in place and whether any dealings with his or her property during his or her absence should stand."

"In the Consultation Paper, the Commission also examines some immediate practical problems for family members – often referred to as those left behind – such as how to access a missing person‘s bank account (especially where the bank account is in his or her sole name) so that bills can be paid. As discussed in the Consultation Paper, the Commission notes that this area needs to be dealt with separately from the question of presumed death."

The Commission also looks at the approach to the question of missing persons in other jurisdictions such as Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, Australia and Canada.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Eunice Beeson Memorial Bursary

2011-12-20T20:10:00.002-05:00

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) has established the Eunice Beeson Memorial Bursary to help CALL members who wish to attend the Annual Meeting but, for financial reasons, are unable to do so. The Bursary is meant to cover travel and/or accommodation expenses.

The 2012 conference will take place May 6 – 9 in Toronto.

Details about the bursary and the application form are on the CALL website.

The application deadline is March 31, 2012.

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

2011-12-20T20:08:00.000-05:00

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of December 1-15, 2011 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

La Presse Profile of Departing Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie

2011-12-19T20:13:00.003-05:00

The Montreal newspaper La Presse today printed a profile of Justice Ian Binnie who retired earlier this year from the Supreme Court of Canada.

In the article, justice columnist Yves Boisvert quotes Binnie's remarks about the prohibitive costs of the justice system, the collegial working atmosphere at the Court under the leadership of Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and his disappointment over the Chaoulli ruling on private healthcare.

According to Boisvert, what Binnie retains of his 14 years on the top bench is the Canadian population's decency:

«Je suis impressionné par la décence fondamentale de la population. Les gens absorbent les changements avec une rapidité extraordinaire. Prenez le mariage gai. Ce fut une controverse immense. Qu'en reste-t-il?» [I am impressed by the fundamental decency of the population. People absorb changes with extraordinary speed. Take gay marriage. It was a huge controversy. What left of it?]

Earlier Library Boy posts about Binnie's retirement include:

Departing Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie Talks to the Globe And Mail (September 26, 2011)
Legacy of Departing Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie (October 10, 2011)

New Zealand Law Commission Fifth Issues Paper on Law of Trusts

2011-12-18T17:35:00.004-05:00

The Law Commission of New Zealand has published its fifth issues paper in its review of the law of trusts. It is the final in a series of Issues Papers that have discussed particular issues and problems with trusts law in order to enable the development of law reform proposals to modernize trusts legislation in New Zealand:

"Part 1 of this Issues Paper examines the various powers the courts have in respect of trusts and trustees. There is a public interest in ensuring the effective, prudent and honest management of trusts. The courts have a crucial role in this context, and accordingly, exercise a number of powers, both facilitative and regulatory. The Commission has broken its discussion on the role of the courts down into three broad topics, addressed in separate chapters (...)"

"Part 2 discusses alternative methods to the courts for resolving trust disputes and making decisions. Chapter 4 outlines the argument for introducing a new mechanism for trust dispute resolution and decision-making. It examines the options of an ombudsman, tribunal and commission. Chapter 5 discusses how alternative dispute resolution methods can be put to greater use in the context of trusts."

"Part 3 focuses on a particular type of trust used in New Zealand – trading trusts (...)"

"Part 4 discusses placing greater regulatory requirements on trusts. Chapter 9 discusses possible problems with the current lack of regulation of trusts in New Zealand and looks at the ways in which trusts are regulated overseas. It raises several options for regulation of trusts, including registration and reporting requirements. Chapter 10 considers whether there is a need for additional regulation of those providing services to trusts. It examines existing regulation and also looks at the more comprehensive regulatory regimes some overseas jurisdictions have adopted in this area."

Earlier Library Boy posts about the New Zealand Law Commission's review of trust legislation include:

New Zealand Law Reform Commission Introductory Issues Paper on Law of Trusts (November 17, 2010): "The first issues paper is primarily a background paper. It traces the development of the trust from its origins in England through to the present day uses of the trust both in New Zealand and internationally."
Recent Reports by the Law Commission of New Zealand (December 30, 2010): "The second issues paper will cover issues with the use of trusts (especially family trusts) in New Zealand. This paper will look at the purposes for which family trusts are established, including reducing tax obligations, protection of assets from creditors and relationship property claims, and meeting eligibility thresholds for government assistance. The paper examines different legislative and judicial responses to the use of trusts to 'look through' or disregard a trust where a trust has been used to frustrate the underlying policies of particular statutes."
New Zealand Law Reform Commission Third Issues Paper on Law of Trusts (May 4, 2011): "Part one of the paper examines the rules that limit the duration of a trust: the common law rule against perpetuities and the Perpetuities Act 1964. The Commission explores the underlying rationale for the rule against perpetuities and asks whether the rule continues to meet a relevant policy need or whether either the mechanism for achieving this policy or the policy basis itself should change. The paper canvasses different options, including retaining the statutory perpetuity rule, adjusting or extending the statutory rule and abolishing the rule altogether, as has been done in a number of overseas jurisdictions. Part two of the paper looks at the rules that allow trusts to be altered. "
New Zealand Law Reform Commission Fourth Issues Paper on Law of Trusts (June 30, 2011): "Part one of the paper examines the duties that a trustee owes to beneficiaries of a trust. It gives particular attention to the duty to inform beneficiaries about matters relating to the trust (...) Part two of the paper discusses the appointment, retirement and removal of trustees. It also addresses the powers given to a trustee."

Library of Parliament Publication on Question Period

2011-12-15T17:58:00.002-05:00

The Library of Parliament recently published a document on Question Period in the Canadian Parliament and Other Legislatures:

"Question period is, for better or worse, the parliamentary proceeding that attracts the most attention from the media and the Canadian public. On each day that the House of Commons is in session, the 45-minute question period gives members of the opposition an opportunity to seek information from the government and to hold it accountable on its policies and administration of public affairs. Question period may make or end careers, unveil scandals or be used as a launching pad by the government of the day. Because there is so much at stake, the process sometimes gives rise to a lack of decorum. For this and other reasons, members of Parliament (MPs), as well as commentators on parliamentary proceedings, have been increasingly critical of question period, and possible reforms have been put forward on several occasions, including an April 2010 motion sponsored by MP Michael Chong."

"Mr. Chong’s motion, Motion M-517, instructed the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs to study the rules and procedures relating to question period and to contemplate changes. These included consideration of the Speaker’s power to enforce decorum, the time restrictions for questions and answers, the non-obligation of ministers to respond, the selection of MPs to ask questions by a random draw, and a roster system for ministers to ensure an equitable distribution of their time in question period. The House amended Motion M-517 to call upon the committee to look into the conventions and practices of the United Kingdom (U.K.) parliament and the legislatures of other Commonwealth jurisdictions. In 2010, the committee undertook its study, but it did not report to the House before the dissolution of the 40^th Parliament on 26 March 2011."

"This paper reviews the rules, conventions and practices of the Canadian Parliament in respect of question period. In addition to the House of Commons and the Senate, this paper examines processes similar to question period in other Commonwealth countries - namely, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand - as well as in Canadian provinces. All these jurisdictions share similar parliamentary and government systems; as a result, many rules in these legislatures are alike. This paper focuses on the general framework that governs question period, and does not discuss the specifics of any particular rules. As question period in some jurisdictions is intertwined with written questions, this paper also briefly reviews the rules regarding this parliamentary tool."

British Columbia Law Institute Launches Two-Year Project on Tests of Mental Capacity

2011-12-15T17:49:00.002-05:00

The British Columbia Law Institute (BCLI) is launching a two-year project to consider reforms to judge-made rules governing when a person is determined to have the mental capacity to carry out a transaction or enter into a relationship:

"There is no single, global test of capacity. Instead, the law has developed many different tests of capacity, each geared to specific types of transactions or relationships. Over the past 20 years, British Columbian and Canadian law has seen significant development of legislation relating to mental capacity, which has yielded modern and sophisticated rules on when a person is mentally competent to perform certain tasks or enter into certain transactions. But many areas of the law continue to rely on older common-law tests of capacity, which hold sway in contract law, wills-and-estates law, and family law, among other areas. This project’s goals are to study and illuminate selected common-law tests of capacity, to determine where the current law has shortcomings that require modernization or harmonization, and to recommend legislative reforms to address those shortcomings."

The BCLI website has 2 backgrounder documents on the topic:

English Law Commission Final Report on Intestacy

2011-12-14T18:48:00.002-05:00

The Law Commission in England today published its final report on Intestacy and Family Provision Claims on Death.

Intestacy rules govern the inheritance of assets where a person dies without leaving a will disposing of the whole of his or her property.

The report proposes 2 draft bills to bring inheritance law into line with the needs and expectations of modern families, and simplify the law to help the bereaved deal with the property of a deceased family member:

"The draft Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Bill includes reforms that would:
ensure that where a couple are married or in a civil partnership, assets pass on intestacy to the surviving spouse in all cases where there are no children or other descendants;
simplify the sharing of assets on intestacy where the deceased was survived by a spouse and children or other descendants;
protect children who suffer the death of a parent from the risk of losing an inheritance from that parent in the event that they are adopted after the death;
amend the legal rules which currently disadvantage unmarried fathers when a child dies intestate;
remove arbitrary obstacles to family provision claims by dependants of the deceased and anyone treated by the deceased as a child of his or her family outside the context of a marriage or civil partnership;
permit a claim for family provision in certain circumstances where the deceased died 'domiciled' outside of England and Wales but left property and family members or dependants here; and
reform trustees’ statutory powers to use income and capital for the benefit of trust beneficiaries (subject to any express provisions in the trust instrument)."
"The draft Inheritance (Cohabitants) Bill contains further provisions that would give certain unmarried partners who have lived together for five years the right to inherit on each other’s death under the intestacy rules. Where the couple have a child together, this entitlement would accrue after two years’ cohabitation, provided the child was living with the couple when the deceased died."

This is the final report of the Commission's project on Intestacy and Family Provision Claims on Death that began in October 2008.

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Act to Amend the Air Canada Public Participation Act

2011-12-14T18:36:00.002-05:00

The Library of Parliament recently published a legislative summary of Bill C-17: An Act to amend the Air Canada Public Participation Act:

"Bill C-17: An Act to Amend the Air Canada Public Participation Act (short title: Air Canada and Its Associates Act) was introduced by the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, the Honourable Denis Lebel , on 17 October 2011 and given first reading the same day. The bill’s main components:

extend the application of Parts IV, IX and X of the Official Languages Act to designated air carriers under contract with Air Canada;
deem the articles of ACE Aviation Holdings Inc. to include provisions respecting the location of its head office and the right of persons to communicate with that corporation in either official language; and
exempt Air Canada from the application of section 25 of the Official Languages Act with respect to air services provided or made available by air carriers with which it has only code-sharing arrangements."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill through Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.

Non-Profit Environmental Law Association Organizers Twitter Moot

2011-12-14T18:25:00.003-05:00

The non-profit organization West Coast Environmental Law is hosting a moot court competition entirely on Twitter.

Law students from 5 Canadian universities (British Columbia, Dalhousie, Ottawa, Victoria and Osgoode Hall) will present their arguments over Twitter in a simulated appeal of an actual court case, West Moberly First Nations v. British Columbia.

The competition takes place on February 21st, 2012 at 10am PST (1pm EST).

Canadian Environmental Commissioner Finds Government Enforcement Weak

2011-12-13T19:23:00.002-05:00

Scott Vaughan, Canada's Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, tabled a report in Parliament today that states that the federal government's environmental enforcement capabilities are inadequate and poorly managed.

The position of Commissioner was created in 1995 within the Office of the Auditor General of Canada.

Vaughan writes that the government:

"does not have adequate information on whom it is regulating and who is not complying with the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999) regulations. This information is needed to determine which regulatees and activities pose the greatest risks to human health or the environment as a result of non-compliance. Without a clear understanding of whom it is regulating and which regulatees pose the greatest threats, the Directorate cannot be sure that its National Enforcement Plan is targeting the highest risks to human health and the environment." (para. 3.73)

Earlier this week, environmental lawyers from the organization Ecojustice concluded that prosecutions under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act are rare:

"The report found that the number of inspections and warnings issued under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), one of Canada’s most important pollution laws, has declined since 2005-06 — despite an increase in the number of enforcement officers. The number of CEPA investigations, prosecutions, and convictions has also declined steadily since 2003-04 (...)"
"Average fines for environmental offenders, which amount to about $10,000 per CEPA conviction, are also too low to serve as an effective deterrent for would-be polluters, according to the report. It took Environment Canada more than 20 years to collect $2.4-million in fines under CEPA. In comparison, the Toronto Public Library collected $2.6-million in fines for overdue books in 2009 alone."

"Part of the problem, the report found, is that enforcement data gathered under different federal environmental laws is often inconsistent, incomplete and hard to access. Very limited information identifying environmental offenders, incident location and the exact nature of the violation is then disclosed to the public. Data on compliance rates by regulated entities is not publicly available."

5th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100

2011-12-12T19:43:00.003-05:00

One hundred law blogs have been nominated in 12 categories for the latest ABA Journal Blawg 100 competition.

People have until December 30, 2011 to register and vote for the blogs they think are the best of the year in each group.

Some self-promotion: the Canadian group blog Slaw.ca (to which I occasionally contribute) has been nominated in the Legal Technology category. Here is how Slaw has been described:

" 'Slaw is to law what Slate is to popular culture,' law blogger Robert Ambrogi writes. 'It is an online magazine with a diverse array of writers and perspectives covering a wide array of legal topics. It is always interesting, always smart and always insightful. It represents the best of what a legal blog—strike that—any blog can aspire to be'. "

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Ottawa Citizen Series on Medical Marihuana in Canada

2011-12-11T14:48:00.006-05:00

The Ottawa Citizen has written a special multi-part series of articles on the legal and health aspects of access to marihuana for medical purposes in Canada.

Under the federal Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR) program, patients can get approval to possess and grow their own cannabis for pain relief, as well as gardeners to grow pot for approved patients.

The Canadian government is considering amendments to the MMAR to reduce what it considers the risk of abuse and exploitation by criminal elements.

openDemocracy Drug Policy Forum: Medical Pot and Mushroom-Munching Xmas Reindeer

2011-12-09T19:38:00.003-05:00

US state medical marijuana laws
Latin American drug cartels
Copenhagen's moves to legalize pot
drug abuse in Iran
the shamanic origins of many Christmas traditions (what are those "magical" reindeer eating before they fly through the air?)

Ontario Law Reform Commission Reports Now Online

2011-12-08T18:58:00.002-05:00

All of the reports of the old Ontario Law Reform Commission (1964-1996) are now available online on the site of the Internet Archive thanks to an initiative of Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto.

The digital collection also includes consultation papers, collections of papers and other related documents.

[Source: Law Commission of Ontario]

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill C-21, the Political Loans Accountability Act

2011-12-08T18:48:00.002-05:00

The Library of Parliament has published a legislative summary of Bill C-21: An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act (accountability with respect to political loans):

"Bill C-21 amends the Canada Elections Act with regard to loans, guarantees and suretyships to registered parties, registered associations, election candidates, leadership contestants and nomination contestants (hereinafter collectively called 'political entities')."
"Bill C-21 is based, in part, on Recommendations of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs Respecting Specific Issues of Political Financing, submitted in 2007 (...)"
"Bill C-21 builds on the 2007 Chief Electoral Officer’s report by proposing the following changes to the Canada Elections Act:

All loans to political entities, including mandatory disclosure of terms, and the identity of all lenders and loan guarantors, must be transparent.
Unions and corporations are prohibited from making loans to political parties, associations, and election candidates.
The amount of loans and loan guarantees that individuals can make are limited within the framework of the permitted individual annual contribution.
The ability to make loans beyond the annual contribution limit for individuals would be restricted to financial institutions and political entities, and could be provided at commercial rates of interest only.
Tighter rules would be instituted for the treatment of unpaid loans to ensure that election candidates cannot walk away from those loans."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill through Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

2011-12-06T11:13:00.001-05:00

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of November 16-30, 2011 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Survey on Publication Formats

2011-12-05T15:41:00.003-05:00

In order to develop a position paper on publication formats, the Vendor Liaison Committee of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) has developed a short survey to gather members’ views and input regarding publication formats (print, bound, loose-leaf, supplemented, electronic books, online subscription products, etc.) .

The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and responses are anonymous. It will remain until December 30, 2011.

You can find publications of the Vendor Liaison Committee on the CALL website.

New Custom Search Engine for Canadian Military Information

2011-12-03T17:19:00.002-05:00

Annette Demers, reference librarian at the Paul Martin Law Library at the University of Windsor, has created a custom search engine of Canadian military law journal articles, publications, reports and news.

It allows for one-stop searching of the following:

Canadian Army Journal
Army Lessons Learned Bulletin
Army Lessons Learned Dispatches
Canadian Forces College Papers
Canadian Forces College Review
Canadian Military Journal
Canadian Naval Review
Jane’s Information Group
Canadian Army News
Canadian Defence Academy Publications
Chief Military Judge Documents
Chief of Defence Staff Publications
National Defence Key Documents
Judge Advocate General Publications
The Maple Leaf
Military Police Complaints Commission Documents
National Defence News Archives

[Source: Slaw.ca]

Nominations Open for 6th Annual Canadian Law Blog Awards

2011-12-03T17:10:00.002-05:00

Nominations are now being accepted for the 6th annual Canadian Law Blog Awards known as the Clawbies.

The Clawbies recognize "the interesting, innovative, and informative sites that are the Canadian legal blogosphere’s best and brightest".

There are 3 ways to make nominations:

Tweet your nomination via Twitter with the hashtag: #clawbies2011. We’ll be monitoring!
Email your favourite blog, including a couple sample posts or any other notable highlights, to Steve Matthews at steve AT stemlegal.com. We’d prefer a public nomination, but this is still acceptable.
Write a blog post nominating up to three other Canadian law blogs you currently read, with a brief explanation of why you think those blogs were award-worthy in 2011. Don’t forget our 'humble Canadian' rule, though – make no mention of your own blog. In return, we’ll take a thorough look at your blog as well as your nominations.

The deadline to nominate is Wednesday, December 28th and the 2011 Clawbies winners will once again be announced on New Year’s Eve.

Statistics Canada Report on Perceptions of Personal Safety and Crime

2011-12-01T17:14:00.002-05:00

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat has published an article about Canadians' perceptions of personal safety and crime, 2009.

Among the highlights:

In 2009, the vast majority (93%) of Canadians aged 15 years and older living in the provinces said they felt satisfied with their personal safety from crime. This proportion was similar to 2004, the last time this survey was conducted
Despite higher rates of victimization, younger Canadians were more satisfied with their personal safety from crime than older Canadians. In 2009, 94% of Canadians aged 15 to 24 years said they felt very or somewhat satisfied, compared with 90% of Canadians aged 65 years and older
Most Canadians said they felt safe at night. About 83% of Canadians said that they were not at all worried when home alone in the evening. Of those who walked alone in their neighbourhood at night, 90% said they felt safe doing so
About 39% of Canadians reported having used a crime prevention method to protect themselves from becoming a victim of crime in the 12 months preceding the survey. The use of crime prevention measures was more common among Canadians who had been previously victimized (57%) than those who had not (32%)
The most common crime prevention method, reported by 27% of Canadians, was to change their routine or avoid certain people or places. About 13% said they had installed new locks or security bars and 10% had installed a burglar alarm or motion detector lights
Canadians living in the eastern part of the country, where rates of both self-reported victimization and police-reported crime are generally lower, reported being more satisfied with their personal safety from crime than those in the west. In 2009, residents of Prince Edward Island were among those with the highest levels of satisfaction (97%) while residents in British Columbia were among those with the lowest (89%).

Data are drawn from the 2009 General Social Survey on Victimization, a self-reported survey conducted every five years on Canadians aged 15 years and older living in the 10 provinces.

AALL Spectrum Article on Discovery Tools in Law Libraries

2011-11-30T18:37:00.003-05:00

The most recent issue of the AALL Spectrum, a monthly publication of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), has an article on Discovery Layers in Law Libraries - A progress report on how our institutions are implementing this new technology.

Also called "web scale discovery" tools, these systems claim to offer a unified search of all of a library's offerings through a single interface. They are based on a pre-harvested centralized unified index of an institution's licensed and local collections, including journal databases, library holdings, dissertations, institutional repositories, e-book subscriptions, etc. to allow fast, simultaneous searching.

The author of the AALL Spectrum article ran into some of the same problems we did at my place of work when we looked into discovery tools:

"Most concerning are the restrictive and expensive licensing policies of the largest legal information publishers [i.e. Westlaw and Lexis - my note],whose materials are by and large unrepresented in discovery layer systems because of these restrictions. What is the benefit of marketing such a tool to our students and faculty if their most vital sources of information are nowhere to be found in the system?"

Here is an earlier Library Boy post on the subject: Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference - Web Scale Discovery (March 3, 2011).

You can find the full table of contents for the current December 2011 issue of the AALL Spectrum on the AALL website.

Special Report on National Security Organizations and Human Rights in Canada

2011-11-29T18:36:00.003-05:00

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has released a report entitled Human Rights Accountability in National Security Practices. It recommends that Parliament pass legislation requiring national security organizations to publish tracking data showing how they meet obligations to respect human rights.

"The Government of Canada’s national security organizations operate in a challenging environment. They must protect Canada from complex domestic and foreign threats that evolve constantly. At the same time, they must respect human rights as they are defined in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
"The effectiveness of these organizations depends in part on their capacity to earn and maintain the trust of the general public. Respect for human rights is not just a legal obligation; it is critical to earning that trust."
"National security and human rights objectives must not be pursued with an either/ or approach. The challenge is to find an appropriate balance. This fact has been acknowledged by the government, Parliament, the courts and national security organizations themselves. Yet, national security organizations have faced questions about the extent to which they respect human rights in the course of their work in Canada, and internationally"
"Concerns have been raised about issues such as the profiling of individuals on grounds that are prohibited under the Canadian Human Rights Act (the Act). Such concerns were reported as recently as March 2011, by the Special Senate Committee on Anti-Terrorism. Specific cases have linked Canadian officials and security organizations to human rights abuses involving Canadians at the hands of governments in other countries."
"Since 2001, the Canadian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) has produced research papers on national security and human rights. This research has brought together contemporary evidence and analysis to help inform Parliamentary and public debate."
"The Commission has looked at issues such as Canada’s national security environment and human rights; racial or ethnic profiling; and how Canadian security organizations report on human rights issues in their work."
(...)

"Analysis of a decade of research clearly shows that there are no means to assess the human rights performance of Canada’s national security organizations. Not only is there no accountability framework in place, national security organizations are not required to collect and report data on human rights performance in practice."
"This Report recommends that Canada’s national security organizations be required to demonstrate, with the support of evidence, that they are committed equally to the protection of national security and the respect for human rights, not just in word, but in practice."

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill on Adding New House of Commons Seats

2011-11-28T20:18:00.003-05:00

The Library of Parliament has made available its legislative summary of Bill C-20: An Act to amend the Constitution Act, 1867, the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act and the Canada Elections Act:

"The bill amends the Constitution Act, 1867 by readjusting the number of members and the representation of the provinces in the House of Commons. The bill also amends the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act to streamline the readjustment process and to ensure that the next readjustment can be completed prior to the next general election."

Under the new legislation:

Ontario will receive an additional 15 seats
British Columbia will receive an additional 6 seats
Alberta will receive an additional 6 seats
Quebec will receive three new seats which will be proportionate to its share of the population

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill through Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.

Canadian Legal Publisher Price Trends for 2012

2011-11-28T20:12:00.003-05:00

The Vendor Liaison Committee of the Canadian Association of Law Librarians (CALL) has compiled some preliminary information about price trends for Canadian law publications in 2012.

There is information for publishers such as Carswell, CCH, Éditions Yvon Blais, Irwin Law, LexisNexis Canada, and Wilson & Lafleur.

Compare with last year's price trends.

More information on library-vendor relations can be found on the Committee's section of the CALL website.

CanLII Search Acccelerator

2011-11-26T12:45:00.003-05:00

CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, has created a search tool that lets users highlight text or a reference to a case or statute and automatically launch a search in its database.

It is called the CanLII Search Accelerator.

European Court of Human Rights Factsheet on Environmental Cases

2011-11-24T18:44:00.003-05:00

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg has published a series of Factsheets that describe important jurisprudence of the institution on a number of subjects.

The ECHR recently updated its Factsheet on environment-related cases. It covers cases about noise, industrial pollution, deforestation, urban development and passive smoking.

The ECHR hears complaints from individuals living in any of the member states of the Council of Europe about violations of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Council of Europe is one of the continent's oldest political organizations, founded in 1949. It has 47 member countries.

Library-Related International Copyright Developments

2011-11-23T14:39:00.005-05:00

The World Intellectual Property Organizations’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (WIPO SCCR) is meeting in Geneva from 21 November to 2 December.

Member states will, among other things, consider a draft treaty on copyright limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives. The draft treaty was prepared by IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) in collaboration with others.

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) has observer status at the WIPO SCCR.

IFLA and CLA have both made statements in support of the draft treaty.

A background document on why this treaty is necessary was prepared by IFLA and its partners, and presented at the meeting.

IFLA report

IFLA statement

CLA statement

Background paper

Draft Treaty

[Source: Canadian Library Association]

Survey to Improve Supreme Court of Canada Judgments Website

2011-11-22T18:53:00.003-05:00

Lexum, the designer and operator of the CanLII website of free Canadian legal information, is also in charge of the online publication of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Lexum has developed a small survey "to help Lexum informatique juridique inc. (Lexum) improve its Judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada site and, more generally, its services to the Canadian legal community".

November 2011 Issue of Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World

2011-11-21T19:33:00.002-05:00

The Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World newsletter, published by Library and Archives Canada (LAC), highlights issues pertaining to government and recordkeeping practices in the public and private sector.

The November 2011 issue has just been published on the LAC website.

It includes:

news items from Canada and around the world
announcements of upcoming events (meetings, workshops, seminars)
project and product news in areas such as digitization, archives, open source, e-government, access to information and Web 2.0 initiatives
selected papers and readings (white papers, presentations, reports)

2010-2011 Annual Report of Privacy Commissioner of Canada

2011-11-19T15:56:00.002-05:00

Earlier this week, Canada's Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart tabled her annual report to Parliament on the Privacy Act, Canada's federal public sector privacy law.

In the report, Stoddart is very critical of how personal information is being handled by Canada’s airport security authority, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and other federal departments and agencies:

"While there is much to applaud, the record is not unblemished."

"In an audit of airport security measures, for instance, we looked inside the private rooms where officers review images generated by full-body scanners and found a closed-circuit television camera and a cellphone. We did not find many such devices with recording capabilities — but nor did we find none, as the rules require."

"We also found highly sensitive documents related to security incidents stored on open shelves and in boxes where passengers may be present."

"But of even greater concern to us was that security authorities were collecting more personal information than permitted under their mandate — on incidents that were not threats to air safety and that, in some cases, were not even illegal."

"A separate audit of the RCMP’s control over its operational databases also raised concerns over the stewardship of personal information."

"For example, when a person receives a pardon for a past crime, or is found to have been wrongfully convicted of an offence, the RCMP is supposed to block access to any information about the incident in its database. This hasn’t been happening, so even though people have a right to get on with their lives, information about their past can continue to be shared."

"Without question, the state needs personal information to govern. No government could avert a terrorist attack, fight crime, issue a passport or administer the tax system without data about individuals."

"Modern information technology facilitates the process. Data can be collected more rapidly and in greater quantity than ever before. It can also be processed, manipulated, transformed, stored and disclosed more readily than ever before."

"The stated objective of all this data management is better program delivery, strengthened public safety, and more effective governance and accountability."

"But, as this report describes, so much personal information in the hands of government can also pose risks to the privacy of individuals."

Other highlights:

Biometric identifiers: Citizenship and Immigration Canada submitted Privacy Impact Assessments for two initiatives involving the use of fingerprints and other biometric identifiers for immigration control. The OPC [Office of the Privacy Commissioner] recommended ways to strengthen privacy safeguards for vulnerable populations such as refugee claimants.
Passenger behaviour observation: A Privacy Impact Assessment for a new pilot project to observe airport travellers for suspicious activity raised several concerns, including the potential for inappropriate risk profiling based on characteristics such as race, age or gender.
Personal data breaches: The OPC received a record number of reports of breaches of personal information in 2010-2011. One involved a malfunction of the new My Service Canada Account website, a day after its launch, which allowed an estimated 75 users to see financial and other personal data of previous visitors to the site.
Follow-up to past audits: During follow-ups on three audits originally conducted in 2008 and 2009, the entities that we audited indicated that 32 of 34 of the OPC’s recommendations had been fully or substantially implemented. For example, the RCMP reported that it had removed tens of thousands of surplus files from its exempt databanks, in compliance with the Privacy Commissioner’s recommendations.

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill To Abolish Firearms Registry

2011-11-17T18:29:00.003-05:00

The Library of Parliament has published a legislative summary of Bill C-19: An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act. The bill proposes abolishing the federal government's long gun (shotguns and rifles) registry and destroying all of the associated data. Under the current legislation, long guns are neither prohibited nor restricted, but require registration:

"Under the Firearms Act, all firearms, including shotguns and rifles, were required to be registered by 1 January 2003. Every registered firearm is given a separate registration certificate, which is valid for as long as the person owns the firearm and the firearm continues to be a firearm. All transfers of firearms made after 1 December 1998 also require approval, so that a new registration certificate can be issued to the new owner."
"An amnesty is currently in place to protect certain individuals from criminal liability for unauthorized possession of an unregistered, non-restricted firearm, while they are taking steps to comply with the licensing and registration requirements of the Firearms Act. The amnesty, which is in effect until 16 May 2013, applies only to individuals who hold a valid firearms licence or who held a licence that expired on or after 1 January 2004 (...)"

"Bill C-19 amends the Criminal Code so that failure to hold a registration certificate for a firearm that is neither restricted nor prohibited does not give rise to any of the offences relating to unauthorized possession of a firearm, and does not allow police to seize that firearm."

It is possible to follow progress of the bill through Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.

Royal Society of Canada Calls for Decriminalization of Euthanasia

2011-11-16T17:31:00.006-05:00

In a report released yesterday, a Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel proposes that assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia should be decriminalized for competent individuals who make a free and informed decision that their life is no longer worth living.

The panel concludes:

That there is a moral right, grounded in autonomy, for competent and informed individuals who have decided after careful consideration of the relevant facts, that their continuing life is not worth living, to non-interference with requests for assistance with suicide or voluntary euthanasia.
That none of the grounds for denying individuals the enjoyment of their moral rights applies in the case of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. There are no third-party interests, self-regarding duties, or duties toward objective goods that warrant denying people the right to assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. Prophesied undesirable social consequences are not sufficient to negate the right to choose assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.
That health care professionals are not duty-bound to accede to the request of competent and informed individuals who have formulated the uncoerced wish to die, but they may do so. If their religious or moral conscience prevents them from doing so, they are duty bound to refer their patients to a health care professional who will.

The report examined the experience of foreign jurisdictions where assisted dying has been allowed and proposes a system modelled after countries such as the Netherlands where patients may request assisted suicide or euthanasia when a doctor has determined they are competent to make the decision, and have done so voluntarily.

The panel also urges provincial governments to create policies to make clear the circumstances under which Crown prosecutors will not proceed with charges (that is, where there has been a free and informed decision to request assistance to die made by a competent individual).

More background:

In 1995, the Special Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, published its final report, Of Life and Death. The report has sections on terminology, palliative care, pain control and sedation practices, withdrawal/withholding of life-saving treatment, assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Late last year, the Library of Parliament published an update to a paper on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Canada
Earlier this year, the Library of Parliament updated its research publication on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: International Experiences that looked at the debates and experiences of the US, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia and a number of other countries
The Health Law Institute at Dalhousie University in Halifax provides access to material on a number of end of life topics in its Reading Room. The Withholding & Withdrawal section of the Electronic Library / Bibliography lists material on assisted suicide.
Professor Valerie J. Vollmar of Willamette University College of Law has created the Physician-Assisted Death website. Three reports are provided every year, dealing with subject-matters such as litigation and legislation within the US; medical developments; and events taking place in other parts of the world.

Law Reform Ideas Incorporated Into British Columbia's New Family Law Act

2011-11-16T17:16:00.005-05:00

This is a follow-up to yesterday's Library Boy post entitled British Columbia's New Family Law Act.

Earlier this week, the proposed Family Law Act was introduced in the British Columbia legislature after a major review of family legislation in the province. It is intended to overhaul the Family Relations Act.

The British Columbia Law Institute, a law reform body, reported yesterday that the legislation will implement recommendations for changes to family law contained in four of its reports:

Report on Pension Division on Marriage Breakdown (BCLI Report No. 44, 2006);
Report on the Parental Support Obligation in Section 90 of the Family Relations Act (BCLI Report No. 48, 2007);
Report on Appointing a Guardian and Standby Guardianship (BCLI Report No. 30, 2004); and
Report on the Need for Uniform Jurisdiction and Choice of Law Rules in Domestic Property Proceedings (BCLI Report No. 1, 1998).

British Columbia's New Family Law Act

2011-11-15T18:03:00.003-05:00

The Stream, the blog of Courthouse Libraries BC, has a post about The New Family Law Act: A brief background and a shorter synopsis.

The Act (FLA) was introduced yesterday in the British Columbia legislature and comes after a major review of family legislation in the province. It is intended to overhaul the Family Relations Act:

"Although some aspects of the FLA are a modest update of the Family Relations Act, such as the act’s discussion of child support and jurisdictional overlap between the courts, the FLA
imposes new and radically different legislative schemes on a number of traditional family law subjects (care of children, enforcement of court orders),
codifies certain common law principles (conflicts of laws, fairness in negotiation processes),
establishes novel regulatory mechanisms on matters new to provincial law (assisted reproduction, parenting coordination), and
repeals some subjects of long standing in the FRA (parental support, statutory offences)."

Earlier Library Boy posts on the subject include:

British Columbia Consults on Family Law Modernization (July 21, 2010)
British Columbia Proposes Massive Family Law Overhaul (September 8, 2010)
Criticism of British Columbia's Proposed Family Law Reform (November 8, 2010)

New European Court of Human Rights Factsheet on Reproductive Rights

2011-11-15T17:55:00.003-05:00

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg has published a series of Factsheets that describe important jurisprudence of the institution on a number of subjects.

The ECHR recently added a new Factsheet on reproductive rights. It includes key cases and pending applications before the Court.

The ECHR hears complaints from individuals living in any of the member states of the Council of Europe about violations of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Council of Europe is one of the continent's oldest political organizations, founded in 1949. It has 47 member countries.

Supreme Court of Canada; New Library Titles

2011-11-15T17:53:00.000-05:00

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of November 1-15, 2011 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Interview with Retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louise Charron

2011-11-14T19:44:00.004-05:00

The most recent issue of The Lawyers Weekly features an interview with retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louise Charron:

"The court’s most prolific author of majority and unanimous criminal law judgments says she leaves satisfied after 23 years of judging at all levels (...)"

"Justice Charron says she doesn’t anticipate practising law again, but she doesn’t rule out eventually doing some law-related work, such as conducting a commission of inquiry."

"Asked how she managed to author the bulk of the criminal law majority decisions in a court that has been sharply divided over search and seizure, police powers, and the right to counsel, the former Crown counsel replies: 'I was on the court at a time when there were likeminded people on how we should resolve these cases — perhaps I was persuasive in some cases'."

"Indeed, her conviction that working on an appellate court is a highly collegial and institutional (rather than individualistic) exercise and that judgments are generally strengthened, rather than weakened, by incorporating multiple perspectives likely helped those majorities materialize."

"Justice Charron analogizes appellate judging to looking at a coffee of cup: viewed from one angle it has a handle, but from another angle it doesn’t. Drawing on others’ perspectives, wisdom and knowledge produces a more complete and accurate picture, she explains."

She was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on August 30, 2004 after having sat on the Ontario Court of Appeal. She officially retired from the Supreme Court on August 31, 2011.

As readers know, Justice Ian Binnie also retired this year from the Supreme Court of Canada. Earlier Library Boy posts about Binnie include:

Departing Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie Talks to the Globe And Mail (September 26, 2011)
Legacy of Departing Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie (October 10, 2011)

Is Number of Women Appointed as Judges Dwindling?

2011-11-13T15:57:00.004-05:00

The Globe and Mail’s Kirk Makin reported over the weekend that Appointments of female judges slump under Harper's Tories:

"Only eight women have been appointed to the federal judiciary this year, compared to 41 men. Figures for 2010 were only slightly less skewed, with 13 women and 37 men being given judgeships."

"The discrepancy is likely to rekindle calls for reform to an opaque process that provides the government with considerable leeway to choose candidates for undisclosed reasons."

A spokesperson for Justice Canada explained that the overall record is somewhat better, with 30 per cent of the 420 judges appointed by the federal government since 2006 being women.

Judges appointed by the federal government include judges of superior and appellate courts, the Federal Court of Canada, Tax Court and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Quebec Legal Info Service CAIJ Launches New Website

2011-11-10T18:15:00.003-05:00

CAIJ, the Centre d'accès à l'information juridique (the network of law libraries associated with the Québec Bar Association), has a revamped website with many new research features:

the UNIK search engine that allows for simultaneous keyword searching in its caselaw, commentary and Quebec and federal legislation databases
the eDoctrine collection of free full-text commentary and textbooks including the Développements récents (annual reviews of areas of law), the Collection de droit (Bar School materials), proceedings of the annual Quebec Bar Association congresses and a growing number of treatises from Wilson & Lafleur
the eLOIS collection of annotated laws (right now in beta): so far, CAIJ offers the Civil Code of Quebec, the provincial Labour Standards Act and the provincial Business Corporations Act - for each section, there is a legislative history, links to parliamentary debates, and links to case law and/or commentary
enhanced legal news

Some great features that haven't changed include the free JuriBistro TOPO service, the CAIJ knowledgebase of some 2,700 questions and answers compiled by CAIJ's legal researchers based on real inquiries received from lawyers from across Quebec.

Upcoming Webinar on Using Yahoo Pipes to Create RSS Feeds for Legal Practice Groups

2011-11-10T18:03:00.002-05:00

The Education Committee of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) will soon be holding another session in its CALL Webinar Series.

Michel Gamache of the firm Heenan Blaikie LLP in Montreal will be talking on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 about "Yahoo Pipes: Slicing and Dicing RSS Feeds for Legal Practice Groups". The webinar is at 1:00 -2:30 p.m. EDT.

The registration form and details regarding costs can be found on the CALL website:

"Yahoo! Pipes has been around since 2007, yet it doesn't seem to have caught the eye of many librarians. However, this is a valuable and simple tool that can be used in the context of web monitoring and information delivery."
"This webinar will help you understand what Yahoo! Pipes is all about. You will learn how to create, aggregate, filter and customize feeds. You will also learn how to create widgets so that the contents you manipulate can be made available on intranets."

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Safer Railways Act

2011-11-08T17:56:00.002-05:00

The Library of Parliament has published a legislative summary of Bill S-4: Safer Railways Act:

"Bill S-4 is virtually identical to Bill C-33, which was introduced in the House of Commons during the 3rd Session of the 40th Parliament. Bill C-33 was studied by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities and was reported back to the House of Commons with amendments on 11 March 2011. It died on the Order Paper when the general election was called on 26 March 2011."

"The text of Bill S-4 incorporates the amendments adopted by the Standing Committee and otherwise differs from Bill C-33 only in the addition of one new paragraph and in some minor wording changes included for clarification."

"The Railway Safety Act was implemented in 1989. It sets out a regulatory framework to address, for railways under federal jurisdiction, matters of safety, security and environmental impact. Transport Canada notes ... that the Canadian rail industry has changed significantly since the Act was amended in 1999: operations have become increasingly complex, and traffic is growing rapidly."

"The department points out that, in February 2007, the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities launched a full review of the operation and efficiency of the Railway Safety Act through an independent advisory panel. According to the department, the findings indicated that although the Railway Safety Act is fundamentally sound and efforts have been made to improve rail safety, more needs to be done. The advisory panel’s final report, Stronger Ties: A Shared Commitment to Railway Safety, published in November 2007, included 56 recommendations for the improvement of rail safety, some of which require legislative changes to the Railway Safety Act."

"A study of rail safety was also carried out by the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, which issued its own report in May 2008. It included 14 additional recommendations, many building on the recommendations from the Railway Safety Act review."

"In a backgrounder on Bill S-4, the department notes: 'The Government of Canada agrees with the findings of both reports, and is implementing the recommendations and amending the Railway Safety Act to further improve rail safety in Canada'. "

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill in Parliament via the LEGISinfo website.

Helping Self-Represented Litigants With Literacy Problems

2011-11-07T19:40:00.004-05:00

This week's issue of The Lawyers Weekly reports on how Ontario judges are trying to help self-represented litigants with low literacy levels understand court proceedings [Frozen moment of judicial compassion]:

"The growing number of self-represented litigants in family court is alarming. But even more alarming is the fact that a significant percentage of self-represented people lack the basic literacy skills to properly understand their proceedings. Canada-wide, 15 per cent of adults have serious problems dealing with any written materials and a further 27 per cent struggle with anything beyond simple reading tasks (...)"

"The National Judicial Institute has been aware of the literacy problem in the courts for some time and has provided seminars and resources so that judges are sensitive to the issue. Now it’s time for lawyers to become equally aware. Justice [Stanley] Sherr [Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto] recalls one case in which the stakes were high — the Children’s Aid Society was seeking Crown wardship with no access to the parents — and luckily he was advised just before the trial that one of the parties might have problems reading the affidavit evidence of the Children’s Aid. 'I made a ruling that the direct evidence had to go in viva voce instead of by affidavit, and that the party could bring in a support person to help read the materials'."

"The justices are quick to point out that while these accommodations may lengthen the time required for trial, the primary goal of the court system is not efficiency but justice. Nevertheless, it’s important to enable those with low literacy to be fully engaged in their proceedings and to allow justice to be efficiently administered. Justice Sherr advises that low literacy is now acknowledged as an access to justice issue, and in Ontario there are accessibility co-ordinators in each courthouse."

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Copyright Modernization Act

2011-11-05T14:34:00.003-04:00

The Library of Parliament has prepared a legislative summary of Bill C-11: An Act to amend the Copyright Act:

"Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Copyright Act, was introduced in the House of Commons by the Minister of Industry, the Honourable Christian Paradis, and received first reading on 29 September 2011. The bill is a reintroduction of Bill C-32, which was introduced in the 3^rd Session of the 40^th Parliament. Bill C-32 had received second reading and had been referred to a legislative committee of the House of Commons which heard witness testimony on the bill until the 40^th Parliament was dissolved in March 2011."

"The bill adds new rights and exceptions to the Copyright Act. As noted in the bill’s summary, the objectives of Bill C-11 are to:

update the rights and protections of copyright owners to better address the challenges and opportunities of the Internet, so as to be in line with international standards;
clarify Internet service providers’ liability and make the enabling of online copyright infringement itself an infringement of copyright;
permit businesses, educators and libraries to make greater use of copyright material in digital form;
allow educators and students to make greater use of copyright material;
permit certain uses of copyright material by consumers;
give photographers the same rights as other creators;
ensure that [the Copyright Act] remains technologically neutral; and
mandates a review of [the Copyright Act] by Parliament every five years."

"Whether the bill will achieve these objectives is a subject of debate amongst the various stakeholders affected by copyright reform, including authors, artists, musicians, record labels, book publishers, collective societies, libraries, museums, school associations, software developers, retailers, and consumers."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill through Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.

FINTRAC 2010-2011 Annual Report on Money Laundering in Canada

2011-11-03T18:17:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, the 2010-2011 annual report of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) was presented to the federal Parliament.

FINTRAC is an independent Canadian government agency with a mandate to assist in the detection, deterrence and prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities.

It uses information received from financial institutions to identify suspicious transactions that could be associated with organized crime or terrorism. If it suspects wrongdoing, it sends the information to the Mounties, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and other services, which can choose to launch investigations.

During the reporting year, FINTRAC provided 777 cases referrals to police and other institutions. More than 600 deal with money laundering.

The report also summarizes a number of the criminal investigations that were assisted by its financial intelligence during the year.

Unfortunately, the report does not contain stats about how many case referrals have led to arrests and convictions.

FINTRAC was established and operates within the ambit of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and its Regulations.

Judges and Social Networking Sites

2011-11-02T21:33:00.002-04:00

There is a lot of attention paid to the impact of jurors, reporters and members of the public using social networking technologies in the courtroom.

There is not as much material on the ethics of judges using the same tools such as Facebook or Twitter.

Michael Crowell of the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has written a paper on Judicial Ethics and Social Networking Sites that looks at the issue:

"For some time now state bar regulatory agencies have been addressing the effect of electronic communication on traditional ethical rules for lawyers ― the extent to which law firm websites constitute advertising, whether e-mail inquiries establish an attorney/client relationship, and so on. Likewise, judges hearing cases have faced new legal issues involving electronic discovery and searches of computers. Judges are becoming familiar, too, with problems of jurors communicating with the outside world and conducting their own research via their Blackberries, smart phones and other devices."

"Compared to the information available on those other electronic communication issues, there is relatively little reference material for judges concerning their own social networking and the Code of Judicial Conduct. The purpose of this paper is to share some information addressing questions of judges’ personal use of social networks."

The paper deals with the situation in the United States.

Participation in social networks by judges in the U.S. has reached a level that prompted the Florida judicial ethics committee to issue an edict in 2009 that judges and lawyers should not be Facebook 'friends,' to avoid appearance of conflict in the event they end up in the same courtroom. Other US state committees on judicial ethics have also taken positions warning judges about the perils of networking.

The Canadian Judicial Council has not yet drafted rules for Canadian judges but it appears to be monitoring the situation south of the border. It has produced a number of recent publications on IT security but no definite guidelines about judges and social networks seem to exist at the moment.

The Council is made up of 39 members and is chaired by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin.

Council membership consists of the chief justices, associate chief justices, and some senior judges from provincial and federal superior courts across the country.

The federal Parliament created the Council in 1971 to promote efficiency, uniformity, and accountability, and to improve the quality of judicial service in all superior courts of Canada.

Sixth Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians February 2012

2011-11-01T18:07:00.002-04:00

The University of Alberta Libraries will be hosting its sixth Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians (WISLL) in February 22-24, 2012 in Edmonton:

"Librarians are facing more statistical information than ever before because of the electronic dissemination of statistics over the Internet. Concomitant with this are greater demands for statistics from user communities. Greater availability to statistics online, however, has not made this information necessarily easier to find or to retrieve. This Institute provides training in the strategies and tools for finding statistics and providing them in formats directly useful to users. This Institute is valuable and relevant to professionals working in academic, public and special libraries"

Topics to be covered include:

A framework for thinking about statistics
How statistics are derived from data
The importance of definitions, standards and classifications to understanding statistics
Using metadata to find statistics
Knowing how to interpret statistical metadata
Evaluating statistical sources
Choosing official and non-official statistical sources
Tools and strategies for locating statistics
How to cite online statistics
Finding and using statistics based on geography
Addressing the challenge of finding statistics for small geographic areas

Registration opens on November 14, 2011. The conference is restricted to 30 participants on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

2011-11-01T18:05:00.000-04:00

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of October 16-31, 2011 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Honour Killing Trial Judge Says No Tweeting in Court

2011-10-31T21:17:00.005-04:00

According to the Law Times, Superior Court of Ontario Justice Robert Maranger has ruled that reporters won't be able to liveblog / tweet about what happens in a Kingston courthouse during the murder trial of Mohammad Shafia, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and their son Hamed.

Police allege that they murdered four female relatives, including three daughters, in what is being described as an "honour killing".

As the Law Times article explains:

"According to s. 136 of the Ontario Courts of Justice Act, journalists can’t use electronic devices to record or videotape information inside the court. They can take handwritten notes."

"The act also provides for exceptions to those rules if a judge sees fit in certain circumstances. The act doesn’t mention social media web sites, however."

"In most instances, it falls on the individual judge to decide whether or not journalists can use BlackBerrys and social media to provide live updates from the court."

"Such issues have surfaced a few times over the last several years."

"In 2009, Ottawa Citizen journalist Glen McGregor tweeted live from the trial of former Ottawa mayor Larry O’Brien. McGregor provided daily play-by-play coverage as allegations of influence peddling unfolded before the courts. The court eventually found O’Brien not guilty."

McGregor spoke at a panel I organized in May 2010 at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries on the impact of new social networking technologies on trial procedure and juror behaviour.

Earlier Library Boy posts on the topic include:

Impartiality of Juries Threatened by Web? (October 22, 2009)
Should Twitter in the Courtroom Be Illegal? (November 11, 2009)
Are Web 2.0 Media Making Publication Bans a Thing of the Past? (May 13, 2010)

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill on Family Homes on Reserves

2011-10-30T15:40:00.004-04:00

The Library of Parliament recently published a legislative summary of Bill S-2: Family Homes on Reserves and Matrimonial Interests or Rights Act:

"The bill was first introduced as Bill C-47 during the 2^nd Session of the 39^th Parliament. Bill C-47 died on the Order Paper when Parliament was dissolved on 7 September 2008. It was reintroduced as Bill C-8 during the 2^nd Session of the 40^th Parliament, but it died on the Order Paper once again when Parliament was prorogued on 30 December 2009. It was introduced a third time as Bill S-4 during the 3^rd Session of the 40^th Parliament, and was considered by the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights in May and June 2010. Bill S-4 was passed by the Senate on 6 July 2010, and was introduced in the House of Commons on 22 September 2010 by then Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the Honourable John Duncan. Bill S-4, however, died on the Order Paper when Parliament was dissolved on 26 March 2011."

"Bill S-2 addresses issues relating to family real property on reserves by providing that a First Nation has the power to enact laws relating to 'the use, occupation and possession of family homes on its reserves and the division of the value of any interests or rights held by spouses or common-law partners in or to structures and lands on its reserves' (clause 7(1)). The federal provisional rules in the bill will apply until a First Nation has such laws in force. The rules will apply to a First Nation under the First Nations Land Management Act in specific circumstances. First Nations that have the power to manage their reserve lands under a self-government agreement may opt to have the federal rules apply to them (...)"

"When married couples divorce, the division of matrimonial property, both real (e.g., land and houses) and personal is determined in accordance with provincial laws, as a result of subsection 92(13) of the Constitution Act, 1867. However, as a result of subsection 91(24) of that Act, which specifies that the Parliament of Canada has exclusive legislative authority with respect to 'Indians and Lands reserved for the Indians,' provincial laws do not apply to the division of real property on reserve lands. In Derrickson v. Derrickson, the Supreme Court of Canada stated that courts cannot rely on provincial law to order the division of matrimonial real property on reserves."

"The historical absence of provisions in the federal Indian Act or elsewhere governing the division of matrimonial real property on reserves has resulted in what is often referred to as a legislative gap. Consequently, people residing on reserves have not been able to use the Canadian legal system to resolve matters concerning the division of real property after the breakdown of conjugal relationships."

"Numerous domestic and international reports have referred to the matter, including reports from the United Nations. All have recommended that Canada take steps to resolve the issue."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill on the LEGISinfo website.

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary on Federal Law–Civil Law Harmonization Act, No. 3

2011-10-29T15:00:00.002-04:00

The Library of Parliament recently prepared a legislative summary of Bill S-3: Federal Law–Civil Law Harmonization Act, No. 3:

"This is the third harmonization bill to be tabled by the Government in conjunction with the harmonization initiative that was begun by the Department of Justice Canada following the coming into force of the Civil Code of Québec in 1994. The two previous harmonization statutes(Federal Law – Civil Law Harmonization Act, No. 1 and Federal Law – Civil Law Harmonization Act, No. 2) came into force in 2001 and 2004 respectively."

"In 1993, in anticipation of the coming into force on 1 January 1994 of the Civil Code of Québec (CCQ), which would replace the Civil Code of Lower Canada (CCLC), the federal Department of Justice created the Civil Code Section to review federal statutes to ensure that they properly reflect both legal traditions, the civil law system in Quebec and the common law system in the rest of Canada (...)"
"Since 1867, the Parliament of Canada has enacted more than 300 statutes that are designed, in whole or in part, to regulate matters of private law. It has done so primarily under Parliament’s exclusive jurisdiction over matters that, had it not been for the division of powers in the Constitution Act, 1867, would have fallen under the provinces’ jurisdiction over property and civil rights. Examples of these matters are marriage and divorce, bankruptcy and insolvency, bills of exchange and promissory notes, interest on money, admiralty law, patents of invention, and copyright. To the same end, though less directly, Parliament has enacted statutes that primarily regulate questions of public law but also include provisions that rest on concepts or regulate relationships governed by private law."

"All these statutes do not create an independent legal system. Because these Acts derogate from or add to the jus commune of each province, they are supplemented by the relevant provincial law, which is used to interpret them and to apply them. There is, therefore, a complementary relationship between federal legislation and the jus commune of the provinces."

"In Quebec, the civil law – the jus commune governing private law – supplements federal legislation in the same way as the common law does in the other provinces. In this way, the jus commune is said to make up for 'the incompleteness of the federal legislation' and to have a 'suppletive role'."
"Harmonization aims to ensure that the existing provisions of federal laws are brought into line with the existing civil law. It also addresses the question of pre-Confederation law and the need to rewrite the French versions of federal statutes in order to reflect the common law."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill on the LEGISinfo website.

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Federal Omnibus Crime Bill

2011-10-29T14:46:00.004-04:00

At the beginning of October, the Library of Parliament published a legislative summary of Bill C-10, the federal government's ommibus crime bill that groups together nine separate bills that didn't make it through the last session of Parliament:

"Part 1 of Bill C-10 creates a new Act, the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, to introduce a specific cause of action for victims of terrorism, allowing them to sue for loss or damage as a result of actions punishable under the Criminal Code. This part also amends the State Immunity Act to lift state immunity where a state has supported terrorist activities (state immunity being the general rule that prevents other states from being sued in Canada’s domestic courts). However, only states included in a list to be established by the Governor in Council may have their immunity lifted and be sued."

"Part 2 of Bill C-10 amends the Criminal Code to impose new mandatory minimum sentences for certain sexual offences committed against young people as well as to increase existing mandatory penalties. It creates the offences of making sexually explicit material available to a child and of agreeing or arranging to commit a sexual offence against a child. The bill also expands the list of specified conditions that may be added to prohibition and recognizance orders. These conditions would include prohibitions concerning contact with a person under the age of 16 and use of the Internet or other digital network; the list of enumerated offences that may give rise to such orders and prohibitions would also be expanded."

"This part also amends the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) to provide for mandatory minimum sentences of imprisonment for certain drug crimes. Currently, there are no mandatory minimum penalties under the CDSA. The bill contains an exception that would allow courts not to impose a mandatory sentence if an offender successfully completes a Drug Treatment Court program or a treatment program which, as set out in section 720(2) of the Criminal Code, is approved by a province and is under the supervision of a court."

"Finally, Part 2 amends the Criminal Code to restrict the availability of conditional sentences for certain offences. It would eliminate the reference in the conditional sentencing part of the Criminal Code to serious personal injury offences. It would also restrict the availability of conditional sentences for all offences for which the maximum term of imprisonment is 14 years or life and for specified offences, prosecuted by way of indictment, for which the maximum term of imprisonment is 10 years."

"Part 3 amends the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to increase the accountability of federal offenders and tighten the rules governing conditional release, while promoting the interests and the role of victims in the correctional process."

"This part and the schedule to the bill amend the Criminal Records Act to substitute the term 'record suspension' for the term 'pardon.' These amendments extend the ineligibility periods for applications for a record suspension to five years for all summary conviction offences and to 10 years for all indictable offences. They make individuals convicted of sexual offences against minors (with certain exceptions) and those who have been convicted of more than three indictable offences with sentences of two or more years’ imprisonment, ineligible for a record suspension."

"Finally, Part 3 also amends the International Transfer of Offenders Act to ensure that the purpose of the Act specifically refers to public safety, to add new factors to be considered by the Minister of Public Safety in deciding whether to approve the transfer of a Canadian offender back to Canada, and to make the Minister’s consideration of all listed factors discretionary rather than mandatory."

"Part 4 amends the Youth Criminal Justice Act in a number of ways, including to emphasize the importance of protecting society and to facilitate the detention of young persons who reoffend or who pose a threat to public safety."

"Part 5 amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to attempt to preclude situations in which foreign nationals might be exploited or become victims of human trafficking in this country. These amendments give immigration officers discretion to refuse to authorize a foreign national to work in Canada if, in their opinion, the foreign national is at risk of being a victim of exploitation or abuse."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill in Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.

Canadian Library Association National Salary Survey 2011

2011-10-29T14:38:00.004-04:00

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) has published its 2011 national salary survey.

The price is$59.95 + GST. CLA Members can purchase the survey for $53.95 + GST.

Among the highlights:

Survey conducted from February 16 to April 16, 2011.
Received 1667 complete response (out of 2083 initial responses); retention rate of approximately 80%
MEDIAN INCOME of respondents employed full-time was $67,000 per year, ranging widely across the country from $38,675 among the lowest paid 10% to $110,000 among the highest paid 10%.
- Full-time respondents with a Master of Library and Information Science (or equivalent) degree (n=1012) earned a median salary of $ 71,696 per year.
- Full-time respondents with a Library Technician Diploma/Certificate (or equivalent) (n=275) earned a median of $48,412.

PROVINCES AND TERRITORIES: Respondents from throughout Canada participated in the survey, with 32.0% from Ontario (n=534); 21.5% from British Columbia (n=358); 15.5% from Quebec (n=258); 11.8% from Alberta (n=196); 5.9% from Manitoba (n=99); 5.3% from Nova Scotia (n=88); 2.3% from Saskatchewan (n=39); 1.9% from New Brunswick (n=31); 1.9% from Newfoundland and Labrador (n=31); 0.8% from Yukon (n=14); 0.6% from Prince Edward Island (n=10); 0.3% from the Northwest Territories (n=5); and 0.2% from Nunavut (n= 4).
EMPLOYERS of respondents were primarily academic libraries (30.6%; n=510); public libraries (22.4%; n=373); government (22%; n=367); and schools (7.8%; n=130).
PRIMARY AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY: nearly one quarter of the respondents were in Administration and Management (24.7% ; n=412), followed by 16.1% in Reference and Research (n=269); 13.6% having general responsibilities (n=226); 7.1% in Cataloguing/Metadata (n=118); 6.6% in Instruction, Training, User Instruction, Information Literacy (n=110); 4.7% in Children’s Services (n=78); 4.9% in Collections Development/Management (n=81).
- A full 11.2% (n=187) wrote in responses, providing combinations of areas listed (e.g. Cataloguing & Web content management), indicating that their duties lie in “all” of the areas, or indicating new areas that were technology-based (e.g. social media).

New Book on the McLachlin Court's First Decade

2011-10-27T21:02:00.004-04:00

Canadian legal publisher Irwin Law has published a new book on the constitutional and administrative law decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada in the first decade of Beverley McLachlin's leadership as Chief Justice of Canada:

"It includes contributions in both English and French from leading scholars who examine the Court’s legacy in areas such as federalism, Aboriginal rights, Charter rights such as equality and freedom of association, criminal law, and public international law. The book provides authoritative insight into the many important judgments that helped to define or redefine the Canadian legal landscape in the first decade of the 21^st century as well as glimpse into what Canadians might expect from our highest Court in the years ahead."

It is edited by Adam Dodek (Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa) and David A. Wright (Associate Chair, Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario).

The introduction and table of contents are available for free on the Social Science Research Network website.

[Source: Slaw.ca]

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of the Improving Trade Within Canada Act

2011-10-27T20:54:00.003-04:00

The Library of Parliament recently published a legislative summary of Bill C-14: An Act to amend the Agreement on Internal Trade Implementation Act and the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act:

"Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Agreement on Internal Trade Implementation Act and the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act (short title: Improving Trade Within Canada Act), was introduced in the House of Commons on 6 October 2011 by the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Industry and Minister of State (Agriculture)."

"The bill modifies the Agreement on Internal Trade Implementation Act and the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act. In particular, the bill provides for the enforceability of orders made under the dispute-resolution process of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT), specifically in relation to government-to-government disputes. The bill also changes the terminology in the Agreement on Internal Trade Implementation Act to make it consistent with the terminology in the AIT and to clarify the effect of any orders made under the Act. As well, the bill repeals a section of the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act regarding proceedings initiated under the Agreement on Internal Trade. A similar bill, C-57, was introduced in the 3rd Session of the 40th Parliament."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill in the Canadian Parliament via the LEGISinfo website.

Statistics Canada Report Shows Decline in Homicides

2011-10-26T18:03:00.002-04:00

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat has just published an article on Homicide in Canada, 2010 that shows a marked downward trend.

Among the highlights:

In 2010, police reported 554 homicides in Canada, 56 fewer than the year before
The homicide rate fell to 1.62 for every 100,000 population, its lowest level since 1966
Police in several of the nation's largest census metropolitan areas reported substantially fewer homicides in 2010. The homicide rate in Vancouver, with 25 fewer killings, fell 42% to its lowest level since data in metropolitan areas became available in 1981
Thunder Bay recorded the highest homicide rate for the second year in a row. The next highest rates were in Saskatoon and Regina
Police reported 170 homicides with a firearm in 2010, down from 180 the year before. This is consistent with a general decline in firearm-related homicides seen over the past three decades
In 2010, 94 homicides were considered by police to be gang related, down from 124 in 2009 and the second annual decline. Gang-related homicides reached a record high of 138 in 2008. Despite these recent declines, the rate of gang-related homicide has generally been increasing in all provinces since collection of this information began in 1991. The only exception is in Quebec
In recent years, the number of intimate partner homicides, including spousal homicides, has been relatively stable

Library Boy

International Bar Association Publishes First Global Report on Impact of Social Media on Legal Profession

Report on Provision of Legal Information in British Columbia Public Libraries

Law Library Benchmarks 2012-13 Survey

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

Law Commission of New Zealand Consultation on Alternative Criminal Trial Processes

Canadian Judges Trying to Figure Out What To Do About Twitter in the Courtroom

New European Court of Human Rights Factsheet on Hate Speech

Free Webinar February 29 - Taming the KM Monster

Manitoba Law Reform Commission Report on Limitation of Actions in Conversion and Detinue

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of the Security of Tenure of Military Judges Act

Has Canada Become The New Constitutional Law Superpower?

UK Supreme Court on Twitter

Seeking Nominations for the 2012 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing

CanLII Strategic Priorities 2012-2014

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2012 Conference Details Now Available

European Court of Human Rights 2011 Annual Report

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of First Nations Financial Transparency Act

Statistics Canada Report on Criminal Victimization in the Territories

U.S. Judges Report Little Juror Misuse of Social Media

Research Project on Self-Represented Litigants

Voting Patterns in 2011 on the Supreme Court of Canada

Human Rights Watch Releases 2012 World Report

AALL Webinar on Using Stories to Teach Legal Research

Law Reform Commission of Ireland Consultation Paper on Mandatory Sentences

UK City Councils To Offer Legal Advice in Libraries

United Nations Oral History Collection

New Listing of Law Reform Commissions on Legal Research & Writing Website

Library of Parliament Publication on Assisted Human Reproduction in Canada

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill to Abolish Wheat Board Monopoly

Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan Consultation Paper on Waiver of Legal Fees for the Needy

International Association of Law Libraries 2011 Website Award

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Webinar on RFPs

Evaluation of Single Search Implementation at North Carolina State University

Information Technology and Libraries Changes to Open Access Format

IFLA 2012 Conference Call for Papers: The Surprising World of Government Libraries

2011 ABA Journal Blawg 100 Unveiled

Top 10 International Drug Policy Stories of 2011

David Mao is the New Law Librarian of Congress

2011 CLawBies – Canadian Law Blog Awards

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

US Supreme Court Chief Justice's Year-End Report on Judiciary

No Law-Related Terms in 37th Annual List of Banished Words

Ireland Law Reform Commission Consultation Paper on Missing Persons

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Eunice Beeson Memorial Bursary

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

La Presse Profile of Departing Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie

New Zealand Law Commission Fifth Issues Paper on Law of Trusts

Library of Parliament Publication on Question Period

British Columbia Law Institute Launches Two-Year Project on Tests of Mental Capacity

English Law Commission Final Report on Intestacy

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Act to Amend the Air Canada Public Participation Act

Non-Profit Environmental Law Association Organizers Twitter Moot

Canadian Environmental Commissioner Finds Government Enforcement Weak

5th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100

Ottawa Citizen Series on Medical Marihuana in Canada

openDemocracy Drug Policy Forum: Medical Pot and Mushroom-Munching Xmas Reindeer

Ontario Law Reform Commission Reports Now Online

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill C-21, the Political Loans Accountability Act

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Survey on Publication Formats

New Custom Search Engine for Canadian Military Information

Nominations Open for 6th Annual Canadian Law Blog Awards

Statistics Canada Report on Perceptions of Personal Safety and Crime

AALL Spectrum Article on Discovery Tools in Law Libraries

Special Report on National Security Organizations and Human Rights in Canada

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill on Adding New House of Commons Seats

Canadian Legal Publisher Price Trends for 2012

CanLII Search Acccelerator

European Court of Human Rights Factsheet on Environmental Cases

Library-Related International Copyright Developments

Survey to Improve Supreme Court of Canada Judgments Website

November 2011 Issue of Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World

2010-2011 Annual Report of Privacy Commissioner of Canada

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill To Abolish Firearms Registry

Royal Society of Canada Calls for Decriminalization of Euthanasia

Law Reform Ideas Incorporated Into British Columbia's New Family Law Act

British Columbia's New Family Law Act