Program

Abstracts and Bios long program

Tuesday AGM Materials /documents pour l'AGA de mardi (en/fr)

CLSA Monday Program (overlap day)

NOTICE:   ACPD CALT SUMMER SESSIONS 2023

Monday Jun 12, 2023 2:00 PM  EST.

Experts Chat about ChatGPT:

Curriculum and Context

This roundtable of law, tech and teaching experts from Canadian Law Schools will try to put what's new about Chat GPT into context for law teachers.  Should we teach about ChatGPT, and how?  How might ChatGPT be integrated into legal work?  And how can we design meaningful evaluations in a world where Chat GPT is a click away? 

Prof Alexandra Mogoryos, Toronto Metropolitan University, Lincoln Alexander Faculty of Law

Audrey Fried Director, Faculty & Curriculum Development, Osgoode OPD

Prof. Katie Szilagyi, University of  Manitoba Faculty of Law 

Prof. Kirsten Thomasen, Allard Faculty of Law, UBC

Prof. Jon Penny, Osgoode Hall Law School

Prof Valerio de Stefano, Canada Research Chair in Innovation, Law and Society, Osgoode Hall Law School

Prof. Wolfgang Alschner, Hyman Soloway Chair in Business and Trade Law, Ottawa Faculty of Law

Registration required, register here: https://bit.ly/ChatChatGPT

Monday Jun 26, 2023 11:00 AM  EST

Wellness in Law Schools:

Talking about Techniques and Tensions

Presented in collaboration with the Association of Law Teachers (UK).

Institutions related to the legal profession in many jurisdictions have begun to recognize a serious and, it seems, increasing, level of mental unwellness amongst lawyers as well as law students.  This panel will focus on the question of wellness in law schools.  A set of Draft Guidelines for law schools prepared by  Emma J. Jones, Sr. Lecturer and Director of Student Wellbeing at University of Sheffield School of Law UK, Professor Caroline Strevens, University of Portsmouth, UK; Professor Rachael Field, Bond University, Australia; and Dr Colin James, ANU, Australia), the UK Association of Law Teachers and the International Bar Association on developing International Guidelines for Mental Wellbeing in Legal Education will be shared with all participants.  Panellists (TBA) will offer feedback on the guidelines.  The Panel will reflect on some of the many complex tensions which arise in efforts to promote wellness in law schools.  These tensions include whether wellness initiatives should be broadly or narrowly targeted, the extent to which wellness initiatives themselves can create more time pressure on students, and the problem of limited resources, particularly for evaluation studies.  Specific initiatives that Panellists have been involved with will also form part of the discussion.  Contributions and questions from all participants will be welcome time permitting. All registered  participants will receive a copy of the Draft Guidelines and an annotated list of resources on wellness in law schools.

Registration required, register here: https://bit.ly/ALTCALTWellness

Two Assistant or Associate Professor, Assistant or Associate Teaching Professor positions open at UVIC. The Committee will begin considering applications on 1 May 2023 until the positions are filled.  See here for the full job listings. Tell your friends. 

Position 1

The Faculty invites applications for one full-time research or teaching-stream faculty position. The
appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Professor, Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Professor
or Associate Teaching Professor, with rank and tenure status determined after an assessment of
accomplishments and experience. The expected start date is 1 July 2023 or as negotiated.

This position is a Preferential Hire. In accordance with the University’s Equity Plan and pursuant to
Section 42 of the BC Human Rights Code, preference will be given to Black scholars. Candidates from
this group who wish to qualify for preferential consideration must self-identify in their cover letter. We
encourage applicants for all positions to self-identify other characteristics relevant to UVic Law’s
diversity commitments.

We are interested in hearing from all exceptional candidates regardless of subject-matter expertise. The
successful candidate must have the interest and capacity to teach first-year private law courses,
particularly first-year Property or Torts in the JD or JD/JID program. In addition, applications from
candidates with research or teaching interests in labour law, employment law, or dispute resolution are
especially welcome.

Position 2

The Faculty invites applications for one full-time research or teaching-stream faculty position. The
appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Professor, Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Professor
or Associate Teaching Professor, with rank and tenure status determined after an assessment of
accomplishments and experience. The expected start date is 1 July 2023 or as negotiated.

This position is open to all applicants. We encourage applicants for all positions to self-identify
characteristics relevant to UVic Law’s diversity commitments.

We are interested in hearing from all exceptional candidates regardless of subject-matter expertise. The
successful candidate must have the interest and capacity to teach first-year private law courses,
particularly first-year Property or Torts in the JD or JD/JID program. In addition, applications from
candidates with research or teaching interests in labour law, employment law, or dispute resolution are
especially welcome.

We are particularly interested in candidates who can, or are interested in, teaching and conducting
research in a transsystemic or comparative way, including those with qualifications in more than one legal
tradition or jurisdiction. All candidates should have the capacity and desire to take part in the mentorship
and supervision of graduate students.

Regulation of Lawyers .... and Law Schools?  How ongoing debates about lawyer licensing affect law schools and legal education

Hosted by ACPD-CALT 

Feb 10 2023 1130 PST, 1230 MST, 130 CST, 230EST 330 AST

Please join us to hear about the challenges, ideas and changes which bring together regulators and law schools.  Register here:  https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYufuisrD0rE9dQb0zE7vqFlPUGq5yF4BWm

Other important links: 

Federation of Law Societies of Canada: 

Approved Canadian common law programs: 

National Requirement Review: 

National Committee on Accreditation:

CALT Letters re Current Review

November 2022

January 2021

Canadian Council of Law Deans Principles on the Role of Law Faculties in Lawyer Education

Report from the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System: "The Whole Lawyer"

Furlong, A Competence-Based System For Lawyer Licensing in British Columbia report to LSBC, May 2022

Panelists

Law Centre Director, 

Faculty of Law, University of Victoria 

Assistant Teaching Professor and Clinical Director, Law Centre  Closing date for applications – March 21, 2023  

The University of Victoria is consistently ranked in the top tier of Canada’s research-intensive  universities. Vital impact drives the UVic sense of purpose. As an internationally renowned  teaching and research hub, we tackle essential issues that matter to people, places and the  planet. Situated in the Pacific Rim, our location breeds a profound passion for exploration.  Defined by its edges, this extraordinary environment inspires us to defy boundaries, discover,  and innovate in exciting ways. It’s different here, naturally and by design. We live, learn, work  and explore on the edge of what’s next—for our planet and its peoples. Our commitment to  research-inspired dynamic learning and vital impact make this Canada’s most extraordinary  environment for discovery and innovation. Experience the edge of possibilities for yourself. 

We acknowledge with respect the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples on whose  traditional territory the university stands and whose historical relationships with the land  continue to this day. 

The Law Centre  

Since its founding in the mid-1970’s, the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria has sought  to make a unique contribution to legal education in Canada. Dedicated to providing students  with the skills, knowledge, and judgment they will need to embark on diverse careers, UVic  Law, as part of its curriculum, offers a diversity of experiential education opportunities. The Law  Centre Clinical Program furthers the Law school’s and the University’s strategic commitments to  experiential education, engaged student learning, service to the community, equity and  inclusion, and fostering respect and reconciliation for indigenous persons and communities. 

Statement from the Canadian Association of Law Teachers re Motion before the Law Society of Alberta on Mandatory Indigenous Cultural Competence requirement

The Canadian Association of Law Teachers notes that on Monday, the Law Society of Alberta will consider a motion challenging the basis on which continuing professional development (CPD) on Indigenous intercultural competency has been mandated by the Law Society of Alberta.

The Canadian Association of Law Teachers is an association made up mainly of teachers in University J.D./LL.B. programs in Canadian Common and Civil Law law schools.  However, CALT approaches legal education as a continuum which continues throughout a lawyer's professional life.  In a letter dated November 30th 2022 (in response to a call issued September 22, 2022) CALT submitted a letter to the Federation of Canadian Law Societies about the upcoming National Requirement Review.  In that letter, we indicated CALT's strong support for the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as they relate to law schools and legal regulators.  

We have read the Letter in Support of Mandatory Indigenous Cultural Competency Training sent to the Benchers of the Law Society of Alberta on February 2, 2023 and signed by many lawyers and law students.   This letter makes important, clear and direct arguments against the motion.  CALT thanks the authors of this letter and would adopt the arguments and conclusions contained within it. 

We have also read the statement of CALE, the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics, in response to the Alberta motion.  We would also endorse and adopt the position articulated by that Association, that all Canadian legal regulators should develop and adopt a requirement that all licensees complete Indigenous intercultural competence training. CALT thanks CALE for its attention to this issue.

CALT Board of Directors

Conference 2023 Colloque 1

Join us at CongressFHSS May 29, 30 2023 at York University / Rejoignez-nous au Congrès les 29 et 30 mai 2023 à l'Université de York.

Bulletin ACPD-CALT Bulletin

December 19 2022 decembre 19

Become a CALT member Devenir membre de l'ACPD

- Constitutional Crossroads Conference at Allard
- New Book by Prof. S. van Praagh (25% off)
- Baxter Family Federalism competition (students & early career)

Items relevant to teaching and learning in legal education can be sent by members to [email protected] re: ACPD-CALT Bulletin. We post positions available in the Canadian legal academy on our website when they come to our attention.

Nous publions les postes disponibles dans l'académie juridique canadienne sur notre siteweb lorsqu'ils sont portés à notre attention. Les nouvelles pertinents à l'enseignement et à l'apprentissage en éducation juridique peuvent être envoyés à [email protected] au sujet de: Bulletin ACPD CALT.

Profs Sarah-jane Nussbaum (UNB) and Danardo Jones (Windsor) are convening a Roundtable for CALT at Congress 2023 (see link for dates and details of the Conference) about teaching critical perspectives in criminal law, and are reaching out for expressions of interest in joining.

The focus here is on teaching law school first years, and early career teachers are especially welcome.

• Roundtable participants are asked to bring something for the group conversation, for instance:
• More granular descriptions of teaching goals/learning outcomes in terms of "critical perspectives", or a definition of "critical perspectives" that you are using in designing your course
• A description of specific challenges (or perceived failures) in bringing critical perspectives to students, reflections on the reasons for the problem including perhaps how it relates to other courses, classroom dynamics, etc.
• A particular class or teaching unit which worked well including perhaps material, focus, activities, and evaluation methods to share with the group.
• Evidence of how an approach is received by students (good or bad)

Please reach out to Profs Nussbaum and Jones by December 20 if interested ([email protected], [email protected]) so that they can add your name to the proposal they plan to submit.  Your email should include some indication of what you would like to bring to the Roundtable. 

There is space available for a number of people to join - invite your colleagues to consider it.  At the Conference, people not actually part of the Roundtable will of course be able to attend the session. 

In response to a call issued September 22, 2022, CALT has submitted a letter to the Federation of Canadian Law Societies about the upcoming National Requirement Review.  The text of the letter is in this post below the break or you can find a .pdf file here.

In brief, we expressed concern about process and substance.  We suggested that it was necessary that the review be "meaningfully collaborative, adequately evidence-based and aimed at generating consensus among key stakeholders".  We also noted three substantive points:

1. with the exception of the need to integrate the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, any effort to expand the breadth, depth or specificity of the competencies that are currently articulated in the National Requirement as mandatory criteria for approved Canadian law degrees ought to be framed as an effort to articulate supplementary guidelines, rather than added requirements

2. the National Requirement review must embrace an approach to articulating competencies appropriate to ‘whole lawyers’, to ‘diverse professional practise contexts’ and for the ‘whole continuum’ of legal education and competence development, thus rejecting the undesirably narrow, ‘technical’ and ‘one-size-fits-all’ vision of competence for legal education and legal practise that was articulated in the initial work of the NCA Assessment Modernization Committee

3. the National Requirement review must not pre-emptively or prematurely adopt starting ideas that lack evidence-based credibility or that have not been subjected to appropriate critical assessment.

The letter, below the jump, explains the concerns and considerations underlying these positions.

The thoughts of our members about this upcoming review and how ACPD-CALT should engage are very welcome - you can contact us at [email protected]

Bulletin ACPD-CALT Bulletin

October 2022 Octobre

matières - contents

1. CALT Awards - Les prix ACPD
2. New colleagues in the Canadian legal academy - Nouveaux collègues dans l'académie juridique canadienne: Allard
3. Congress 2023 Congrès Call / Appel
4. External Announcements - Annonces externes

Items relevant to teaching and learning in legal education can be sent to [email protected] yorku.ca re: ACPD-CALT Bulletin.

Les nouvelles pertinents à l'enseignement et à l'apprentissage en éducation juridique peuvent être envoyés à [email protected] au sujet de: Bulletin ACPD CALT.

Find this post in PDF form

Find the call in french / Appel en francais.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS  

Annual Meeting 2023 

Deadline for proposals December 23 2022.   

Submit proposals using this form

The Canadian Association of Law Teachers first in-person meeting since the Summer of 2019 will be at York University in Toronto as part of the 2023 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (May 27 to June 3 2023).   

CALT’s meetings will be  on Monday May  29 and Tuesday May 30 2022.   

The CALT Banquet and awards will be held concurrently with the Canadian Law and Society Association on the evening of Sunday May 28th, 2022, the night before our meetings begin.   

On Monday May 29 CALT will host a Luncheon for Junior Professors - all of those appointed to their first full time tenure track position in or after the month of January 2020.  

Congress 2023 is an important moment to come together and attempt to re/connect with our communities.  We are  particularly focused on the way our communities have both grown and changed since our last meeting, and of issues left on the table when we canceled our 2020 conference.  The Congress theme, Reckonings and Re-Imaginings has particular resonance in that light and will be somewhat familiar to  Canadian scholars and learners of law:   

The third decade of the twenty-first century has brought us into unprecedented times. An unrelenting global pandemic, protests for racial justice, and escalating climate disasters have heightened our awareness of the urgent need for collective action to help us create a more equitable and sustainable world. The lessons from Black Lives Matter, Idle No More, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, have been joined by new lessons, new reckonings about what is needed to live in non-hierarchical relationships that can truly honour our human differences, while protecting the land, water and air we all need to live together.  

In the theme, “Reckonings and Re-Imaginings,” we invite the Congress community to pause and reflect on the lessons we have learned, but also to begin the work of imagining and enacting the terms under which we might create a radically different world. What might it mean for us to commit to knowing and caring for each other across our differences, understanding that the world we want to live in tomorrow is dependent on the action we take together today? Can we re-imagine a new set of social relationships grounded in decoloniality, anti-racism, justice, and preservation of the earth? This invitation for both reflection and action requires a genuine investment in the project of learning and growing, a willingness to participate in active and meaningful co-engagement, and a commitment to exercising patience and care in doing the hard work of changing belief systems and the world.”   

See more at the Congress main site here. 

AN EXPANDED FOCUS 

In putting together our program, we are proposing two particular areas of attention in addressing the themes above:  

• We would like to pay particular attention to the work and needs of those members of the academy who have joined in the last 3 or 4 years (along with programming aimed at graduate students in law);
• We are looking to make more space for discussions of scholarly legal research inside or across areas of legal scholarship - beyond the scholarship of teaching and learning.    

These plans complement our familiar focus on teaching and learning law in Canada.   

PROPOSALS 

We encourage the submission of complete or partial (with space for more participants)  proposals for sessions of 1.5hrs or 1 hour. We are open to a variety of formats and themes, as set out below and we encourage you to reach out to colleagues at different institutions and career stages to generate possibilities. 

Participants should assume that remote participation—for presenters and audiences—will not be supported at this conference. All participants should plan to attend the conference in person.  If you have questions or concerns please be in touch at [email protected]   

By the time of the conference, all participants must be registered as members of CALT and registered for Congress.    We would be delighted if you chose to become a member now: please visit https://www.acpd-calt.org/join_adhesion. 

The requirement of membership does not include JD students or community members who may be participating in your proposal. Please contact us directly in that case at [email protected] or indicate that people in this position are a part of your proposal. 

Submit proposals using this form.   

https://forms.gle/MXiYF2XsPutQcRt97  

Our Deadline is December 23 2022 but we will begin reviewing proposals on November 23 2022.    

Questions should be directed to  contact@acpd-calt.org 

We also anticipate a role in arranging ‘CALT-sponsored” Open Sessions (available to all Congress attendees).  These should closely relate to the theme-related sessions and so invite suggestions for sessions or speakers and expressions of interest in co-arranging specific sessions.  Limited funding may be available to support non-academics in travel and attendance in relation to these open sessions where applicable.  Creative proposals are welcome.  

CALT may award a “Congress Graduate Student Merit Award” worth approximately $500 to one graduate student who is presenting their work at our meetings.  Only students who are presenting work which can be described through an abstract of 250 words will be able to apply for this award.  The award recipient will be notified by May 2023, and funds will be disbursed in June 2023.  If you or someone participating in your proposed session is interested in this opportunity please indicate using the box available in the submission form.  

CALT members participating at Congress may also be eligible to receive a “Child and Dependent Care Subsidy” (up to 200 per person) via the Federation of Social Sciences and the Humanities. An application is required, and decisions about this subsidy will be released on May 2 2023.  Information about this opportunity will be distributed to all who are on the program in late March 2023.  

Student Evaluations of Teaching:  A Short, Annotated, List of Resources

June 2022

Download a .docx version here. 

(important additions? write to [email protected] or [email protected])

Find this post in PDF form

Find the call in french / Appel en francais.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS  

Annual Meeting 2023 

Deadline for proposals December 23 2022.   

Submit proposals using this form

The Canadian Association of Law Teachers first in-person meeting since the Summer of 2019 will be at York University in Toronto as part of the 2023 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (May 27 to June 3 2023).   

CALT’s meetings will be  on Monday May  29 and Tuesday May 30 2022.   

The CALT Banquet and awards will be held concurrently with the Canadian Law and Society Association on the evening of Sunday May 28th, 2022, the night before our meetings begin.   

On Monday May 29 CALT will host a Luncheon for Junior Professors - all of those appointed to their first full time tenure track position in or after the month of January 2020.  

Congress 2023 is an important moment to come together and attempt to re/connect with our communities.  We are  particularly focused on the way our communities have both grown and changed since our last meeting, and of issues left on the table when we canceled our 2020 conference.  The Congress theme, Reckonings and Re-Imaginings has particular resonance in that light and will be somewhat familiar to  Canadian scholars and learners of law:   

The third decade of the twenty-first century has brought us into unprecedented times. An unrelenting global pandemic, protests for racial justice, and escalating climate disasters have heightened our awareness of the urgent need for collective action to help us create a more equitable and sustainable world. The lessons from Black Lives Matter, Idle No More, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, have been joined by new lessons, new reckonings about what is needed to live in non-hierarchical relationships that can truly honour our human differences, while protecting the land, water and air we all need to live together.  

In the theme, “Reckonings and Re-Imaginings,” we invite the Congress community to pause and reflect on the lessons we have learned, but also to begin the work of imagining and enacting the terms under which we might create a radically different world. What might it mean for us to commit to knowing and caring for each other across our differences, understanding that the world we want to live in tomorrow is dependent on the action we take together today? Can we re-imagine a new set of social relationships grounded in decoloniality, anti-racism, justice, and preservation of the earth? This invitation for both reflection and action requires a genuine investment in the project of learning and growing, a willingness to participate in active and meaningful co-engagement, and a commitment to exercising patience and care in doing the hard work of changing belief systems and the world.”   

See more at the Congress main site here. 

AN EXPANDED FOCUS 

In putting together our program, we are proposing two particular areas of attention in addressing the themes above:  

• We would like to pay particular attention to the work and needs of those members of the academy who have joined in the last 3 or 4 years (along with programming aimed at graduate students in law);
• We are looking to make more space for discussions of scholarly legal research inside or across areas of legal scholarship - beyond the scholarship of teaching and learning.    

These plans complement our familiar focus on teaching and learning law in Canada.   

PROPOSALS 

We encourage the submission of complete or partial (with space for more participants)  proposals for sessions of 1.5hrs or 1 hour. We are open to a variety of formats and themes, as set out below and we encourage you to reach out to colleagues at different institutions and career stages to generate possibilities. 

Participants should assume that remote participation—for presenters and audiences—will not be supported at this conference. All participants should plan to attend the conference in person.  If you have questions or concerns please be in touch at [email protected]   

By the time of the conference, all participants must be registered as members of CALT and registered for Congress.    We would be delighted if you chose to become a member now: please visit https://www.acpd-calt.org/join_adhesion. 

The requirement of membership does not include JD students or community members who may be participating in your proposal. Please contact us directly in that case at [email protected] or indicate that people in this position are a part of your proposal. 

Submit proposals using this form.   

https://forms.gle/MXiYF2XsPutQcRt97  

Our Deadline is December 23 2022 but we will begin reviewing proposals on November 23 2022.    

Questions should be directed to  contact@acpd-calt.org 

We also anticipate a role in arranging ‘CALT-sponsored” Open Sessions (available to all Congress attendees).  These should closely relate to the theme-related sessions and so invite suggestions for sessions or speakers and expressions of interest in co-arranging specific sessions.  Limited funding may be available to support non-academics in travel and attendance in relation to these open sessions where applicable.  Creative proposals are welcome.  

CALT may award a “Congress Graduate Student Merit Award” worth approximately $500 to one graduate student who is presenting their work at our meetings.  Only students who are presenting work which can be described through an abstract of 250 words will be able to apply for this award.  The award recipient will be notified by May 2023, and funds will be disbursed in June 2023.  If you or someone participating in your proposed session is interested in this opportunity please indicate using the box available in the submission form.  

CALT members participating at Congress may also be eligible to receive a “Child and Dependent Care Subsidy” (up to 200 per person) via the Federation of Social Sciences and the Humanities. An application is required, and decisions about this subsidy will be released on May 2 2023.  Information about this opportunity will be distributed to all who are on the program in late March 2023.  

Peter A. Allard School of Law University of British Columbia

Tenure-Track or Tenured Indigenous Faculty Appointment

See job ad on the Allard UBC Law website here or text below.

The Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia seeks to recruit an outstanding Indigenous faculty member and invites applications from Indigenous candidates for a full-time tenuretrack or tenured appointment, ideally at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor. It is hoped that the position will commence July 1, 2023, subject to negotiation with the successful candidate. The successful candidate will be appointed to the rank appropriate to their qualifications and experience. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications. The position is subject to budgetary approval.

At CALT's July 6 web session on Open Access publishing we heard from practitioners, law teachers, and publishers about options for Open Access with CanLII.  I thought I knew what could be done with “online”, “open access” text books – but I think I’d fallen a bit behind and what I saw made me even more keen to join up.  There are lots of reasons to think about this, normative reasons (low price, public access) and functional/pedagogical reasons (customization, easy access, downloads possible, printing possible, and additional features such as embeds, links, etc).

Scroll down for more on Open Access resources and more on CanLII's platform.

Samuel Beswick is Assistant Professor at Allard where he’s teaching Torts.  You can see his Open Access, Torts casebook on CanLII:  Tort Law: Cases and Commentaries (2021 CanLIIDocs 1859). He put together two brief slides easily accessed here, to highlight important points, and he’s also done a short explainer at SLAW, here.  Those are really useful, but I think that taking a look at his casebook is perhaps the best way to see what’s possible (the artist who did the cover illustration is a student – you can see her work here).   

Sam was particularly interested in highlighting two things in his casebook.  First, a bit of comparative law from around the common law world in terms of tort doctrine.  Second, the question of how Tort law should work when the alleged tortfeasor is a public entity.  Doing his own casebook allowed him to bring those things to the fore.

Beswick's Tort Law is relatively purely a casebook – there is some commentary but it’s not from him.  But what a casebook! In particular:

1. The cross referencing means that students can easily follow a case which might appear in a case book multiple times (for instance, in terms of the duty of care, the standard of care, and the remedy).
2. The “additional reading” or “resources” linked can include video, news articles.
3. The links mean that students can easily move from the excerpts he’s providing to the full text if they want to.

The work is hosted on CanLII and available completely open access.  Students can download it, access it via the web, or print it.  Sam, in fact, has it printed and requires that students buy it (at cost of printing/binding) so that they have it in print form (there were some interesting side conversations about comprehension and concentration when reading online/in print).   Sam said too that because CanLII SEO game is strong, he’s getting views from people who are probably just looking for general tort information but his book comes first when they search!

Sam has also enhanced his book with teaching tools including quizzes and help “structuring the answer on an exam” – these tools are hosted elsewhere but also available open access.  (I did not do very well on the defences quiz, 26 years post-Torts with Prof. Weinrib, scraping a pretty bare pass).

Reminder that CALT membership is open for online purchase (here). Please consider becoming a member if you find this kind of workshop and resource useful.

John Fiddick and Cameron Wardell are civil litigators in B.C., and the lead editors of The CanLII Manual to British Columbia Civil Litigation - open access on CanLII here (cover art for this Manual is by….Cameron Wardell!).  This is a different kind of project but it also highlights the incredible possibilities of OA as supported by CanLII, as a tool for access to justice and a space of collaboration not just sole authorship.

Initiated out of a concern that self-represented litigants (and new professionals) had limited places to go for a comprehensive guide to the civil litigation systems in BC.  It is deliberately written a format and language that will be accessible to the ordinary citizen.  Each of the 9 “pathfinders” (for instance, in personal injury law, residential tenancy law, and worker’s compensation law) in Administrative Law, Criminal Law Employment Law was written by a volunteer author, and a huge team of volunteer checkers and editors helped bring this project to fruition.   CanLII provided some coordination and formatting support, but the content is all volunteer-expert supplied.

Alisa Lazear,  Manager of Community and Content at CanLII, was closely involved in the development and production of the BC Manual and Sam’s Torts casebook.  While the casebook was largely a sole author production (Sam wrote it in word, and then it was uploaded to the CanLII platform), the Manual required more development and coordination.  CanLII is fielding a number of proposals for similar Manuals across the provinces.  The BC Manual is being well used (first citation, here).  As Cameron pointed out there are (Cameron’s emphasis!) “very serious lawyers” who use no database other than CanLII now.   Those of us (like me) who entered legal research just as analog methods were giving way to full text, fully commercialised databases, might not realize this – I’m not sure I did. 

If you want to read more about Open Access Resources in legal education, you can read the  Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources and/or  watch a series of topic specific recorded webinars about Fair Use for Open Educational Resources  here (h/t to Osgoode’s Carys Craig, the only scholar from a Canadian Law School involved here I think).  The materials are “…intended to support authors, teachers, professors, librarians, and all open educators in evaluating when and how they can incorporate third party copyright materials into Open Educational Resources to meet their pedagogical goals”.  The clear concern here is that understandings of IP and copyright might be stifling educational use beyond what the law actually requires.

If you want to know more about CanLII platform and policies around hosting Open Access resources, you can try here (Author guidelines), here (Lexbox, free to sign up, which will show you what your materials will look like on CanLII)  and here (Reflex, which automatically finds and hyperlinks an references in your materials which connect to CanLII resources – other hyperlinks need to be manually added). Despite  CanLII's small number of staff, it is developing into a significant player in Canada as a supplier of Open Access Resources in legal practice and legal education. Alisa Lazear also recommended this guide to publishing Open Access educational resources put together by a not-for-profit: The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Text which details the kinds of things you have to think about, and the process from beginning to Open Access (well, and beyond, since with legal material you always have to think about updates/being up-to-date).

Apologies for any errors or misunderstandings in this post, entirely my own. Huge thanks again to Alisa, Sam, John and Cameron, and Sarah Sutherland of CanLII.

CALT is really grateful to this amazing group of professors who brought us a wonderful workshop on Incorporating disability into the curriculum on June 29 2022. 

• David Lepofsky – Disability Advocate, Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Toronto and Chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance

• Laverne Jacobs – Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor and lead author and General Editor Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials. Lexis Nexis 2021.

Co Authors

• Odelia Bay – PhD Student, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
• Ruby Dhand – Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Thompson Rivers University
• David Ireland – Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba
• Richard Jochelson – Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba
• Freya Kodar – Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria

Anna Lund, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta (moderator)

David Lepofsky opened the session, describing his report on this topic, originally written for Osgoode Hall Law School and soon to be published in the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice as a paper. David noted that he’s given talks at many schools on this topic and welcomes requests to do so – just reach out.

The lead author of Law and Disability: Cases and Materials, Laverne Jacobs (also the 2022  winner of CALT’s Academic Excellence Award!) spoke about the aims and scope of book (available here, tell your librarian and your colleagues), which she noted was “inspired by the notable absence of material about the lives of people with disabilities in law school curricula”.  She described it, in part, as  a “necessary part of cultural competency of students, disabled and non disabled alike”. 

Describing how she brings disability into the public law context, Dr. Jacobs (who teaches, inter alia, Admin law) suggested two practical tips.  First, reread an older case in light of changes in the law.  She suggested  Eldridge v. British Columbia (Attorney General), [1997] 3 S.C.R. 624, with which many will be familiar, which could be reread to ask whether the Medical Commission properly exercised discretion when it did not include sign language translation on the list of funded services.  Next, she suggested that a more recent case like Vavilov could be read with a disability lens.  Students can be asked to outline the actual impact on people with disabilities, people who access many statutory regimes of benefit provision, for instance.   She also recommended, in the area of equality and human rights law, Disability Rights Coalition v. Nova Scotia (Attorney General), 2021 NSCA 70 (CanLII), <https://canlii.ca/t/jjg28> , noting that it focuses on evidentiary requirements which are often important in disability related cases.

Odelia Bay, a sessional instructor in labour law and PhD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School talked about how she uses her classroom to model accessibility and contrast it with accommodation, working in her teaching to assume that all her students are people with disabilities.  She also  establishes the difference between social and individual/medical models of disability and how these produce different legal analyses and outcomes.  She noted in particular the complexities of episodic disabilities, cases which challenge the idea of predictability in disability and “accommodation”, pointing to some a case she takes up in her contribution to the volume which involves the return to work of a person with bipolar disorder and the labour arbitration over what accommodations were required.  She noted that cases also offer the possibility of a discussion of social class and private support.  In the case she takes up, the person making the claim was a professor, and the final outcome included insurance payouts which lessened the financial cost of accommodation for the university.  But in many cases, people with disabilities will not have this kind of support.

Freya Kodar teaches in the areas of income support law, pension law, social welfare law and tort law.  Her engagement with disability analysis focuses on the ways that income support law provides income support across life course, but raises many questions about the adequacy of that support.  She particularly noted her efforts to ensure that students are able to problematize the need (in legal contexts) to present disability in a negative light in order to qualify for support.  Students can work on identifying the ways that this fits with the medical model and differs profoundly from how a disability justice approach or a social model/critical model might frame the issue.

David Ireland and Richard Jochelson wrote about disability in the criminal law context, considering in particular jury representations for people with disabilities (pointing out that in the case of Indigenous people in Canada, the percentage of people identifying as disabled seems to be higher and perhaps substantially higher than the 1 in 5 usually cited for the rest of the Canadian population)  and then the work done at inquests into deaths in state “care”, considering not only deaths in custody, but a other contexts as well. Their contribution also considers how mental and physical disability plays a role (or does not) in sentencing decisions. Like many of the presenters, these two emphasized the need to alert students to the failings of the legal profession in its own approaches to access and accommodation.

Finally, Ruby Dhand, who teaches mental health law spoke about her work in teaching this substantive content of mental health law (which, as she pointed out, intersects with a huge number of overlapping legal areas including human rights law, clinical legal education, health law, criminal law) as well as in furthering discussions about and importance of mental health in the profession.  Prof Dhand pointed to the importance of encouraging students to use a trauma informed lens in their own work as lawyers.

This discussion and this book highlight the ways that “disability” issues pervade our law, and people with disabilities are users of all of the doctrine and systems that are used by the non-disabled – with some systems uniquely focused on people with disabilities.  Thus the necessity of including this material and habituating our students to thinking about the way that disability is and should be treated in law seems clear.  Equally, we are teaching in spaces that include people with disabilities and thus must think about our own practices with respect to disability and access.  Finally our students, whether living with disabilities or not and whether planning to practice something that we might label “disability law” or not, must be prepared to have people with disabilities as their clients and colleagues and to respond in professional and appropriate ways to different needs and concern.

Get the book.

CALT is very grateful to all of the presenters in this workshop for their published work and their daily ongoing work to foreground and support the work of access and inclusion in form and practice.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY: A Primer and Strategic Mapping Exercise

Wednesday July 20, 2022 2:00PM EST

You will need to register in advance for this meeting by clicking here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put worker health and safety at the forefront of the news. Over half the workforce of Cargill’s meatpacking plant in High River, Alberta contracted the virus, resulting in at least three deaths. SEIU Healthcare, a union representing front line workers, asked police to investigate after three personal care attendants died from COVID-19, which they had contracted at work. Occupational health and safety law is intended to ensure that workplaces are safe, but not many lawyers have any familiarity with it. Few law schools offer dedicated occupational health and safety courses, while in some others OHS may be touched upon in a related course, but in most the topic is entirely absent from the curriculum. This session aims to provide law professors teaching in adjacent areas of law (e.g., labour & employment; business associations law) with knowledge and strategies for incorporating basic occupational health and safety law into their courses.

The goals of this session are two fold:  

1. To provide law professors with a primer on occupational health and safety law, so that they feel more comfortable incorporating it into their classes, and 
2. To provide law professors with space to consider where and how they might incorporate materials on occupational health and safety into their courses. 

Anna Lund (Moderator), Associate Professor at University of Alberta, Faculty of Law

Eric Tucker (Presenter), Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

Eric Tucker will deliver the primer on occupational health and safety law.  Eric Tucker has published extensively on occupational health and safety law and teaches a dedicated seminar on the subject at Osgoode Hall Law School.  His primer will cover the following questions   

• What are the key policy goals of occupational health and safety law? What are the big ideas that illuminate this area? 
• What are key sources of occupational health and safety law? What resources could a law professor draw on to learn more about it? 
• Why is it important for students to understand occupational health and safety law? In what circumstances will they encounter it in practice?
• What are some of the new and current questions in occupational health and safety law and scholarship? 

Attendees at this session will be invited to take part in a mapping exercise.

First, they will be asked to identify where they may already be covering occupational health and safety law in their courses.

Next, they will be invited to consider where they might try to incorporate it more substantively in future iterations of their course.  

The Open Casebook Revolution

The open access law book “revolution” (as named by  The Faculty Lounge), is gaining momentum. Open access law books are materials compiled and edited for law students, practitioners and/or the public that are freely hosted on websites and as downloadable, searchable, printable, mark-up-able PDFs. In the United States, dozens of open access law casebooks are popping up on platforms such as SSRN, Open Textbook Library, eLangdell and H2O.

In Canada, CanLII hosts Professor Beswick’s casebook, Tort Law: Cases and Commentaries, and Messrs

 Fiddick and Wardell’s handbook, The CanLII Manual to British Columbia Civil Litigation. These materials are freely available alternatives to commercial cas

ebooks and handbooks, which are typically expensive, heavy, and have a short shelf-life.  

Open access law books have clear practical, pedagogical and societal advantages. On the practical side, compared to commercial alternatives, open access books are simpler to edit, faster to publish, easier to update, and free. On the pedagogical side, they empower flexibility and innovation. They can be more readily structured to suit the editor’s teaching aims. They can link to podcasts 🎧, videos 📺, blogs, news, articles, books, and judgments. Readers can keyword search and highlight text. Students don’t break their backs carrying them. They can also be integrated with quizzes and exam exercises. On the social side, open access legal materials advance access to justice. Commercial materials are often beyond the reach of the public and, in some cases, students.

Open access legal publications help to keep the law accessible.  

This roundtable  will appraise and praise the practical, pedagogical and societal benefits of open access law books for law teachers, students and lawyers. We will begin by taking 10 minutes each to highlight the design innovations of our respective books and the impact we see them having.

We will then discuss among ourselves and with attendees the tricks and challenges for making such materials. We hope to encourage others to venture into creating open access casebooks, handbooks and other resources for students and curious members of the public.  

Sarah Sutherland (session chair), President and CEO, Canadian Legal Information Institute

• Samuel Beswick, Assistant Professor, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia (presentation slides)
• John Fiddick, Director, Whitelaw Twining.
• Cameron Wardell, Partner, Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark LLP

INCORPORATING LAW AND DISABILITY INTO THE CURRICULUM

June 29 1230-2PM EST

22% of Canadians over the age of 15 have at least one disability. Graduates of law schools will serve clients with disabilities, work alongside colleagues with disabilities and may themselves have or acquire disabilities over the course of their career. Key competencies for graduating law students include being familiar with how the law conceptualizes and addresses disability and having frameworks to critique the shortcomings of the existing law.  

The aims of this session are

(1) to provide concrete examples of how topics relevant to meeting the legal needs of individuals with disabilities can be incorporated into a wide range of courses across the law school curriculum and

(2) to engage law professors in a discussion of these topics.  Each participant will discuss a different area of law and how they bring awareness of the lived experiences of persons with disabilities into their classroom teaching.   

The session will touch on:  

• models of disability and theoretical underpinnings 
• equality and human rights law 
• accessibility legislation (including the federal Accessible Canada Act)
• employment law
• benefits law
• criminal law
• tort law 
• administrative law 
• mental health law  

Time will be reserved after the roundtable for a dialogue among participants and attendees.  

The session participants include the contributors to Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials (Toronto: Lexis Nexis Canada, 2021) and David Lepofsky, a longtime disability rights activist, who has a forthcoming article in the Windsor Yearbook on Access to Justice entitled, “People with Disabilities Need Lawyers Too! A Ready-To-Use Plan for Law Schools to Educate Law Students to Effectively Serve the Legal Needs of Clients with Disabilities, As Well As Clients Without Disabilities”.  

Anna Lund, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta (moderator)

• Odelia Bay – PhD Student, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University and co-author Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials
• Ruby Dhand – Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Thompson Rivers University and co-author Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials.
• David Ireland – Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba and co-author Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials.
• Laverne Jacobs – Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor and lead author and General Editor, Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials.
• Richard Jochelson – Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba and co-author Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials
• Freya Kodar – Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria and co-author Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials.
• David Lepofsky – Disability Advocate, Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Toronto and Chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance. 

We are delighted to announce the winners of CALT's Academic Prizes for 2022.  In awarding the Prizes during our (virtual) AGM, President of CALT and Chair of the Awards Committee, Angela Cameron spoke. about the large pool of excellent papers.  Our tireless adjudication Committee struggled to choose winners this year, and we are grateful to them for their work. 

Find out more about CALT's awards here. 

2022 Scholarly Paper Prize

Marie Manikis (McGill University).   “Recognising State Blame in Sentencing: A Communicative and Relational Framework” Cambridge Law Journal (forthcoming)

Honourable mentions: 

Ignacio Cofone (McGill law): "Immunity Passports and Contact Tracing Surveillance” (published in the Stanford Technology Law Review) 

Stefanie Carsley (UOttawa law)- “Regulating Reimbursements for Surrogate Mothers” (published in the Alberta Law Review) 

CALT Prize for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 2022 

David Sandomierski (University of Western Ontario) , John Bliss (University of Denver), and Tayzia Collesso (JD, UWO). “Pass for Some, Fail for Others: Law School Grading Changes in the Early Covid-19 Pandemic” (under review for publication)

Honourable mention:

Sarah-jane Nussbaum  "Critique-Inspired Pedagogies in Canadian Criminal Law Casebooks: Challenging 'Doctrine First, Critique Second' Approaches to First-Year Law Teaching" in (2021) 44 Dalhousie Law Review https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/dlj/vol44/iss1/7/.  

CALT Prize for Academic Excellence 

This Prize honours exceptional contribution to research and law teaching by a Canadian law teacher in mid-career. 

Winner: Prof. Laverne Jacobs, Professor, Associate Dean, Research & Graduate Studies at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law 

Prof. Jacobs is an accomplished and respected teacher, researcher, administrator and social justice advocate. The Adjudication Committee Chair noted:

"....the number, breadth, depth and remarkable positivity of the reference letters that accompanied Prof. Jacob’s nomination for this prize. Her peers, students and members of her community seemed so excited to have the opportunity to speak enthusiastically to her many accomplishments- they were a pleasure to read, and constituted a real tribute to Prof. Jacob’s broad and enduring impact."

AVIS OFFICIEL DE L'ASSEMBLÉE GÉNÉRALE ANNUELLE/ OFFICIAL NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

VEUILLEZ NOTER QUE l'Assemblée Générale Annuelle de l'Association canadienne des professeur(e)s de droit aura lieu le / TAKE NOTICE that the Annual General Meeting of Canadian Association of Law Teachers will be held on 

Mardi le 8 juin 2022, à 1500h HAE    / Tuesday 8 June 2022 at 3 PM EDST

Via Zoom Internet Meetings

Please register in advance for this meeting to  receive a zoom link via email.  Merci de vous inscrire à l'avance.  Vous recevez ensuite un e-mail avec un lien “zoom”: https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vc-GgqD0iHN26dq2ZM7hI1elzyHxFqJ94

Avis présenté ce  27 mai 2022/ Notice given this 27 of May, 2022

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Tell your friends and please circulate: 

2022-2023 Global South Visiting Scholar In-Residence Program

Call for Applications

Deadline: June 30, 2022

The Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, situated on

the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people, seeks to host

an exceptional scholar from the Global South for a short-term, fully funded visiting scholar in-residence

program. For the purposes of this competition, “Global South” includes all low or middle-income countries

located in Africa, Asia, Central and Latin America, the Middle East, Oceania and the Caribbean.

The successful Global South Visiting Scholar (GSVS) will spend a minimum of two weeks and maximum of

one term in residence at the Peter A. Allard School of Law. For this iteration of the program, the GSVS

must be able to complete this opportunity during the 2023 calendar year. In order to facilitate active

participation in the Law School community, the GSVS must arrange to be in residence during Allard’s

academic year, January-March 2023 or September-November 2023. Preference may be given to

candidates who are able to attend during the January-March 2023 term. As part of their visit, the GSVS is

expected to give lectures, hold sessions with faculty and graduate students, and conduct independent

research. The ideal candidate will be an early to mid-career scholar with a demonstrated commitment to

research and/or legal work in the area of resource extraction and/or land grabs, with a particular focus on

the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities. Preference will be given to candidates with a

demonstrated interest in international or comparative law.

MORE INFORMATION AND APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS HERE.