"When there is a sea of change in the accepted wisdom of society," confided Madame Justice Southin of the British Columbia Court of Appeal ("BCCA") in the opening paragraph of Simpson v Mair and WIC Radio Ltd, 2006 BCCA 287 [Simpson], "those who have adhered to the attitudes of the past, what I call the 'old wisdom, 'in […]
The Chilean legal system lacks stare decisis. According to article 3 of the Chilean Civil Code, legal decisions have binding force only on the specific cases for which they were written. On this basis, Chilean legal scholars have built the "legal decision narrow force" theory—depriving even the rationale behind decisions any legal force. This thesis […]
The Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has granted leave to appeal in David Mostyn Pritchard v Her Majesty the Queen. Mr. Pritchard appealed the decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal ("BCCA"), which upheld his first degree murder conviction. On the basis of the appellant’s arguments on appeal, and the ways in which those […]
Without much fanfare, a case that is likely going to have huge implications on a sector of the automobile industry was released back on Oct. 16, 2007. In Transportaction Lease Systems Inc v Jennifer Yeung, by her litigation guardian Heidi Yeung, et al [Transportaction], the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") chose not to disturb a decision of […]
On February 23, 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") released its decision from the appeal of my client Mohammed Harkat, which was argued at the same time as the Charkaoui v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), [2007] 1 SCR 350 and Almrei v Canada (Minister of Citizenship & Immigration), 2007 FC 1025 cases. The SCC ruled that […]
The recent announcement that the Canadian government will no longer seek clemency for Canadian citizens sentenced to death in the United States and elsewhere is deeply troubling. It leaves Canada as the only nation to have abolished the death penalty that will not seek clemency when its citizens face execution in the United States. It […]
On July 13, 2007, the Supreme Court of Japan held in two cases that consumer-loan companies return not only excessive payments of unlawful interest to borrowers but also to pay the statutory interest that accrued from the excessive payments, because the consumer-loan companies were found to be bad faith beneficiaries of unjust enrichment. Japanese courts […]
Today, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") unanimously allowed the appeals by Marco Trotta and Anisa Trotta in the case of R v Trotta, [2007] 3 SCR 453. This criminal law case, dealing with post-trial expert fresh evidence, has been discussed here at TheCourt.ca on October 10, 2007 by Rebecca Ross. Marco and Anisa Trotta were […]
In my post earlier this year about Childs v Desormeaux, [2006] 1 SCR 643, a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") which denied social host liability, I wrote that in our current legal system, access to compensation for those injured by the negligence of others is often based on the chance that the […]
In the popular, post 9/11 imagination, "cruel and unusual punishment" means torture. That being said, the ambit of s. 12 of the Charter, which enshrines the right "not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual punishment" extends well beyond torture. Both the scope of s. 12 of the Charter as well as the nature of […]