AP/HREQ 3120 3.00
Human Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
This course examines the role of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms from a critical human rights perspective. The course situates the Charter in the larger context of an international discourse that includes prominent international human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Since its adoption in 1982, the Charter has become a major source of law. This course will examine the ways in which the Charter has impacted our understandings of Human Rights. Has it resulted in an expansion of rights in law? Further, how do the courts seek to both promote and ‘limit’ rights? In this regard, we will examine critical questions such as ‘what are the rights guaranteed in the Charter?’; where do these rights ‘come from’ in terms of legal and political history?’; ‘are these rights simple and straightforward and can they be easily interpreted and implemented?’; and ‘what are the appropriate limits, if any, to the practice of our rights?’ Situated within the context of ‘living law’ and the influence of social and cultural change, human rights will be scrutinized through the lens of an interpretive judicial decision-making that can be central to the expansion and limitation of Charter rights. The courts, in other words, often proactively determine the scope of rights and their attendant limitations. Free speech, assembly, and association; the demands of due process; the scope of governmental authority and law-making power; and the very right to life are all debates that are interpreted and re-interpreted by higher courts.
Prerequisites: 24 credits