Cooper v. Hobart, U.S. redux Two victims of Bernard Madoff, the fraudster who ran a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme and is now serving a 150-year prison sentence, are suing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for negligence, Law.com reports. The complaint argues that the SEC had "countless opportunities to stop the Ponzi scheme Madoff operated […]
Quite possibly the single most entertaining jurisprudential moment of 2009 happened this Tuesday, when Judge Clay Land of the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Georgia finally lost his judicial temper at the antics of Orly Taitz. Orly Taitz is now infamous for her championing of the "birther" cause, whose adherents believe that […]
On September 18, the Superior Court of Quebec released its decision in the novel and intriguing case of Bil’in (Village Council) v. Green Park International Ltd., 2009 QCCS 4151. The plaintiffs sought to claim against a Quebec corporation and its sole director for participating in war crimes allegedly committed in the West Bank. However, Superior […]
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear relatively few appeals this November, although one of the most closely watched is certain to be Hardy Broome et. al. v. Government of PEI and PEI Protestant Children’s Trust, 2009 PECA 01. The case considers the controversial possibility that governments may owe a duty of care to orphans […]
Imagine the following scenario: Bob owns a house in a town in Quebec. In 2020, Quebec passes legislation to the effect that no municipality may increase property taxes by more than 10% each year. In 2022, citing the need for higher revenues to account for an increase in police services due to rising crime, the […]
Editorial Note: This post is the first of a series on the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal’s jurisprudence on the application of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to conduct outside Canada. The series will emphasize these courts’ broader understandings (or misunderstandings) of the reception of international law by Canadian […]
Sotomayor vindicated Given the recent furor in certain quarters over Justice Sotomayor's "wise Latina" remark, it was only a matter of time before the topic of gender and judging attracted additional scholarly gloss. A law and economics quartet has trudged through mounds of U.S. judicial data and concludes that "female judges are less qualified, based […]
The Supreme Court of Canada has recently announced it will hear Craig Bartholomew Legare v. Her Majesty the Queen on October 15, a week from today. The case concerns a 32 year old male who was charged with luring a child by means of a computer system and of an invitation to sexual touching. The […]
On October 1st, 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its judgment in Sutts, Strosberg LLP v. Atlas Cold Storage Holdings Inc., 2009 ONCA 690. The significance of this case lies in its status as one of the few securities class actions in Canada. One counsel submitted that this “was the third largest securities class […]
Arguments have begun this month in a pair of controversial constitutional challenges that could very well end up on the Supreme Court's docket in the next few years. The cases, both of which are currently before the Ontario Superior Court, attack long-standing policies whose time may have come: Canadian Blood Services' ban on blood donations […]