Current Courses

Instructor: Professor Colleen Sheppaard
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course provides an introduction to fundamental principles, institutions and legal developments in Canadian constitutional law. The course explores the rule of law, democracy, judicial independence and federalism. It also examines human rights and freedoms, and constitutional issues affecting Indigenous Peoples and minority linguistic communities. The course is designed to provide students with a framework for understanding constitutional issues through a comparative lens, as well as thinking critically about the historical and social context of Canadian constitutional law.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Fall term: Take home examination (assist only). Winter term: Written assignment (Optional); Final examination. 

Instructor: Professor Joshua Nichols
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This introductory course is designed to provide students with both an understanding of the common law tradition of constitutionalism and a general overview of Canadian constitutionalism. The approach that we will take to constitutional law will be one that is grounded in the history and context of Canada. This approach is reflected in the structure of the course as we begin by reviewing the rules, roles, and institutions that are involved in the everyday workings of the constitutional order. We then take this more general, boardgame-like, understanding of the Canadian constitution and delve into the kinds of questions, doctrines and tests that form the vocabulary of constitutional law. By moving from the abstraction of legal theory to the practical contexts and problems that have shaped constitutional law in Canada students will be able to relate the legal theory with legal practice. This will enable them to engage with the deeper constitutional problems that exist within Canada (e.g., Aboriginal self-determination, environmental regulation, inter-provincial trade, and the future of federalism) and provide constitutional arguments that are grounded in a concrete understanding of the diversity of constitutional practices and traditions that give shape to the Canadian constitution.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Fall term: Winter Assignment; December Mid-Course Examination (take-home examination) (December examination will be used to assist only). Winter term: Final April Examination (flexible take home and by exam code).

Instructor: Professeure Johanne Poirier
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Un traitement de l’histoire, de la théorie, de la pratique du droit constitutionnel canadien, en partie à la lumière du droit comparé. Examen des sources du droit constitutionnel ; des principes généraux (État de droit, constitutionnalisme, démocratie, etc.); de la séparation des pouvoirs (législatif, exécutif et judiciaire); du fédéralisme; du droit public relatif aux peuples autochtones; et de la protection des droits fondamentaux, y compris des droits linguistiques. Le cours vise à amener les étudiant.e.s à comprendre la logique historique et institutionnelle du droit constitutionnel canadien, à aborder les sources - y compris la jurisprudence - de manière critique, et à mieux décoder l’actualité constitutionnelle. Le cours se veut interactif et repose sur la prémisse que les étudiant.e.s ont fait les lectures obligatoires avant le cours et sont prêt.e.s à en discuter.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Premier trimestre: Examen du 1er semestre, décembre 2022 (« assist only, c’est-à-dire que la note ne compte que si elle renforce votre note finale - anonyme). Trimestre d'hiver: Travail d’équipe, vers la mi-février 2023; Examen final, avril 2023 - anonyme.

Instructor: Professor Omar Farahat
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: Professor Fabien Gélinas (Fall 2022)/Konstanze Von Zchutz (Winter 2023)
Language of Instruction: Fall 2022 Bilingual; Winter 2023 English
Description: Le cours couvre les concepts, discours et arguments fondamentaux du droit des obligations contractuelles dans la tradition de la common law et celle du droit civil. Topics include the definitions of agreement; agreements that legally bind; the content of contractual obligations; reasons why some agreements are not enforced; breach and remedies; and third-party rights. Du point de vue de la méthode, outre l’accès aux notions de base, le cours développe une approche pratique et critique. Pratique : divers exercices sont proposés pour s’ initier au maniement du discours juridique. Critique : le cours offre un recul critique afin de faciliter l’appréhension du phénomène contractuel dans le monde contemporain. Remarque : This course joins a French section and an English section and is taught bilingually.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Fall term: Take-home mid-term exam in December. Winter term: Final take-home exam in April.

Instructor: Professeur Fabien Gélinas (Fall 2022)/Jérémy Boulanger-Bonnelly (Winter 2023)
Language of Instruction: Fall 2022 Bilingual; Winter 2023 Françias
Description: Le cours couvre les concepts, discours et arguments fondamentaux du droit des obligations contractuelles dans la tradition de la common law et celle du droit civil. Topics include the definitions of agreement; agreements that legally bind; the content of contractual obligations; reasons why some agreements are not enforced; breach and remedies; and third-party rights. Du point de vue de la méthode, outre l’accès aux notions de base, le cours développe une approche pratique et critique. Pratique : divers exercices sont proposés pour s’ initier au maniement du discours juridique. Critique : le cours offre un recul critique afin de faciliter l’appréhension du phénomène contractuel dans le monde contemporain. Remarque : This course joins a French section and an English section and is taught bilingually.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Fall term: Take-home mid-term exam in December. Winter term: Final take-home exam in April.

Instructor: Professor Angela Campbell/Me Robert Israel
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: Professeur Marie Manikis
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: Professor Jaye Ellis
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Extra-Contractual Obligations/Torts is a first year law course about human relations and actions, injury, responsibility and repair. All legal traditions include within them guidelines for human behaviour and, more specifically, provisions regarding reparation for harm suffered. All students of law study “extra-contractual obligations” as a basic foundational course in order to appreciate how law views and responds to injuries we may suffer, and how it treats us as people who, whether intentionally or not, may harm others through our actions. At McGill, first year law students engage in the study of “extra-contractual obligations” in an integrated way. That is, students work within both the Common law and Civil law traditions of Canada to understand how law defines wrongdoing, injury, and the connection between wrongdoing and its harmful consequences. By doing so, you are invited to develop a sophisticated and critical comprehension of the purposes, contours and consequences of the private law of civil wrongs.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Fall term: Mid-term examination, in-person. Winter term: Written assignment; Final examination, remote.

Instructor: Professor Van Praagh
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Extra-Contractual Obligations/Torts is a first-year law course about human relations and actions, injury, responsibility, and repair.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Fall term: December mid-term exam, in-person open book. Winter term: Assignment; Final exam, in-person closed book.

Instructor: Professeur Richard Janda
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: Professor Victor Muniz-Fraticelli
Language of Instruction: English
Description: What does it mean for law to have foundations? And how do arguments about the foundations of law help you understand your role as a student of law and future jurist? This course will examine the historical, socio-cultural, and philosophical arguments that have sought to 'ground' law. Among the topics to be addressed will be idea of a legal tradition and its relation to legal education; the place of concepts such as right, obligation, rule, authority, and justice in legal theory; and the criticism of law's claim to order human conduct.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Mid-term paper; In-course Assignments; Flexible Takehome.

Instructor: Professor René Provost
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The study of law always raises questions about the nature of law and the objectives of legal education. The most important questions still lack clear answers, leaving the student (and the jurist) avenues for exploration rather than fully satisfactory explanations. Foundations of Law aims to highlight the importance of going far beyond the simple learning of legal rules, which is only an intermediate step in one’s initiation to the law, in order to seize and master the nature and nuance of legal discourse. It is thus necessary to go beyond the codes, laws, judgements and other rules to question the nature of law, the reason certain areas of human activity are governed by the law but not others, the political choices underlying the content and formulation of norms and legal institutions, the manner in which legal normativity influences behaviour and attitudes, the extent to which certain normative frameworks belong to a given legal tradition, the nature of the interaction between different legal traditions etc. Foundations of Law aims to encourage and multiply these questions, as well as providing the necessary elements that will feed such inquiries over the course of your legal careers, if not beyond.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture. The course is based on a participatory model rather than only lectures.
Method of Evaluation: Class attendance and contribution to class discussions; In-course Assignments; Class journal; seminar report; Final essay.

Instructor: Professor François Crépeau
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Le cours Fondements du droit a pour objectif de vous accompagner dans une réflexion portant sur comment un « nous » donné connaît, représente, fait l’expérience, parle et fait du « droit », et ce que tout ceci révèle quant aux fondements du droit. Les guillemets autours des termes « nous » et « droit » expriment le caractère contingent de ces concepts, qui se définissent et se manifestent en divers lieux et temps spécifiques. Le cours vise à développer davantage certains thèmes explorés dans le cours de Traditions juridiques autochtones, dont la spécificité de diverses formes de légalité et, en particulier, le « constitutionnalisme libéral » canadien.
Plusieurs d’entre vous sont entrés à la Faculté de droit en ayant en tête que vous apprendrez, aux cours des prochaines années, à penser et à vous exprimer comme des juristes, à participer à ce qu’on peut appeler les jeux de langage auxquels s’adonnent les juristes de notre époque. Ce cours cherche donc à initier chez vous une réflexion sur ces jeux de langage et les différentes « manifestations sociales » qui les accompagnent. Comment s’expriment les juristes contemporains? Par exemple, comment exercent-ils et justifient-ils la séparation entre le droit et les faits, entre politique et droit, entre droit privé et droit public, ou encore entre la création et l’application du droit? Est-ce que les juristes de tradition civiliste s’expriment de la même manière que ceux appartenant à la common law, aux traditions juridiques autochtones ou à d’autres traditions juridiques? En quoi le discours du juriste professionnel se distingue-t-il des autres formes de discours qui nous entourent – et ne pensez pas seulement à l’éthicien, au prêtre, au ministre ou au rabbin, mais également aux musiciens, aux architectes, aux médecins, aux économistes et aux écrivains. De quelles manières le discours du juriste professionnel contemporain se distingue-t-il de celui tenu par les juristes et juges d’il y a 50 ans, 100 ans et plus? Également, de quelle manière les jeux de langage du juriste d’aujourd’hui sont-ils liés à nos conditions sociales dites modernes, notamment par rapport au prétendu monopole de la violence physique que revendique l’État?
Ce cours examinera également la revendication du droit d’exercer une autorité sur ses sujets. Nous examinerons la nature de cette revendication. Qu’est-ce qu’implique l’idée qu’une décision juridique soit obligatoire? De quelle manière les membres ordinaires de la communauté font-ils l’expérience de cette autorité du droit? Nous analyserons aussi plusieurs tentatives de justification de cette autorité. Certains théoriciens du droit ont soutenu, par exemple, que le droit revendique une autorité sur ses sujets du seul fait de son appartenance à un système démocratique. D’autres affirment que l’autorité du droit est condition de sa capacité à nous obliger à poser les actions pour lesquelles nous avons des motivations indépendantes de celle de la primauté du droit. D’autres encore imputent au genre d’ordre social rendu possible par la primauté du droit la justification de l’autorité du droit : le droit servirait les intérêts d’une classe dominante ou d’une certaine idéologie patriarcale. De façon générale, l’autorité du droit est une question qui est liée à la conceptualisation de son rapport avec la moralité : droit et moralité sont-ils deux ordres normatifs pleinement autonomes, ou le premier tire-t-il une partie de son caractère normatif de son lien avec la seconde? La revendication du droit à l’autorité est donc un construit idéologique qui appelle la critique.
Fondements du droit vise à vous aider à réfléchir sur votre propre éducation juridique, y compris toutes les expériences que vous ferez des autres cours durant votre première année. L’objectif est ainsi de vous aménager un espace de réflexion sur l’autre et sur soi dans le contexte de vos études en droit.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Magistral participatif
Method of Evaluation: Présentation orale; Essai.

Instructor: Professor Kirsten Anker
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: Professor Aaron Mills
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites: No
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: Professor Kerry Sloan
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Non
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: Professor Robert Leckey
Language of Instruction: French and English
Description: The integration workshop will enable students to practice and reflect on different approaches to legal research, analysis, and writing. Through plenary lectures and small group sessions, students will be introduced to different forms and styles of legal reasoning and writing across multiple legal traditions, disciplines, and perspectives. By practicing legal writing in different settings, students will begin to develop their own analytical and writing styles as aspiring legal professionals and understand how to take into account legal traditions, context, audience, objectives, strategy, story-telling, and problem-solving in doing so.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None.
Format: Seminar - A mix of plenary lectures and small group sessions.
Method of Evaluation: Pass/Fall. Students will complete three assignments in this course: a case brief; a legal memo, and a factum.

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture & tutorial groups.
Method of Evaluation: Pass/Fail: TBD

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course is intended as an introduction to the basic structure, values and problems of civil procedure. It should be seen as a vehicle for exploring issues arising in most systems of civil procedure in Canada and in the Western world generally, rather than as a survey of the rules of procedure that will dominate the lawyering experience of those who will choose litigation as a career. It addresses a broad range of questions, from strategic and financial considerations of litigation all the way to broad principles of the judicial order, as well as the key aspects of pre-trial procedure. The course is meant as an effort to highlight fundamental tensions in the organization and implementation of dispute resolution by state-appointed judges. Much of the course will be taught through problem-based learning, requiring active participation of all students.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Mid-term exercise with option to do in a team; Take-home final exam.

Instructor: Professeure Geneviève Saumier
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Ce cours se veut une introduction aux institutions, à la structure, aux principes et aux défis de la justice civile. Informé par les thèmes contemporains de la « crise de la justice civile » et de « l’accès à la justice », le contenu du cours donnera une vue d’ensemble du système de justice civile au Canada dans une perspective internationale, comparative et critique.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Court visit and report; Final in-person exam.

Instructor: Olga Redko
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: TBD
Language: English
Description: This course will introduce students to the principles and rules of legal ethics and professionalism in Canada. We will explore what it means to be a legal professional, what social role and responsibilities that status entails, and the role of lawyers in the face of pressing social issues such as access to justice and diversity. We will also look at the main rules governing the legal profession and the practice of law, including the structure of the profession, the nature of the lawyer-client relationship, the duties of competence, integrity and courtesy, professional secrecy and other types of privileges, confidentiality, discretion, conflicts of interests, the duties towards the administration of justice, and the disciplinary process. We will also explore the application of those rules in different procedural contexts (e.g. negotiation, mediation and adjudication), as well as in different fields of legal practice.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: N/A
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Midterm essay or presentation; Final take-home exam.

Instructor: Professor Weinstock
Language: English
Description: This course will introduce students to some of the main ethical questions facing the practice of law. We will be focussing on two principal questions. First, what difference does it make to the ethical responsibilities of lawyers that they practice in an adversarial system? Second, given that access to legal services is essential for citizens in modern societies, how should the practice if law be informed by principles of distributive justice? We will examine whether the Code de déontologie to which lawyers are subject in Québec reflects an adequate grasp of the issues that arise from these two questions.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: N/A
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Participation, Midterm exam, Final assessment.

Instructor: TBD
Language: Français
Description: Le cours traitera des principes de déontologie et des règles de droit qui régissent l’activité des professionnels du droit. Le cours présente différentes conceptions du rôle des avocats et explore les sources qui énoncent des normes déontologiques, et qui prévoient des sanctions disciplinaires. Le cours mettra également l'accent sur les enjeux d'ordre systémique dans la pratique du droit tout au long du cours. Le cours traitera des questions déontologiques principales liées à la pratique du droit : la formation de la relation entre l’avocat et le client, le devoir de compétence, le secret professionnel et la confidentialité, les conflits d’intérêts, l'obligation envers le système de justice, et la déontologie de la résolution des différends. Par la suite, nous allons nous consacrer à l’examen des enjeux déontologiques propres à certains champs de pratique.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: N/A
Format: Cours interactif et ateliers
Method of Evaluation: In-course Assignments; Final Exam.

Instructor: Professor Gupta
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This second year course examines the foundations, principles, and primary doctrines of property law through a transsystemic approach encompassing common law, civil law, and indigenous traditions. Throughout the course, we will have guest speakers and plenary sessions to gain a better appreciation for property as it operates in context.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Individual Essay; Group Assignment; Final Exam.

Instructor: Professor Moyse
Language of Instruction: English
Description: In this course we will be exploring the foundations, principles and mechanisms of property law. This will be done from a transsystemic point of view that examines common law, civil law and indigenous traditions in respect of property.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: In-course Assignments; Final Exam.

Instructor: Professeure Yaëll Emerich
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Le cours de droit des biens/Property est une introduction aux fondements, principes et mécanismes du droit des biens d’un point de vue transsystémique. Le cours examine le droit civil, la common law et les traditions autochtones en matière de biens, incluant les relations principales relatives aux biens ainsi que les limites à la propriété et aux droits réels.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Essai; travail de groupe; Examen final (hiver).

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Dans ce cours, nous explorerons les fondements de la fiducie québécoise, sa formalisation dans le Code civil du Québec pour ensuite en venir à l’étude du régime de l’administration du bien d’autrui. Nous verrons que le champ d’application de ce régime outrepasse largement celui de la fiducie et que celui-ci se révèle pertinent pour les successions et le droit des personnes.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: TBD
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Midterm Exam; Final Assessment; Final Exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Mark Antaki
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Ce cours consiste en une introduction au droit des personnes dans le but d’en acquérir les connaissances fondamentales. Seront ainsi abordées les thèmes du livre premier du Code civil du Québec que sont la personnalité juridique, la jouissance et l’exercice des droits civils; les droits de la personnalité; l’état des personnes; la capacité des personnes. Certaines notions maîtresses feront l’objet d’un examen plus poussé.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: No
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Devoir final; Devoirs dans la session; Participation.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Kerry Sloan
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course looks at selected private law remedies available at common law, in equity and under statute. While students will focus primarily on the common law tradition, there will also be an opportunity to critically appraise this tradition's culture, epistemology and practices via a comparative approach.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Property/Les biens or equivalent is obligatory.
Format: 
Method of Evaluation: In-course Assignments; Final Exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Nandini Ramanujam
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This seminar examines the connections between the theory and practice of human rights. It explores theoretical, ethical, and strategic issues related to human rights discourse, advocacy and activism, critically examining fact finding, monitoring, reporting, litigation, and grassroots mobilization in advancing human rights.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Human Rights Internship/clinical and other field based human rights work experience. Open to LL.M. students. instructor authorization to register
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Class presentation; Blog; Final assessment.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternate Method of Evaluation: Yes

Instructor: Professor Sarah Riley Case
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course explores how racialization matters for the law and institutions, and how law and institutions matter for racialized peoples and communities. We will ground the course in critical race theory, which is an intellectual tradition with many interlocutors, styles and vocabularies that respond to liberal theories of the law and society, to critical legal studies, and to institutional measures such as accommodations, diversity work, and implicit bias training. An emphasis will be placed on understanding structural relations of racial subordination, including slavery, capitalism, policing, incarceration, labour, migration, and education. Topics will include imperialism, settler colonialism, the ongoing legacies of slavery, the social and legal construction of race, intersectionality, race consciousness, abolition, reparations, Indigenous legal orders and critique, Third World approaches to the law, and solidarity.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: In-course Assignments; Final Assessment.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Colleen Sheppard
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course is designed to introduce you to key conceptual debates and legal developments surrounding equality rights in both the statutory human rights, international and constitutional domains. We will inquire into the multiple roles that the law plays in both perpetuating systemic inequalities and in promoting social and legal equality. We will also examine the importance of developing a contextual and structural approach to equality rights from micro, institutional and macro perspectives.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Presentation of Research Paper; Class Participation (including being a resource person for one seminar reading); Research paper.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternate Method of Evaluation: No

Instructor: Dr. Karen Sloan
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course will explore dialogues between European‐derived legal traditions and Indigenous legal traditions in “Canada” in four contexts: 1) legal philosophies and critical legal theories; 2) treaties, diplomacy and inter-cultural law; 3) Indigenous title and rights in domestic and international law (including consultation and FPIC); and 4) Indigenous governance: colonial impositions (Indian Act, Canadian constitutional powers) and resurgence. Students will have the opportunity to reflect on the way Indigenous and non-Indigenous legal traditions have been shaped both by colonial relationships and by specific legal cultures.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Optional short reflection piece; Treaty presentation/report; Term paper.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor François Crépeau
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Since time immemorial, migrations have shaped human communities. The history of humankind is that of a continuous migration towards economic prosperity and political stability. Migration is a constant of civilisation. Borders are only a very recent and generally ineffective barrier to human mobility. 
During the last centuries, migration has considerably increased, both in distance and in numbers. Continents have been populated by external migration, to the detriment of indigenous peoples who had themselves come from somewhere else long before. In the past fifty years, this movement has accelerated, due to the democratization of means of communication and mass transport. States nowadays wish for an immigration that can contribute to economic growth, but fear migrations that increase the poorer part of their population, destabilize ecosystems, multiply political conflicts or contribute to eroding their “national identity”.
States in the “New World” have adopted broad immigration policies, selecting “the best and the brightest”, including investors and entrepreneurs. Source countries are therefore losing a good portion of their human capital, a loss which is not really compensated by the remittances that many emigrants send back home. 
The European Union has adopted a policy of free movement of capital, goods, services and persons within its common territory, therefore completing an integrated common market. This principle is not applicable to non-European citizens and “Fortress Europe” certainly seems well established, as exemplified by the Melilla and Ceuta incidents in 2014 and the present “migrant crisis” in Europe.
The 20th century has been that of the refugees. Communism, totalitarianism, decolonisation, cold-war-based conflicts, post-cold-war ethnic conflicts have all taken their toll on human populations, forcing millions to flee. The legal concept of “refugee” has emerged and a status defined, now monitored by the United nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 
The ‘80s have seen a phenomenal increase of asylum seekers in western countries. Torn between their democratic and humanitarian principles, their short term economic and social objectives, as well as their ill-informed public opinions, most States have initially put in place deterrence mechanisms: restrictive interpretation of asylum, visa obligations, refoulements, deportation, detention, reduction of social benefits or of legal assistance, etc. They have also streamlined their refugee determination procedures. The fall of the Berlin wall changed the international migration law paradigm and 9/11 completes the radical reconceptualization of the legitimacy of international migration. Refugees are no longer freedom fighters against the communist arch-enemy, but come from the developing world, pushed by generalized violence or political troubles as well as by harsh socio-economic conditions and policies. Irregular migration is placed at the heart of international criminality, next to drugs trafficking, arms trafficking and terrorism, and irregular migrants are thus systematically suspected of carrying with them insecurity, violence or even terror. In many countries, the public debate on migration policies is utterly toxic, based as they are on fantasized threats. 
These developments affect the implementation of numerous human rights protection regimes as they apply to foreigners: their universality is compromised.
In the 21st century, a new paradigm could be emerging, when the nationalist populist mood will have exhausted its steam. After the 2015 European “migration crisis”, the Rohingya exodus and the numerous issues plaguing the southern border of the USA, the Global Compact on Migration, adopted by the UN in December 2018, is based on the idea that human mobility should be “facilitated” and thus better governed. 
The COVID-19 pandemic also deeply affected the dynamics of migration as it caused a significant global rise in restrictions on freedom of movement.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Team presentation; Take-home exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Frédéric Mégret
Language of Instruction: English
Description: While the criminal law seems, on the one hand, intrinsically bound up with the state, it has also and is increasingly undergoing processes of transnationalization, internationalization, supranationalization and globalization. Simultaneously, whilst international law has traditionally been everything but criminal, it has invested considerably in the last two decades in upgrading its sanctions to criminal ones. The aim of this seminar is to provide the tools to analyze these processes. Are they contradictory or complementary? Are they changing the nature of criminal and international law fundamentally? Are they effective? Fair?  The globalization of criminal law is among the most significant legal phenomena of our times and an interesting perspective to envisage law’s pluralism. The course will not only focus on “international criminal law” stricto sensu as it is practiced before international criminal tribunals. Instead it will try to provide a comprehensive introduction to the many facets of criminal law’s globalization. Both substantive international criminal law (the actual crimes), its enforcement mechanisms (domestic and international trials but also prevention and judicial cooperation) and its emerging procedure will be studied.Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Midterm Paper; Final Exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Nandini Ramanujam
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The course will explore evolving understandings on the relationship between the law – domestic (formal and informal), international, or transnational – and development. This relationship has been one of the central concerns for social scientists, policymakers and development professionals. A significant focus of the course will be on the interaction between the rule of law and institution-building in the context of socio-economic development.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternate Method of Evaluation: Yes

Instructor: Professor René Provost
Language of Instruction: English
Description: International humanitarian law, as a set of rules designed to regulate situations and behaviour marked by chaos, challenges our very notion of law. Politically, international humanitarian law has become a significant factor in international relations generally, and for Canada’s foreign policy in particular. At a substantive level, international humanitarian law has experienced exponential development in the last fifteen years, largely in reaction to a series of armed conflicts in which the belligerents’ conduct has been scrutinized by the international community. As a result, humanitarian law has emerged as a complex and unique regime to protect a series of fundamental individual and community interests during wartime. The seminar aims to provide students with an overview of the basic principles of international humanitarian law while at the same time stimulating critical perspectives on the current state of rules aimed at the protection of the victims of war.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: 
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Final Paper.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternate Method of Evaluation: No

Instructor: Professor René Provost
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The course is designed to provide a broad introduction to the conceptual and legal issues raised by the development of a global human rights regime. The aim is not to train “human rights experts”, but to give the tools to help think one’s way through some of the complexities of international human rights law. The course will focus on the internationalization of human rights, and assess how states have responded to the challenges it raises. How did an idea that was initially consigned to a few European states become the ideology of choice of the international community? How deep does the globalization of rights go? What constraints does international law impose on the diffusion of human rights? Can there be proper enforcement of international human rights norms in a world of power politics and sovereign states? How are human rights being transformed as a result of being globalized, and how is international law changing as a result of adopting human rights?
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Public International Law
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Team report; Collaboration; Two-hour, open-book sit-down final exam; Participation.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: An introduction to Canadian labour law including collective bargaining, arbitration and industrial relations generally. Emphasis on the Canada Labour Code, the Quebec Labour Code and related statutes.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: This course is the companion course to Employment Law. Ideally, Employment Law would be taken prior to Labour Law, but Employment Law is not a prerequisite for this course. An understanding of the administrative process and of judicial review of administrative action will also be helpful in Labour Law, but neither associated course is a prerequisite to Labour Law.
Format: Extensive class participation is encouraged.
Method of Evaluation: Project; Timed take-home exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Jennifer Raso
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites: No, though JICP and JRAA are both strongly recommended.
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Peer Zumbansen
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: No
Notes: Please note you cannot take the course if you have already taken it as a Specialized Topic course.

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Social and cultural diversity poses important challenges to law, legal theory, and the language of legal rights. Relationships among individuals, their communities, and the state are the subject of complex theoretical debate with significant practical implications. Participants in this seminar will engage in an analysis and critique of various theoretical perspectives and will have the opportunity to explore concrete issues in law to which these perspectives might apply. The focus will be on how difference and identity are produced relationally, and the question: what are the best practices, legal and otherwise, for accommodating diversity and enabling human beings to flourish? Potential topics include: racialization and sexualization, sensory alterity, economic disparity, living in extralegality, epistemologies of the south, and alternative conceptions of justice.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Class participation; Reflection piece on one of the assigned readings; In-class presentation on a topic of the student’s choice within the broad scope of this course; Term paper on the topic of the in-class presentation.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No
Notes: Please note you cannot take the course if you have already taken it as a Specialized Topic course.

Instructor: Professor Sunny Handa
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course deals with the laws and regulations that govern the modern communications industry. The communications industry has evolved from the early days of telephone and radio/television to modern day digital networks (e.g. the Internet), streaming services, wireless devices, social media platforms and other forms of communications. The existing legal and regulatory structures that govern the communications industry are under massive pressure to change in order to keep up with the rapid pace of change. This course will cover the laws and regulations (Telecommunications Act, Broadcasting Act and Radiocommunication Act) applicable to the various layers of modern communications which include networks, platforms and content. The course will also touch upon related areas of law such as copyright law, privacy law and other laws that apply to the distribution of content on the Internet. The central jurisdictional example used throughout the course will be Canada and administrative agencies that watch over communications matters including the CRTC (telecommunications and broadcasting), Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (telecommunications and radiocommunications) and the Department of Canadian Heritage (broadcasting). The course will track the tension between economic regulation and cultural policy and will address new paradigms being brought forward by the Internet. Technological and business convergence, rapid change in business organizations, international business structures and globalization will form the backdrop to the course.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: TBD
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD
Alternate Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: Professor Colleen Sheppard
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course is designed to introduce you to key conceptual debates and legal developments surrounding equality rights in both the statutory human rights, international and constitutional domains. We will inquire into the multiple roles that the law plays in both perpetuating systemic inequalities and in promoting social and legal equality. We will also examine the importance of developing a contextual and structural approach to equality rights from micro, institutional and macro perspectives.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Presentation of Research Paper; Class Participation (including being a resource person for one seminar reading); Research paper.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternate Method of Evaluation: No

Instructor: Professor Adelle Blackett
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course provides a transsystemic study of the individual employment relationship. It examines the historical development of private law notions of the master-servant relationship, and considers the impact of codal reform, protective statutory regimes and human rights law on employment law and practice. Throughout the course, the relationship between economic globalization and the efficacy of existing approaches to governing employment will be explored. Challenges to the territorial regulation of employment law within the nation state will be explored, including the regulation of labour market informality, and of migrant labour.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this course. The companion course is Labour Law, which deals with the collective relationship, characterized by unionization. Together, the courses seek to give a fair panorama of the “law of work”, but a number of other courses (Labour Arbitration, Contract Negotiation, Occupational Safety and Health Law, Transnational Labour Law) would readily supplement the overview for someone interested in pursuing a career in the field.
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Case comment; Infographic; Final examination - two parts, one practical application and one reflection; Designated participation for two sessions of the course - 2-minute précis for one session of the course, general course participation.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The relationship of law to the environment is a vast and evolving subject matter that includes not only environmental law, but also numerous other substantive areas of law that directly or indirectly affect the ability of ecosystems and the environment to sustain human and other life into the future. The objective of this introductory course is to provide students with a comprehensive overview of how law and policy intersect with the environment. Although environmental law will be central in the course, “environment and the law” has a broader scope. Therefore, we will also take into account relevant areas of law that structure and promote land use, economic development and trade, as well as constitutional law, common law, civil law, administrative law, criminal law and international law. We will review basic concepts and approaches in environmental law and policy, substantive laws and regulations related to environmental protection (including impact assessment), jurisdictional issues underpinning environmental protection, procedural issues such as public participation and rulemaking, and issues of liability and enforcement. The course will cover environmental law and policy related to land, air and water; waste and toxic substances; plant and animal species and biodiversity; and the role of Indigenous Peoples with respect to environmental protection. We will also consider shortcomings in environmental law and in how other areas of law relate to the environment, and we will examine proposals for reform, such as ecological law. The focus will be on Canadian law at the federal, provincial and municipal levels but we will also consider how provisions of international law, in particular international environmental law and international law regarding trade and investment, have shaped the relationship between law and the environment at the domestic level. Provinces play a strong role in environmental law and policy, and so we will often look to Québec for example of specific regulatory measures and occasionally to other provinces. Students taking this course will gain an understanding of the main domestic legal instruments that address human interaction with the environment, how various stakeholders engage with these instruments and are involved or implicated in environmental protection and how blind spots in both environmental law and law more generally create challenges for the ongoing relationship between humans and the ecosystems that sustain them. After taking the course, students will be able to formulate legal and policy arguments with respect to environment and the law and to develop ways to reimagine and/or improve the relationship between law and the environment in the future.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Final exam; Optional written assignment; Participation during discussions in class or in the on-line forum (including the reflection/response); Two short in-class exercises.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructors: TBD
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: Professor Alicia Hinarejos
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course will provide a comparative introduction to selected topics of economic regulation, or ways in which the State seeks to control or correct the market and the behaviour of economic actors. Topics will include an introduction to the general framework and role of competition law in the EU, the US, and Canada; efforts to create an internal market in the EU and Canada, the role of regulation in this context, and the legitimate level at which to regulate the market within multi-level systems; and the regulation of transnational enterprises.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None.
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Mid-term paper; Final essay.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor François Crépeau
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Since time immemorial, migrations have shaped human communities. The history of humankind is that of a continuous migration towards economic prosperity and political stability. Migration is a constant of civilisation. Borders are only a very recent and generally ineffective barrier to human mobility.
During the last centuries, migration has considerably increased, both in distance and in numbers. Continents have been populated by external migration, to the detriment of indigenous peoples who had themselves come from somewhere else long before. In the past fifty years, this movement has accelerated, due to the democratization of means of communication and mass transport. States nowadays wish for an immigration that can contribute to economic growth, but fear migrations that increase the poorer part of their population, destabilize ecosystems, multiply political conflicts or contribute to eroding their “national identity”.
States in the “New World” have adopted broad immigration policies, selecting “the best and the brightest”, including investors and entrepreneurs. Source countries are therefore losing a good portion of their human capital, a loss which is not really compensated by the remittances that many emigrants send back home.
The European Union has adopted a policy of free movement of capital, goods, services and persons within its common territory, therefore completing an integrated common market. This principle is not applicable to non-European citizens and “Fortress Europe” certainly seems well established, as exemplified by the Melilla and Ceuta incidents in 2014 and the present “migrant crisis” in Europe.
The 20th century has been that of the refugees. Communism, totalitarianism, decolonisation, cold-war-based conflicts, post-cold-war ethnic conflicts have all taken their toll on human populations, forcing millions to flee. The legal concept of “refugee” has emerged and a status defined, now monitored by the United nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The ‘80s have seen a phenomenal increase of asylum seekers in western countries. Torn between their democratic and humanitarian principles, their short term economic and social objectives, as well as their ill-informed public opinions, most States have initially put in place deterrence mechanisms: restrictive interpretation of asylum, visa obligations, refoulements, deportation, detention, reduction of social benefits or of legal assistance, etc. They have also streamlined their refugee determination procedures. The fall of the Berlin wall changed the international migration law paradigm and 9/11 completes the radical reconceptualization of the legitimacy of international migration. Refugees are no longer freedom fighters against the communist arch-enemy, but come from the developing world, pushed by generalized violence or political troubles as well as by harsh socio-economic conditions and policies. Irregular migration is placed at the heart of international criminality, next to drugs trafficking, arms trafficking and terrorism, and irregular migrants are thus systematically suspected of carrying with them insecurity, violence or even terror. In many countries, the public debate on migration policies is utterly toxic, based as they are on fantasized threats.
These developments affect the implementation of numerous human rights protection regimes as they apply to foreigners: their universality is compromised.
In the 21st century, a new paradigm could be emerging, when the nationalist populist mood will have exhausted its steam. After the 2015 European “migration crisis”, the Rohingya exodus and the numerous issues plaguing the southern border of the USA, the Global Compact on Migration, adopted by the UN in December 2018, is based on the idea that human mobility should be “facilitated” and thus better governed.
The COVID-19 pandemic also deeply affected the dynamics of migration as it caused a significant global rise in restrictions on freedom of movement.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Team presentation; Take-home exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Evan Fox-Decent
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This is a public law courses that examines the theory and practice of judicial review of administrative action. Our focus is the law found in judicial decisions where courts review the legality of the administrative action. More specifically, we will consider case law regarding the legality of (a) the procedures used by administrative agencies, and (b) the substantive reasonableness and/or correctness of administrative decisions and the reasons offered for them. The jurisprudence we will discuss concerns the procedures and decisions of frontline decision makers in legal regimes as varied as labour law, immigration law, environmental law, municipal law, commercial licensing law, communications law, as well as banking and securities law. In theory, judges uphold the rule of law by ensuring that administrative actors respect the legal limits of their statutory mandates. In practice, judicial review of administrative action is highly controversial because it pits unelected judges against delegates of elected legislators. We will spend considerable time discussing the contested legitimacy of judicial review.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture - regular participation is expected. One session each week is a lecture with active questioning. The other session each week is discussion within breakout groups followed by plenary discussion.
Method of Evaluation: Group assignment; 2.5 hour, open-book exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Un juge peut-il ordonner au Gouvernement canadien de réclamer la clémence pour un citoyen canadien incarcéré et condamner à la peine de mort aux États-Unis? Le CRTC peut-il suspendre la licence d’une station radio parce que son roi des ondes émet des remarques diffamatoires? Le Barreau doit-il vous remettre la copie de votre examen d’admission si vous l’échouez? Ces situations relèvent tous du droit administratif. Ce cours porte sur la théorie et la pratique du contrôle judiciaire de l’action administrative. Cette théorie est au cœur même de notre système démocratique et du principe de la séparation des pouvoirs au Canada. Quant à la pratique, elle touche la quasi-totalité des domaines de droit substantif où l’action gouvernementale est présente. Alors que le droit constitutionnel concerne le processus d’élaboration des lois, le droit administratif concerne l’application de celles-ci.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Aucun. Veuillez noter que Administrative Process/Processus administratif PUB2 400 (qui traite du droit interne aux organismes administratifs) et ce cours sont complémentaires, mais ni l’un, ni l’autre ne sont des prérequis.
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Optional midterm; Final in-person exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English, with significant reading and class participation in French.
Description: An introduction to Canadian labour law including collective bargaining, arbitration and industrial relations generally. Emphasis on the Canada Labour Code, the Quebec Labour Code and related statutes.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: This course is the companion course to Employment Law. Ideally, Employment Law would be taken prior to Labour Law, but Employment Law is not a prerequisite for this course. An understanding of the administrative process and of judicial review of administrative action will also be helpful in Labour Law, but neither associated course is a prerequisite to Labour Law.
Format: Extensive class participation is encouraged.
Method of Evaluation: Project; Timed take-home exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites: No, though JICP and JRAA are both strongly recommended.
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: Professor Andrea Bjorklund
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Public International Law (recommended)
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Ignacio Cofone
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD
Notes: Please note you cannot take the course if you have already taken it as a Specialized Topic course.

Instructors: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: After an introduction to the general structure of North America’s capital markets, this course will focus on the principal objectives and features of securities regulation in Canada, with appropriate references to other jurisdictions, principally the United States, when applicable. Areas of particular attention will be the distribution of securities, mergers and acquisitions, continuous and timely disclosure (including secondary market liability), corporate governance and other obligations of public issuers and market participants, shareholder activism and enforcement in general.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation; 48-hour team mid-term assignment; Final exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Allison Christians
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course examines the foundations of tax policy in Canada and around the world, with a focus on both classical and contemporary writing. The course will integrate a hybrid colloquium with invited speakers from around the world who will present works in progress on current issues of national and international tax policy.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Mid-term exam; Final assessment.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructors: Professor Jennifer Raso
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course covers financial and managerial accounting. The course provides an understanding of the various financial statements as well as cost behaviour, cost/volume/profit relationships, budgets, responsibility accounting and relevant costing
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Non-Law elective. This course is not open for students who have completed a BCom or any prior Accounting courses.
Format: 
Method of Evaluation: Mini cases; Quizzes; Midterm; Final.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course is offered to students wishing to analyze, discuss and question contemporary and relevant issues of Canadian Criminal Law. Through a series of readings, class discussions, lectures and guest speakers, the course will examine the ever-evolving social forces that mandate a continuous re-examination of the role and scope of criminal law. Among other topics, it will address issues relating to mental health, wrongful convictions, technology, sexual assault, conjugal violence and corporate criminal liability/”white-collar crime”, all through the lens of reform and policy-making. These topics will be examined both for their own importance and for what they tell us about the role of criminal law in protecting and promoting the social contract.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Criminal Justice (or basic Criminal Law)
Format: Lecture. Attendance mandatory.
Method of Evaluation: Mid-term group oral presentation and essay; Final essay.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternative Method of Evaluation: Yes

Instructor: Professor Tina Piper
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course introduces students to reading, writing and researching Canadian legal history, through the following specialized topics including: writing Canadian legal history; industrialization and the birth of the administrative state (principally workplace accidents); legal professionalization (education, self-governance, work and culture); crime and public disorder (penal law on the books, penal law in action, state law enforcement and punishment); and BIPOC/women’s legal history. This survey of the history of Canadian law emphasizes the cultural history of law and the legal history of Canadian society. Students will then write a paper that will require them to conduct historical research using primary sources available online. The course also includes a peer review session of student papers and a presentation on the readings.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Presentation and Paper (either one longer research paper or two shorter research responses).
Meets Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternative Method of Evaluation: Yes 

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The course is designed to provide both the technical and practical tools necessary for the advocate in civil litigation including the techniques applicable in discovery, production of exhibits, the examination of expert and ordinary witnesses, legal argument and trial tactics, culminating in a day‐long simulated trial.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Introduction to the contract of sale in the Civil Law and the Common Law traditions, consumer law and in international law; nature and scope of the contract of sale; conditions of formation; obligations of the seller, including delivery, quality, title; obligations of the buyer; ; manufacturer’s liability. Reference also to be made to American sale law (Uniform Commercial Code) and American product liability law and relevant European directives in these areas.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Final assessment: In-person sit-down exam on a fixed date.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Advanced business law course focusing on the corporate capital structure (debt and equity) and transformative transactions (M&A, reorganizations, etc) and corporate governance implications thereof.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: This course presupposes an understanding of the nature and governance of corporations. As such, Business Associations (or its equivalent) is a requirement, although derogations have been agreed to on a case-by-case basis.
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Team Presentation; Final Take-Home Exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course provides an in-depth examination of income taxation of corporations and their shareholders. It covers tax aspects of every stage of a corporation’s life cycle, including formation, capitalization and operation of a corporation; distribution of corporate profits; sale and purchase of a business; corporate combinations; liquidations and wind-ups. If time permits, the course will also include a brief overview of tax-deferred divisive reorganizations and utilization of corporate losses.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Ce cours offre une introduction au droit de la famille en common law et en droit civil. Il permettra aux étudiant·es d’acquérir une connaissance approfondie des institutions composant le droit de la famille, autant dans leurs technicités que dans les principes qui guident leur articulation et leur évolution. En ce sens, l’étudiant·e se familiarisera avec le fonctionnement de ces institutions, leurs fondements et les débats entourant leur réforme. Une telle compréhension du droit de la famille, de ses enjeux et de son architecture sera un atout pour l’étudiant·e qui souhaite plaider devant les tribunaux, participer à l’évolution législative et, plus largement, développer une opinion éclairée sur le sujet.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Alicia Hinarejos
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This is a course about the European Union, a unique constitutional order and continuously evolving experiment in regional integration. The European Union has the capacity to generate law, in the form of both legislation and case law. EU Law is studied not only because these rules have both a direct and indirect impact of importance on the lives of individuals and businesses in the Member States and beyond, but also because it raises interesting constitutional issues about the organisation of a new and dynamic legal order.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None (Public International Law recommended).
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Mid-term essay; Final essay.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: An introduction to principles of evidence with a focus on admissibility in criminal matters. Topics include relevance, hearsay, opinion, character, similar facts, confessions and privileges. The course begins with a discussion of burdens and standards of proof.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Midterm paper; Final Exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Geneviève Saumier
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course is concerned with dispute resolution in civil (not criminal) matters outside the traditional framework of court litigation. The course will begin with a consideration of the nature of conflict from an extra-legal perspective prior to focusing on dispute resolution. We will examine mediation and arbitration as modes of dispute resolution and consider how law deals with these in domestic settings In addition to considering private modes of dispute resolution, such as mediation and arbitration, we will also look at court-annexed and judicial mediation as well as online dispute resolution. This course emphasizes dispute resolution in a domestic setting (otherwise see the course Resolution of International Disputes - CMPL 533) but adopts a comparative and transystemic approach.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Assignment; Final Take-home exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Richard Gold
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The rhetoric around innovation is everywhere. Despite its ubiquity, what it is and what it means varies by audience; its relevance to economic growth and income disparity remains controversial; its history and place in society is too often underanalysed. This course provides an introduction to the concept of Innovation, its role in the economy, the institutions that foster or hinder it, the laws that promote or undermine it and its historical, psychological and social context. Students will explore the complexity of the subject and its connections with law, the economy, history, sciences and technology and government and firm policies. In addition, through assignments, students will deploy and extend their knowledge through the exploration of case studies. This course is aimed exclusively at Law students and will be taught simultaneously with Innovation for Non-Law Students. The course does not specifically address innovation in the legal field.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: A mixed format of asynchronous videos and synchronous tutorials/discussions.
Method of Evaluation: Essay; Group project; Final exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No
Section: LAWG 560 is for law students; LAWG 570 is for non-law students.

Instructor: Professor Evan Fox-Decent
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This is a course about the purpose, nature and legitimacy of law. The course’s method will be to read closely and discuss critically Hobbes’s Leviathan. Hobbes is regarded as the greatest English-language political and legal philosopher of all time. Leviathan is his masterpiece. The arguments and ideas contained within Leviathan still resonate through disciplines such as law, philosophy, political science and economics. Over the term we will focus on Hobbes’s discussion of law and the state. More specifically, we will explore Hobbes’s views on the nature of authority, liberty, the duty to obey the law, the role of the judge, the role of legal institutions and legal principles within legal order, and the limits (if any) on the sovereign’s authority to announce and enforce law.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Seminar - participation is expected. There will be regular discussion within breakout groups followed by plenary discussion.
Method of Evaluation: Lab; Group Assignment; Open book exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Richard Gold
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The rhetoric around innovation is everywhere. Despite its ubiquity, what it is and what it means varies by audience; its relevance to economic growth and income disparity remains controversial; its history and place in society is too often underanalysed. This course provides an introduction to the concept of Innovation, its role in the economy, the institutions that foster or hinder it, the laws that promote or undermine it and its historical, psychological and social context. Students will explore the complexity of the subject and its connections with law, the economy, history, sciences and technology and government and firm policies. In addition, through assignments, students will deploy and extend their knowledge through the exploration of case studies. This course is aimed exclusively at Law students and will be taught simultaneously with Innovation for Non-Law Students. The course does not specifically address innovation in the legal field.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: A mixed format of asynchronous videos and synchronous tutorials/discussions.
Method of Evaluation: Essay; Group project: Final exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No
Section: LAWG 560 is for law students; LAWG 570 is for non-law students.

Instructor: Professor Joshua Nichols
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The focus of this course will be to explore the relationship between practices of legal reasoning and the problem of legal pathology. This will require us to deeply engage with the work of Professor David Dyzenhaus. We will read two of Dyzenhaus’ books and a selection of articles. The books will be Judging Judges, Judging Ourselves: Truth, Reconciliation and the Apartheid Legal Order and his most recent work The Long Arc of Legality. We will also be reading a series of foundational decisions in Canadian Aboriginal law and American Federal Indian law. These decisions will provide us with examples of where the practices of legal reasoning and the limits of constitutional legality are drawn into tension. In other words, we will be applying Dyzenhaus’ work on legal pathology and the rule of law to problem of constitutional reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. This will enable us to reconsider the trajectory of the current jurisprudence from the internal perspective of the judiciary and therein assist the courts by showing them both where legal pathology persists within their legal reasoning and how to go about restoring the legality of their constitutional order.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Paper proposal; Final paper.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternative Method of Evaluation: Yes

Instructor: Professor Richard Gold
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This seminar is intended to provided an opportunity to examine the bases upon which contemporary patent law is based. Beginning with political philosophy, students will examine the normative underpinnings of patent law, how theory and history have led to current patent law and where changes may be required. The seminar will involve a combination of primary sources (and thus be, at times, significant in size), video lectures, and, most significantly, active class discussion. Be prepared to listen, speak and participate!
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation; In-course Assignments; Final paper.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternative Method of Evaluation: Yes

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: L’objectif du cours est de permettre aux étudiants d’acquérir une solide compréhension des principes qui gouvernent le droit de la preuve dans les matières civiles au Québec et dans les juridictions canadiennes de common law, de situer ceux-ci dans un contexte plus large en ayant recours au besoin à des sources étrangères, et de permettre aux étudiants de développer une réflexion critique à l’égard du fondement et de la nécessité des règles en place. Il aborde notamment le rôle du tribunal dans l’administration de la preuve, les règles relatives à la charge de la preuve, les règles propres aux divers moyens de preuve (écrit, témoignage, aveu, présomption, présentation d’éléments matériels), et les principes applicables à la connaissance d’office du tribunal. Il aborde également l’interdiction du ouï-dire et les règles spécifiques applicables à la preuve des actes juridiques, de même que plusieurs règles d’irrecevabilité de la preuve, incluant le secret professionnel et divers privilèges reconnus par le droit de la preuve.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: Non

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites: TBD
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professeure Lara Khoury
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Étude de droit comparé et transsystémique du droit de la responsabilité médicale, incluant les thèmes suivants: l’interaction droit-science; la relation entre le patient et le médecin; responsabilité et discipline; les devoirs des médecins; la faute médicale; la causalité médicale et scientifique; le « bébé préjudice » et le préjudice prénatal; le consentement aux soins et le refus de traitement; l’accès aux services et manque de ressources; les infections nosocomiales; et les fonds d’indemnisation.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Aucun
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Travail de session et examen de type “take-home” (24 h) à date fixe
Meets the Writing Requirement: Non

Instructor: Professor Catherine Walsh
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course is about the legal and practical norms used in market economies to enable creditors to secure the performance of obligations due by their debtors. It will primarily examine security over movable property (personal property in common law parlance) although passing reference will be made to security over immovable property (land or real property in common law parlance). The course will focus on the secured transactions regimes set out in the Civil Code of Québec and in the Personal Property Security Acts (PPSAs) of the common law provinces and territories. Reference will also be made to federal laws that relate to secured transactions. Occasional mention will be made of international developments and national developments in other States including Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code in the United States. On completion of the course, students should:
• have a sound grasp of the theory and method of the subject
• be able to think critically about secured transactions policies and issues
• display problem-solving skills across the categories within the subject and understand when and how they interrelate
• be able to readily grasp the basics and even the nuances of secured transactions regimes in other jurisdictions
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Assignments; Final Exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Marie Manikis
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: Français
Description:La problématique du profilage racial est connue et documentée depuis au moins les 40 dernières années. Que ce soit à Montréal, au Québec, au Canada ou dans l’Amérique du Nord au grand complet, le profilage racial est un fléau. La Cour suprême demande maintenant aux tribunaux de première instance de prendre connaissance d’office de cette problématique sociale. Le rapport Armony dresse des statistiques inquiétantes sur cette problématique à Montréal: les personnes racisées et autochtones sont de 3 à 11 fois plus susceptibles de se faire intercepter par la police que les personnes blanches. Cependant, les personnes en autorité n’admettent pas qu’ils peuvent s’être livrés à du profilage racial, même de manière inconsciente et les tribunaux de première instance hésitent encore à trancher les requêtes soulevant le profilage racial en faveur des victimes. Quel constat doit-on dresser d’une telle situation? Comment peut-on donner plein effet à la reconnaissance d’office du phénomène du profilage racial sans accorder aux victimes les réparations prévues à la Charte qui s’imposent? Ce cours est donc une façon de comprendre l’état du droit en matière de profilage racial en abordant la défense au niveau criminel et pénal, le droit de la responsabilité civile et le fonctionnement des organes administratifs comme la Commission des droits de la personne et le Comité de déontologie policière. Ce cours aborde le sujet d’un point de vue critique, mais également dans le but de trouver des solutions légales à cet enjeu.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: 
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Les étudiants seront appelés à rédiger un travail critique sur un enjeu en lien avec le profilage racial; Un examen final qui reprend l'ensemble de la matière.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Non

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course will use Quebec’s Bill 96, An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec, which amends the Quebec Charter of the French Language, and Federal Bill C-32, which amends the Official Languages Act, as the entrée into an exploration of the constitutional provisions surrounding language rights. These two bills will likely have a profound effect on the very nature of the constitutional framework of Canada. Likewise, this course will explore the Federal Indigenous Languages Act, particularly whether or not it benefits First Nation communities and aids the preservation and development of their languages. Language rights have had an outside role in constitutional interpretation as well as the political and social construct of English and French Canada. This course explores cutting-edge constitutional language rights issues during a time in which extensive language rights litigation is expected, particularly in Quebec’s reformed Charter of the French language. It will also study the origins and nature of constitutional protections and governmental obligations pertaining to language rights in Canada for Canada’s French and English-speaking minorities. Notably, this course will explore whether or not there exist collective rights for Canadian official language minorities and whether or not such collective rights have priority over individual freedoms in the application of language rights. What is the legal tension between the language rights of the majority and the official language minority? This course will consider the application of relevant provisions of the Constitution Act 1867 and the Constitution Act 1982, such as, for example, Sections 133 and 23, the use of English and French in the Parliament of Canada, National Assembly of Quebec and the Legislature of New Brunswick; as well as the eligibility right for the French and English minorities to attend a minority language school. Consideration will be given to the application of international declarations and treaties. The notion of language rights regimes in terms of territoriality and institutions will be examined. The extent and enforceability of governmental obligations for Canadian official language minorities will be explored. Pleading official language minority rights before the Courts will be considered. We will also explore Quebec’s unilateral amendment of the Constitution Act, 1867, including whether or not a unilateral amendment is possible, and if so, what the unilateral amendments mean. We will also explore the use of the notwithstanding clause to immunize the Charter of the French Language against constitutional attack.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: No prerequisite but a preference for studying Business Associations either in advance or in tandem with the course.
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Individual virtual interview with instructor to agree on a written essay topic; Written essay.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternative Method of Evaluation: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course consists of a practical and comparative approach to class actions. Although mainly focused on Québec, we will also look at the class action regimes of the common law provinces, the United States, and other jurisdictions. Particular attention will be paid to class action practice from the perspectives of both plaintiff and defence counsel, notably with regard to how a class action is brought, analysed, and pleaded. Students will be expected not only to attend class, but to participate actively by expressing their views, drafting pleadings and, at the end of the term, helping to argue an application for authorization of a class action. Experts in the field will also be invited to comment on key issues.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Preliminary opinion; Written outline argument; Verbal presentation of arguments.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course will focus on both the practical and theoretical aspects of corporate transactions. Students will acquire an understanding of the steps involved to complete a transaction and the legal concepts that arise in the context of a corporate transaction, from structuring, to negotiation, drafting, closing documentation and closing. The focus will be primarily, but not exclusively, on acquisitions of businesses and equity financing transactions, in both cases mainly for companies that are not reporting issuers (ie not public companies). Students will engage with questions such as how to determine the appropriate structure for an acquisition, the scope and reasons for due diligence, the negotiation of key terms of transactions, and documenting the transaction. We will also address typical structures used for equity financings. Finally, we will address the legal frameworks of employee relations in the context of M&A transactions, including differences between civil and common law jurisdictions.
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Group assignment 1, take-home; Group assignment 2, take-home; Final exam, 6 hours, take-home; Participation.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course will bring students to examine the statutory framework that empowers the federal government to manage prisons, as well as the regulations, directives and policies that guide the day-to-day operations. It will also include a review of the jurisprudence on different issues including parole and conditional release, solitary confinement, habeas corpus remedies, institutional disciplinary charges. Throughout the class, students will learn about the different stages of a federal sentence as well as the various risk assessment tools used by prison authorities. It will further encourage critical thinking with a view of challenging preconceived ideas about prisons and the notion of crime, and how systemic discrimination impacts the rights of marginalized groups that are overrepresented in prisons. By the end of the class, students should have acquired practical skills to advocate on behalf of incarcerated people.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Method of Evaluation: Participation; In-course assignments; Final assignment.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: 
Description: This course will introduce students to some of the tensions and challenges facing lawyers, educators, and the regulators of the legal profession as we grapple with rapidly changing client expectations. Among the issues we will address as we consider the role of the legal profession and who it comprises are the changing nature of professional services, innovation in legal service delivery, the emergence of new competitors to the profession, the shortcomings in serving legal needs today, and the effectiveness of professional conduct rules in helping meet legal needs.
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Short paper; Presentation and debate pariticipation; Final paper.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The aim of the course is to expose students to the practical, legal and conceptual principles of Personal Injury Law. In this regard the course will offer students insight into the legal framework of this area of the law. The course will explore the practical implications confronting practitioners in terms of dealing with clients, opposing lawyers and the judiciary. Subject matter will go into detail in the areas of Personal Injury Law involving fault and causation, as well as the assessment of damages. Various types of personal injury cases will be analyzed involving medical malpractice, sporting injuries, sexual abuse, defamation and psychological damages, injuries involving children and death cases.
Guest speakers including a Judge of the Quebec Superior Court, 2 personal injury defence lawyers, a panel consisting of a Forensic Accountant, a Pediatric Neurologist and/or Obstetrician-Gynecologist, a neuropsychologist and an Occupational Therapist/Life Care Planner, as well as a lawyer specializing in sexual abuse class actions will participate in the class over the course of the semester.
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Case analyses and weekly participation; Mid-term take-home paper; Final exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This seminar course covers jury trials from the point of view of a Superior Court judge, using murder trials as a backdrop. Topics include jury selection, pre-trial proceedings, the evidentiary phase of the trial, pleadings, jury instructions and sentencing.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Written submission; Oral presentation and rebuttal arguments; Class participation.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Me Robert Israel
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Criminal Trial Advocacy has been designed to help students develop skills that will be of assistance in the practice of criminal law, be it in defence or with a prosecutors’ office. At the same time, the skills learned would be of assistance to any future litigator, be it in criminal law or not. Specific subjects include direct and cross-examination, opening and closing arguments, best practices, ethics and the preparation of a criminal trial.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: 
Format: 
Method of Evaluation: Participation; In-term assignment(s); End-of-term assignment(s).
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Lara Khoury
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Definition of public health and foundations of public health law. Examination of the power and duty of the state to protect the public’s health as well as the limits to state interventions pursuing the common good. Exploration of challenges in public health law & policy. Consideration of tools available to public health policy-makers, including nudging, regulation, prohibition, and litigation. Contemplation of the effectiveness of the criminal law and of private law in furthering public health goals. Introduction to public health methods with regards to risk, causation and the precautionary principle, and their interaction with legal norms. Analysis of specific case studies in public health law, including in such areas as infectious disease control and pandemic management, nutrition, tobacco, e-cigarettes and cannabis. Master’s level students registered in any of the programs administered by the McGill School of Population and Global Health can register with permission of the instructor (except for LLM Bioethics students who do not require permission).
Restrictions/Prerequisites: 
Format: 
Method of Evaluation: Team assignment; Timed take-home final exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Peer Zumbansen
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites: 
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Internet legal issues are some of the most important and complex problems facing lawyers and scholars alike in the 21st century. The course will consist of a broad introduction to a number of legal issues facing the internet. These include privacy, defamation, jurisdiction, cybersecurity, intellectual property online, cybercrime, and more. We will pay close attention to comparing the legal regimes of Canada, the United States and Europe, and how the regimes interact in the internet’s world without borders.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: Alanna Devine
Language of Instruction: English. Lectures and readings will mainly be in English, but several guest lecturers will be presenting in French and there will be some reading in French as well.
Description: For thousands of years, humans have raised, worked, experimented on, killed, and otherwise exploited animals, treating them as nothing more than mere property. Over the last few decades, however, the legal status and treatment of animals, as well as the ethical underpinnings and dynamics of the human-animal relationship, have become an area of growing concern and debate in Canada and across the globe. This shift in the way society views animals has forced the law to develop new frameworks in which to address the interests of animals and the human-animal relationship.
Through a thematic exploration of the major issues facing animal protection in Canada today, this course will introduce students to the legal framework governing human-animal relations, both from a practical and critical perspective.
Drawing from real cases they have worked on in their practice, the instructors will provide students with an understanding of the practical difficulties that arise in protecting animals under the current legal regime. Students will be asked to critically assess whether our society’s current treatment of animals aligns with the law’s stated goal of preventing unnecessary cruelty to animals and whether a new legal paradigm is required to grant animals meaningful protection.
A series of interdisciplinary guest lectures will also allow students to gain insight into important philosophical and political concepts that inform, or should inform, the way in which society, and the law, treats animals.
The course will focus primarily on the Canadian and Quebec legal systems but will also incorporate legislation and case law from other jurisdictions, particularly from the United States and the European Union, as well as interdisciplinary materials.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: 
Method of Evaluation: Participation and class attendance; Optional take-home commentary assignment; Final take-home exam.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Social justice lawyers use terms like rebellious, radical, progressive, community-based or people’s lawyer to describe a myriad of leftist legal practices, all implicitly contrasted against the orthodox view that lawyers should be the apolitical advocates of their clients. Against this view, social justice lawyers share a commitment to bring their personal politics into their professional practice.
This creates an obvious risk: too often legal education reduces social justice to critical thinking and self-reflexivity and fails to also identify the skillset that an effective social justice practice requires. This course is designed to address this absence, within the specific social justice context of state accountability. Through a combination of tactical doctrine and process considerations, students will be taught how to lawyer for state accountability.
This course will use case studies organized around various forms of political violence (including solitary confinement, colonial or genocidal violence against Indigenous peoples, criminalization of dissent and police brutality). This approach will expose the ways in which the state has (and hasn’t) been brought to account and forced to change through legal action.
In addition to practical training, this course will consider theoretical questions which loom large. How is a state accountability practice situated within the larger frame of social justice lawyering? What are the ethical considerations arising from the ‘role confusion’ of an activist lawyer? Can a lawyer work towards decolonization or is their work inherently colonial? Can law ever be practiced in a way that is truly radical, rebellious or progressive?
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: 
Method of Evaluation: Mid-term assignment; Final research essay.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Darren Rosenblum
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites: 
Format:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: Professor Adelle Blackett
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This advanced research seminar examines the emerging field of transnational labour law, drawing on theorizations of transnational law and transnational legal ordering in relation to the specificity of labour law. It centres the corpus of international labour standards emanating primarily from the organization that survived the League of Nations to become a United Nations specialized agency, the International Labour Organization (ILO). It includes an assessment of the challenge of liberalization and competing understandings of development for labour regulation, engagement with emerging governance paradigms and alternative understandings of transnational ordering for transnational labour law. In Winter 2023, the course will focus on airline labour law.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Final paper.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternative Method of Evaluation: Yes

Instructor: Professor Tina Piper
Convenors: Adam Bruder-Wexler and Sian Desparois
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course provides students with the opportunity to learn about the legal elements of the entertainment industry. This course will focus on the interplay between law and entertainment by looking at i) how different modes of entertainment can affect applications and perceptions of the law, and ii) how the law structures and influences the entertainment industry. By the end of the course, students should be able to discuss the impact of the entertainment industry on North American legal systems. Students should also have a comprehensive understanding of the substantive elements of entertainment law, namely, laws related to acting contracts, movie productions, television, streaming services, copyright, taxation, and more.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: The course will be pass/fail. Participation; TikTok Assignment; Movie Analysis; Quizzes; Final assessment.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Priya Gupta
Convenors: Emin Youssef, Andréa Biron-Boileau and Anna Pringle
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This seminar juxtaposes Canadian legal systems with the alternatives proposed by Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities under the banners of Transformative Justice and Prison Abolition. By doing so, we will examine how the notion of justice is co-opted by power via substantive law; how ‘justice’ as that which is ‘just’ and ‘justice’ as state justice are often incompatible; and how alternative practices can be transformative by creating conceptions of community accountability and harm that break the cycles of violence inherent to rights-based regimes. The course will be structured in three sections: 1) Theoretical Foundations — Why Transformative Justice; 2) Case Studies  — Different Models of Transformative Justice that Exist; 3) Praxis — Challenges for Transformative Justice.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: The course will be pass/fail. 
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: We will trace the philosophical, theological, and historical foundations of classical Jewish Law. We will also study the methodology and structure of Jewish Law. We will seek to formulate an understanding of the process of decision making in Jewish Law, as distinct from the process in Civil Law or in Common Law. Then, in the second half of the course, we will apply these principles to a specific area of Estate Law. Students will write an independent research paper with four milestones that are graded with formative feedback, so that the project is a significant learning experience.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture with discussion
Method of Evaluation: Participation; One-paragraph answers to questions about assigned readings; Independent research paper.
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternative Method of Evaluation: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: Professor Allison Christians
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course provides an introduction to the principles of the Canadian federal income tax system. We will focus on building the vocabulary of taxation and exploring the social, political, and economic factors that shape the development of the law. By the end of the course students should understand why societies tax, who and what they tax, and how they do so; be familiar with the general structure and principles of the Canadian federal income tax system; develop skills in close, critical reading and interpretation of primary and secondary legal sources; and understand the role lawyers play in tax compliance, including the issues of professional responsibility and ethics.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: 4 Assessment Modules.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professeure Allison Christians
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Ce cours présente les principes du régime fédéral d’impôt sur le revenu du Canada. Nous nous concentrerons sur l’élaboration du vocabulaire du droit fiscal et sur l’exploration des facteurs sociaux, politiques et économiques qui façonnent l’évolution de la loi. À la fin du cours, les étudiants devraient comprendre pourquoi les sociétés taxent, qui et ce qu’elles taxent, et comment elles le font; connaître la structure et les principes généraux du régime fédéral d’impôt sur le revenu; développer des compétences en lecture et interprétation étroites et critiques de sources juridiques primaires et secondaires; et comprendre le rôle que jouent les avocats dans l’observation fiscale, y compris les questions de responsabilité professionnelle et d’éthique.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Aucun
Method of Evaluation: 4 Assessment Modules.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture, exercises and panel discussions.
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: TBA
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This interactive and practical course will introduce students to key rules and concepts in U.S. civil litigation, with an emphasis on pre-trial proceedings and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Among other things, the course will cover the structure of the U.S. court system, the rules of subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction, pleading requirements and motions to dismiss, rules of discovery and key rules of privilege, class actions and motions for class authorization, and motions for summary judgment. Students will be encouraged to reflect on the benefits and shortcomings of the U.S. approach to civil litigation, in particular as compared to civil procedure in Quebec and Ontario. To promote participation and provide students with greater exposure to U.S. legal practice, the course may also feature a small number of seasoned U.S. litigators as guest speakers.
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail.

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: TBD
Description: TBD
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail.

Instructor: TBA
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This workshop will introduce students to the legislative process – from a Bill’s introduction in the legislature, up to Royal Assent. The workshop will focus mainly on bills at the federal level, with some comparison to provincial levels. The workshop will combine information modules, legal analysis, and political strategy. The workshop will proceed through a simulation: students will play various roles as parliamentarians or civil society stakeholders, analyse a bill, devise legislative strategies, and make submissions at a simulated parliamentary committee. This will enable students to experience each stage of the parliamentary process.
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail.

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: TBD
Description: TBD
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail.

Instructor: TBA
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Government policy goals in response to the threat of climate change are unprecedented in their ambition and capital requirements. From power generation to transportation and heavy industry, many sectors of the economy may need to undergo significant change over the next decade to achieve these goals. This course will focus on the key legal and business issues addressed in significant energy industry transactions in the current environment. We will review the rapidly changing energy industry in North America, and through case studies, examine how large energy projects are developed and financed. We will pay particular attention to renewable energy as well as emerging technologies such as large-scale energy storage, carbon capture and green hydrogen. We will consider how policy interventions and market design can shape investment decisions in the private sector. We will also consider some of the legal tools available to investors and companies to better align capital allocation with ESG goals, including green and sustainability-linked bonds.
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail.

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: TBD
Description: TBD
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail.

Instructor: TBA
Language of Instruction: Bilingual
Description: Beginning with an overview of both the buyer’s and the target company’s strategic and financing options, the course leads students through the practical, legal and business steps of completing a private equity investment taking into account a global pandemic outbreak such as COVID-19 and ESG and Sustainability Metrics. Students will learn enterprise valuation methods, how law firms use project management in M&A matters and how corporate lawyers participate in the due diligence process of an acquisition and integrate technology tools in this process. Students will learn the central role tax considerations play in structuring an M&A transaction. Finally, students will simulate the negotiation and will draft key provisions of the main transaction agreements.
*Students who took LAWG 551: FWW 2 – Anatomy of a Deal in Fall 2021 are permitted to take this course as the deal being taught is different than what it had been previously.
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail.

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: TBD
Description: TBD
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail.

Instructor: TBA
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) law and reporting is a fast-evolving area, not always clear or consistent, and starting to face a backlash. “Greenwashing”, “modern slavery”, and “anti-corruption” – these are all terms that have been in the spotlight lately. Companies around the world are being asked to substantiate their credentials when it comes to business and human rights, anti-corruption, corporate governance, cybersecurity, social license to operate, climate change and renewable energy. Along with-it, legislation and regulations have been passed in jurisdictions from the EU, Asia and North America that instill obligations on companies to perform ESG audits and reporting. Climate change litigation is also on the rise. But what are these obligations? Do the environmental measures respond to the concerns they seek to address? What are the governance requirements? This class will explore the rise in ESG law and policy and seek to answer these questions and ultimately to provide students with an overview of whether ESG is an effective force for good.
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail.

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: TBD
Description: TBD
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail.

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course, taught through a combination of interactive seminars and presentations by invited guest lecturers, introduces the student to an interdisciplinary analysis of the business and legal issues confronting airlines. Focus will be on such areas as economics, financing, pricing, marketing, distribution, competition, alliances / cooperative arrangements, competition, consumer rights and environmental sustainability.
This course weaves the legal and regulatory issues airlines face into business principles of economics, finance, planning, operations, marketing, distribution, pricing, labour, cost containment, inter-corporate alliances, customer service standards and environmental sustainability. Relationships with airports, distribution agents, institutions, governments and regulators are also explored, as are international dimensions of commercial air transportation. Economic theory and regulatory and policy issues involving safety, antitrust, traffic rights / licensing, market access / network development, aircraft finance, employment, environment, and sustainability are further examined.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: 
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Term paper; Student performance on the 24-hour take-home exam.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course provides an introduction to academic writing at the graduate level, with emphasis on rhetorical structures and stylistic techniques relevant to scholarly legal writing. You will learn key patterns of organization to produce persuasive and cohesive academic texts. You will also practice strategies for improving vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure so that you can express complex ideas correctly and effectively. In this course, academic reading and writing skills will be practiced in both informal exercises and formal graded assignments. This regular practice is essential to becoming a strong scholarly writer. Your writing will also improve through diligent revision, self-annotation, language exercises, and feedback from the instructor.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: N/A
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail. Article Analysis Chart; Article Summary; Revised Article Summary; Search Exercise Quiz; Citation Exercise Quiz; Participation.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: For this course, you will develop a set of knowledge and skills that will improve your ability both to analyze written works and create the kind of well-written, well-structured pieces of writing you will require for the completion of your graduate degree. You will come to approach writing not simply as a final finished product, but as a process that encompasses planning, composing, revising, and editing.
This course will also deepen your understanding of the legal research process and introduce you to the process of disseminating your results in the complex world of modern scholarly publishing. Not only will the course help you efficiently use subject-specific resources in air & space law, human rights law, trade, tax, and arbitration law, among others, you will also gain an understanding of journal ranking, peer review, author’s rights, academic social media, institutional repositories, open access publishing, and predatory publishers, journals and conferences.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: N/A
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail. In-Class Legal Research Assignment; In-Class Academic Publishing Assignment; Literature Review Matrix; Draft Synthesis; Revised Synthesis; Participation.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The first part of the course provides a general introduction to the comparative law approach and applies some basic concepts of the civil and common law traditions to the field of air law. The second part of the course deals with selected topics where applicable law has not, or only partially, been unified by private international air law conventions and where a comparative approach, based on national law, must be used to find solutions. The selected topics include: the nature of the contract of carriage, product liability principles, aircraft manufacturers’ liability, State liability for negligent certification of aircraft, liability of air navigation service providers, and liability for damage caused by aircraft on the ground.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Moot court exercise, mid-term; Open-book final exam.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Lara Khoury
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The course explores various points of intersection between law and health care. Students will examine legal dilemmas that arise at these points of convergence and the principles and institutions that have been developed to address them. Particular topics covered may include: access and delivery of health care services and the allocation of health care resources; the regulation of health care professionals; the law of consent and substituted consent; the law pertaining to minors and incapable adults; introductory notions of public health law; privacy issues arising in the medical context; legal and ethical questions related to biomedical research; patient safety; and end of life care. Graduate students or undergraduate students in the last year of their programme not registered in the Faculty of Law may take CMPL 642 with the permission of the instructor.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None.
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Student-led seminar exercise; Final timed take-home exam.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Ram Jakhu
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This Course deals with the international legal aspects of various space applications. In particular, the Course examines principles and rules of international law related to satellite telecommunications (including satellite broadcasting) and the role therein of various international organizations; remote sensing by satellites; space stations; space travel; navigational services by satellites; armed conflicts (LOAC) in outer space, etc.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None (however, some knowledge of public international law is presumed).
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Presentation in class, including written text of the presentation; Written term paper.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Shauna Van Praagh
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This seminar will provide a forum for a sustained discussion of the structures, institutions, objectives, and pedagogical possibilities connected to the learning and teaching of law. Created primarily for doctoral students in law, the seminar also welcomes students in the BCL/JD and LLM programs with demonstrated interest in legal education and pedagogy.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Directed primarily, although not exclusively, to doctoral students in law, the seminar also welcomes students in the BCL/JD Program and LLM Programs who demonstrate interest in legal education and pedagogy.
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Leading a Session; Observation Memo; Final Paper.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Fédéric Mégret
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Exploration and critique of various methodological approaches to the pursuit of a research inquiry within the context of legal scholarship. Graduate students will develop familiarity with research methods and strategies and will be afforded with opportunities for developing and sharpening their legal research, writing and analytical skills.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Graded on a Pass/Fail basis. Research statement; Literature review.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Fédéric Mégret
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Exploration and critique of various methodological approaches to the pursuit of a research inquiry within the context of legal scholarship. Graduate students will develop familiarity with research methods and strategies and will be afforded with opportunities for developing and sharpening their legal research, writing and analytical skills.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Graded on a Pass/Fail basis. Presentation.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Fédéric Mégret
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Exploration and critique of various methodological approaches to the pursuit of a research inquiry within the context of legal scholarship. Graduate students will develop familiarity with research methods and strategies and will be afforded with opportunities for developing and sharpening their legal research, writing and analytical skills (subject to change).
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Multiple assignments. Graded on a Pass/Fail basis.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course focuses on the international and domestic (key jurisdictions US, Europe and Canada) economic regulation of air transport. Key topics include: Aviation infrastructure, i.e., airports and air navigation, bilateral air services agreements, economic regulations pertaining to air carrier licensing and authorization, governmental review of tariffs, competition /anti-trust, dynamics of airline alliances, safety, security, environmental regulation, consumer protection regulations including accessibility requirements, delays, tarmac delays, cancellations, denied boarding, advertising regulations and disclosure requirements, travel agencies and global distribution systems. The contemporary challenges posed by Covid-19 and trends in the regulatory regime of air transport will also be discussed.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Presentation and term paper; Final exam.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: Professor Ludwig Weber
Language of Instruction: English
Description: TBD
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets Writing Requirement: TBD

Instructor: Professor Ram Jakhu
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This Course examines the role of international law in the regulation of outer space activities. Specifically, the Course addresses the current and potential future uses of outer space; the law‐making process relating to space activities and the international institutions that are involved in this process; the legal regime of outer space and celestial bodies including the exploitation of space natural resources; the legal status of spacecraft including their registration; liability for damage caused by space activities; assistance to astronauts and spacecraft in distress; legal controls governing activities harmful to the environment and military uses of outer space; settlement of space‐related disputes, etc.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Presentation in class, including written text of the presentation; Written term paper.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Mark Antaki
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course aims to help you develop a theoretical sensibility so as to enrich your thesis or non-thesis - and other – work. Doing so will involve helping you work on both your habits of attention (what and how you see) as well as your habits of articulation (how you speak, what you are able to show).
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format:
Method of Evaluation: TBD
Meets Writing Requirement: No 

Instructor: Professor Kirsten Anker
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course aims to help students articulate, and question, the way they see law and expose them to a range of materials that consider theoretical dimensions of the study, teaching, and research of law in a ‘McGillian’ way. Theoretical Approaches to Law also provides a privileged forum for DCL students to meet and reflect on their legal experiences, past and present, and an opportunity to consider how engaging with theory can illuminate their experiences as well as how those experiences can inform theory. We will also focus on becoming more careful readers and writers, engaging in constructive critical review of others’ research and experiencing peer‐review of one's own research. The course develops these skills through in-class exercises, peer-reviewed essays and presentations.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Bi-weekly writing exercise; Peer review; Final essay.
Meets Writing Requirement: No