20092 research outputs found
Sort by
The Politics of Legal Theory Revisited
No full textMost legal positivists today hold that legal positivism is a morally neutral and the purely scriptive account of the nature of law. This article signs this claim by Brian Leiter’s claim to the contrary. While I welcome the political presuppositions of jurisprudential theories, I show that the association of legal positivism with radicalism is not true. Examining the works of prominent legal positivists, I show that there is no basis for thinking of any of them as a political radical. I also show that many legal positivists were politically conservative. Beyond the Historical Question, I as that argue is no basis for the claim that legal positivism is necessary for radical political action. On the contrary, I show that many radical political movements aligned with natural law theory and offer a possible explanation for this phenomenon. The point serves as the basis for an alternative way of explaining the political component of legal theory. I propose that we stop thinking of competing theories of law as descriptive or conceptual claims about the nature of law and think of them instead of grounded in different political ideas of legitimate authority
Book Review - Oreva Olakpe, South-South Migrations and the Law from Below: Case Studies on China and Nigeria
No full textI begin my review of Oreva Olakpe’s book, South-South Migrations and the Law from Below: Case Studies on China and Nigeria, by observing that occasionally, a story comes along that needs to be written. One such story is Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Achebe was a conduit by which the powerful account in Things Fall Apart was written. The story was one that had to be written at some point because it filled a gap in the bookshelf. During an interview, Achebe stated that he felt something needed to be done. At the time, European authors wrote most of the literature accounting for African culture, making it difficult for anyone to have a true sense of the trials and tribulations that several African tribes were facing. Since most of Europe was in a scramble for Africa, their literature inevitability contained some bias. Achebe set out to tell the truth through fiction
Artificial Intelligence and the Law: New Challenges and Possibilities for Fundamental Human Rights and Security - Roundtable
No full textDean Trevor Farrow, Osgoode Hall Law School
Glenn Stuart, Law Society of Ontario
Amy Salyzyn, University of Ottawa
Patricia McMahon, Osgoode Hall Law School
Richard Haigh and Stephen Fulford, Osgoode Hall Law School
Giuseppina (Pina) D’Agostino, Osgoode Hall Law School
Molly Reynolds, Torys
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is dramatically reshaping how people live, work, and interact, as well as the functioning of societies and legal systems’ adaptations to these changes. Machine learning technologies’ integration into various decision-making processes carries profound implications for sentencing, taxation, workplace dynamics, surveillance and policing, privacy, and financial markets. The rising automation of human activities prompts significant legal inquiries spanning constitutional, contractual, and tort issues. Large Language Models (LLMs) such as Chat GPT are AI technologies with a range of legal, ethical, and societal implications. These models, trained on massive volumes of text data, can generate text resembling human language, enabling tasks like answering questions, writing essays, even crafting poetry. They implicate freedom of expression, the right to information, and the democratic process at large. They have the potential to generate misleading, harmful, or hateful content, regardless of their programmers’ and owners’ intentions. They could become tools for propaganda or disinformation campaigns. They raise intellectual property questions, particularly when their output is based on pre-existing intellectual or artistic works and could lead to mass job automation
Book Review: Litigating Artificial Intelligence by Jesse Beatson, Gerold Chan, and Jill R. Presser
Get PDFIt is no longer news that artificial intelligence (AI) is being deployed across the board in the legal industry, although the extent of AI use varies by jurisdiction
Osgoode Hall Law School Class of 2024
No full texthttps://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/class_comp/1132/thumbnail.jp
The Digital Loonie: The Legal Framework for a Central Bank Digital Currency in Canada and Beyond
No full textCentral banks are increasingly contemplating the creation of digital sovereign currency. It would be legal tender, like the conventional coin and note, to preserve control over the financial sector and create a payment system that is flexible enough to adapt to social shifts. In developing, issuing, and maintaining such a central bank digital currency, however, central banks and other financial regulators face myriad legal challenges and considerations. As this chapter will show, most of the legislative framework needed for a central bank digital currency already exists in a Canadian context. However, significant amendments will be required to existing statutes. Canadian regulators must be concerned about money laundering, financing terrorism and fraud, investor protection, security, and privacy. Each of these legal issues will require legislative amendments and regulatory changes. Privacy and security are of particular concern, as individual consumers must trust central bank digital currencies as a reliable payment method. There will need to be international legal coordination and convergence on these legal issues. The legal challenges Canada works through in real time are similar to those explored by other central banks. This chapter will therefore be instructive for non-Canadian readers, drawing heavily on the international context
Mental Health and Legal Education
No full textThe chapter Mental Health and Legal Education by Benjamin L. Berger and Lorne Sossin explores the critical intersection of mental health and legal education.
It argues that mental health should be integrated into the law school curriculum, not just as an elective but as a fundamental aspect of learning across all legal domains.
The authors highlight the need for law students to understand the implications of mental health on legal rights and obligations, emphasizing the importance of trauma-informed lawyering and the broader context of mental health in legal education.
The chapter also addresses the mental health challenges faced by law students and legal professionals, advocating for a transformation in legal education to better support mental well-being.
The authors call for a shift in how mental health is perceived and taught in law schools, suggesting that this change is essential for creating a more just and sensitive legal system.
For those interested in a deeper exploration of these themes, readers are encouraged to reach out to the authors for the full chapter.
Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2024 LexisNexis Canada. All rights reserved. The information provided herein is for general informational purposes only and is not, nor should it be construed as, legal advice. Reproduction of this material, in any form, is specifically prohibited without written consent from LexisNexis Canada
The New Québec Basic Income Program: A Useful Set of Policy Directions for the Canadian Disability Benefit
No full textThe Québec government started implementing a new Basic Income Program (BIP) on 1 January 2023. As a last-resort financial assistance program, the BIP intends to support people who have “severely limited capacity for employment” and have been participating in the province’s Social Solidarity Program for at least five and a half years. The BIP has been touted as a program that will lift more than eighty-four thousand individuals out of poverty, providing them with a partially individualized benefit and allowing them to work with limited clawbacks, study, and live fuller lives of quality.2 While some disability advocacy organizations are critical of specific aspects of the BIP, the BIP can nevertheless provide some lessons to the federal government on what to do and what not to do when creating the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB). Through presenting the historical background and justifications for introducing the BIP as well as an extensive examination of the policy choices made, this paper brings to light what these lessons are, especially those pertinent to women with disabilities and other marginalized populations
Compounding Barriers to Access: A Study of Tax Policies and Practices That Exclude Women with Disabilities in Poverty
Get PDFA single parent on social assistance who cannot afford the medical interventions they require does not make enough money to offset their medical costs through taxes. A woman who experiences chronic symptoms of fibromyalgia and struggles to get diagnosed in their adulthood feels dependent on a doctor who is unsupportive of their disability benefit applications for chronic pain medication. A person who experiences paranoia is unable to access the tax information needed to apply for rental assistance programs because they forgot to complete a step when filing for a name and gender change. These are stories from individuals who have walked through Disability Alliance British Columbia’s (DABC) doors for tax-related support. On the surface, these stories capture unique and individual challenges. When taken together, these stories underscore the ways that existing tax policies and legislation could better address the compound barriers that people with disabilities and their caregivers face when trying to achieve financial well-being and full financial participation in society
Compliance Design Options for Offline CBDCs: Balancing Privacy and AML/CFT
Get PDFMany central banks are researching and piloting digital versions of fiat money, specifically retail Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Core to these systems’ design is the ability to perform transactions even without network connectivity. Due to the lack of direct involvement of third parties in these offline transfers, various regulatory requirements that are key in the financial space need to be accommodated. This paper deploys a compliance-by-design approach to evaluate technologies that can balance privacy with anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing (AML/CFT) measures. It classifies privacy design options and corresponding technical building blocks for offline CBDCs, along with their impact on AML/CFT measures, and outlines commonalities and differences between offline and online solutions. As such, it provides a conceptual framework for further techno-legal assessments and implementations