ACPD-CALT ROUNDTABLES

The State of Scholarly Publishing in Canadian Law School Journals Tenille Brown (Lakehead)

This is a call for Editor-in-Chiefs, Faculty Advisors, and Faculty involved in the running of law journals housed at Canadian law schools to participate in a roundtable on the state of scholarly publishing in Canadian law journals. This roundtable is an opportunity to discuss all aspects of academic publishing, including topics such as: journal work post-Covid, pedagogy through journals, reach and impact, the challenge of peer review, and to reflect generally on challenges and successes of journals housed at Canadian law schools. The roundtable will be preceded by a panel representing four Canadian journals. It is our hope that a roundtable discussion will be an opportunity for us to share our knowledge, experience, and goals on all things related to scholarly publishing in Canadian law school journals. If you would like to contribute to the roundtable or have any questions, please reach out to Tenille E. Brown, Editor-in-Chief of the Lakehead Law Journal. Email: [email protected]

The Law Professor in a Troubled Democracy - Shaun Fluker (Calgary)

We are in extraordinary socio-political times: the rise of populism in electoral politics, an executive branch willing to use its power to openly attack or dismantle institutions and challenge legal norms for political gain, a further entrenchment of neoliberalism, and more political participation in spaces where it is not welcome or protected. Law professors are increasingly viewed as a bulwark against this decay in democratic dialogue; as the search by civil society and others intensifies for public intellectuals who are able and willing to contribute to socio-political causes. Those who do this work will usually manage to categorize it as research, clinical teaching or community service, however it often seems like the unspoken component of our job description. For some, this work has resulted in being attacked by one version or another of a SLAPP: generally understood as punishment via legal process for political participation. None of this is new, but it seems like we are in a ‘new normal’ for engaging in law and public policy reform and related advocacy work outside of teaching assignments. This roundtable will provide an opportunity to share experiences with peers, and generate a deeper understanding of the benefits and challenges of this work. The discussion may include topics such as: how this contributes to our teaching and research, the socio-political context driving our engagement in these activities, the perils of finding yourself in the media and public spotlight, the personal and professional implications of this work, and why this work still does not factor comfortably into promotion and tenure (even when it is included as clinical teaching. If you would like to contribute to the roundtable or have any questions, please reach out to Shaun Fluker, University of Calgary Faculty of Law. Email: [email protected]

Experiments in Teaching in a World of Generative AI - Audrey Fried (Osgoode OPD)

This roundtable will provide a forum to discuss ways that different law teachers have adapted to the ready availability of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. We hope to include examples of courses that embrace the use of generative AI tools as well as courses that are designed to resist the use of such tools. If you would like to participate in the roundtable or have any questions, please get in touch with Audrey Fried at [email protected]

“Legal Issues in Housing and Homelessness” Anna Lund (Alberta), Sarah Buhler (Saskatchewan), Estair Van Wagner (Osgoode) 

This roundtable will focus on legal Issues in housing and homelessness. We will have a structured conversation around our own research projects, currently underway in this area. Our conversation will be structured through a series of pre-agreed-upon questions. We hope that the roundtable will provide participants with a chance to get feedback on existing projects, but also to draw connections between discrete areas of legal research (e.g., residential tenancies law, encampment litigation, Indigenous rights). If you would like to participate in the roundtable or have any questions, please contact Anna Lund. Email: [email protected].

IP and tech law teaching and pedagogy - Graham Reynolds (Allard UBC)

This roundtable provides participants with an opportunity to discuss a range of issues relating to teaching and pedagogy in the areas of intellectual property and technology law. Roundtable participants will share their experiences of courses taught in these areas, along with courses that they would like to teach should they have the opportunity to do so. As well, participants will discuss some of the challenges and successes that they have experienced as IP/tech law teachers, including those relating to generative AI. For this roundtable, we frame teaching broadly, which gives participants the opportunity to discuss certain types of research dissemination to broader public audiences, including through blogging, social media, and open access publications. If you would like to contribute to the roundtable or have any questions, please reach out to Graham Reynolds. Email: [email protected].

Co-Teaching in Law Schools - David Sandomierski (Western)

This roundtable aims to share experiences of co-teaching in law schools – whether between academics and practitioners, or among academics. We hope to share experiences and perspectives on the possibilities, successes, missed opportunities, and relevance of this pedagogical strategy for legal education. If you would like to contribute to the roundtable or have any questions, please contact David Sandomierski. Email: [email protected].

Shifting Demographics of Faculty and Students in Canadian Law Schools - Eliza Xue (UNB)

I am new to UNB and new to Canada. From the perspective of a new member to the law teachers' community and to this country, I have particular interest in exploring the impact and challenges brought by the shifting demographics of our students and faculty members.

The society of Canada keeps changing over time, so as our campuses across the country, from a settler-oriented framework which laid down the legal foundation for this country, to an awakening tide of incorporating indigenous perspectives and knowledge into course syllabus, then to integrating incoming tides of immigrants, who bring along their own culture, values and religion, and who keep enlarging groups of both students and faculty on campuses and keep shifting demographics on the land. The uniqueness of the Canadian society calls for unique perspectives of law education and unique approaches of teaching law.

I propose a roundtable discussion on how we can identify and grasp this uniqueness brought by the shifting demographics of our teaching-learning community from the following three perspectives: (1) What are the core values entrenched in the Canadian law by the English common law tradition and development over time by generations of Canadian judicial elites? These core values have defined what Canada is and shall be the key ingredients in law teaching. It is proposed that all newcomers, be they students or faculty members, shall embrace these core values in learning and teaching law. (2) The possible tension between indigenization and multiculturalism: how the indigenous traditional knowledge and customs would affect the traditional law teaching, and how to address the concept and idea of reconciliation in a class composing of a substantial number of immigrant students who might have little knowledge of this concern. On what basis and to what extent that indigenization and multiculturalism could be harmonized in the setting of teaching & learning law. (3) From a practical perspective, how could we manage our class effectively when handling students' requests which are inspired by their own culture and past experience in their country of origin, such as requesting extra marks on the basis that English is not their native language, and asking questions as to what particular words mean during an exam, etc, which might potentially trigger equity consideration.

If you woud like to to contribute to the roundtable or have any questions, please contact Eliza Xue. Email: [email protected].

Teaching Race and Contract Law: Confronting, Countering and Reconstituting Legal Narratives  - Constance MacIntosh, Melisa Marsman, Suzie Dunn (Schulich Dalhousie)

Contract law is a core course in the first year curriculum of all Canadian law schools, helping to set norms and expectations about legal actors and how the law frames and evaluates lived experience. We wish to bring people together to talk about how race does or should play into our teaching. We are motivated to seek this conversation because race plays a role in contracts, from negotiation to remedies, however it is less common to see discussions about the ways that race is engaged in this area of law, compared to other core first year courses.

We note that there is existing literature on the relationship between contract law and racial profiling and racism, and legislative tools to counter racism in contracting. There are cases and case studies that discuss historical and current examples of racial discrimination in contracts, whether that be quantifiable price difference in car sales among purchasers of different races, AI that sets different prices for people based on racial proxies, rules that prohibited people of colour people from entering contracts to purchase homes in certain neighbourhoods, or how the contractual benefits received by Black and Indigenous soldiers were different than those offered to white soldiers.

We welcome insights and experiences about the challenges and benefits when we engage with race in a systemically racist society in the mundane and everyday world of contract law. We further want to consider the ways that contracts law could potentially be used as a tool to address racial inequality in contracts. We invite participants to consider such questions as “How do I decide what to teach about race and racialization? How can teaching future contracts lawyers about race make them better lawyers in practice? Do I feel like I have the right balance in my materials? How (or when) do we discuss judges’ decisions to either flag race in their reasons or leave it out? What feels wrong (or right) when I teach race and contracting? What do I want to do differently or better?” If you would like to contribute to the roundtable or have any questions, please reach out to Constance MacIntosh. Email: [email protected].