Current Courses

Instructor: Professor Colleen Sheppaard
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This introductory course is designed to provide you with an overview of the basic legal contours of Canadian constitutionalism. As a class with students from across Canada and from other countries as well, our time together provides us with a unique opportunity to explore different perspectives and understandings of governance, rights, communities, and peoples. By the end of the course, you should be capable of identifying key constitutional legal issues and sources, developing concise legal arguments, and engaging in critical thinking and debate about how we have structured constitutional governance in Canada.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Fall Final Exam (30%); Optional Winter Assignment (25%); Final WinterExam (45% or 70%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Joshua Nichols
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course in Constitutional Law provides an introduction to the basic principles, institutions, and legal developments in Canadian constitutional law. Given the number of students, a large part of each class will involve an explanation of assigned reading materials by the instructor; however, ample time will be made for discussion and debate involving students and for questions and comments by students, and students will be expected to have read the assigned materials and be prepared to talk about them.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Fall Take-Home Exam (25%, but only if it improves the final grade); Optional Winter Written Assignment (25%); Final Winter Exam (50%, 75% or 100%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professeure Johanne Poirier
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Ce cours de droit constitutionnel offre une introduction aux principes, aux institutions et à l’évolution du droit constitutionnel canadien. Il permettra aux étudiant.e.s d’apprivoiser les sources formelles et informelles du droit constitutionnel, d’en comprendre l’architecture et les transformations et de mieux décoder l’actualité politique et juridique. À la fin du cours, les étudiant.e.s maitriseront des fondements du droit constitutionnel, y compris la théorie de la séparation des pouvoirs, du fédéralisme et du constitutionnalisme. Ils auront une compréhension élémentaire des régimes de protection des droits et libertés, des droits des minorités linguistiques et du droit public relatif aux peuples autochtones.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Examen du 1er semestre: « assist only, c’est-à-dire que la note ne compte que si elle renforce votre note finale (20%); Résumé d’arrêt (réussite/échec); travail d’équipe (15%); examen final (65%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Omar Farahat
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The law of Contractual Obligations is concerned with legal relations and effects that emerge in the context of human interaction: those that are created or recognized by the parties themselves and that, at least traditionally, are seen as being voluntarily undertaken, rather than being imposed by the State and its institutions. The aim of this course is to examine the theories, standards, principles, and norms governing these contractual relations in both the common law and civil law traditions. The concepts that will be covered include theories of contracts, contracts across traditions, the formation and enforceability of contracts (what constitutes an “agreement” and what kinds of agreements will the law enforce), consideration, interpretation of contracts, modification, the obligation of good faith, defects of consent, breach and remedies.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Mid-term 25%, final exam 65%, and group presentations 10%.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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: Mini in-term Fall essay (10%); Anonymous December Exam (30%); Anonymous April Exam (60%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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: Mini in-term Fall essay (10%); Anonymous December Exam (30%); Anonymous April Exam (60%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Robert Israel
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course is meant to provide students with an overview of the mechanics of the criminal justice system and a firm grasp of the law applicable to criminal liability. It is structured to equip students with the basic tools to think critically about criminal law, its scope, and its use as a means of societal regulation.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Four Short Reflection Papers; Final Exam
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Mairi Springate
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course is meant to provide students with a detailed overview of the fundamental elements of the criminal justice system as well as a firm grasp of the law applicable to criminal liability. We will explore the central elements of a crime, legal defenses, as well as various constitutional issues that arise in the criminal law context. The class aims to cover these topics in a way that recognizes and discusses how factors such as race, class, gender, and age inform and affect perspectives on criminalization and experiences in the justice system more broadly. Our goal is to provide students with the tools to think critically about criminal law, its scope, and its use as a means of societal regulation.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Ten pass/fail participation papers (30%); Fall Take-Home Exam (30%); Winter Take-Home Exam (40%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professeur Marie Manikis
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Ce cours se centre sur la justice pénale en Occident, notamment au Canada, aux États-Unis et en Europe. Il comprendra non seulement de nombreuses connaissances techniques, telles que les éléments d’un crime. Le cours offrira de même une connaissance approfondie du système pénal, dont ses dimensions historiques, sociales, politiques, économiques, raciales, ethniques, autochtones ou de genre. Nous explorerons la naissance et l’évolution de la justice pénale moderne à travers diverses théories critiques concernant ses enjeux, dynamiques, normes, institutions et acteurs. Parmi d’autres sujets, nous aborderons la prison, la peine de mort, la justice des mineurs, la police, l’inégalité sociale, la discrimination, les droits humains, la dignité, ainsi que les rôles des procureurs, avocats de défense et juges dans les tribunaux.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Projet de présentation orale et analyse explicative écrite en équipe (40%); Rédaction (10%); Examen final (50%).
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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: Mid-term examination (20%); Written assignment (30%); Final examination (50%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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. 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:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Mid-term Exam (20%); Written Assignment (30%); Final Exam (50%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professeur Richard Janda
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: La responsabilité civile naît de la transgression d’un devoir ou d’une obligation envers autrui. Voici la première phrase du Baudouin : La responsabilité civile (8e édition, 2014), livre qui se trouve partout dans les cabinets d’avocats au Québec. Vous pouvez bien imaginer que saisir les principes de la responsabilité civile et être en mesure d’identifier les obligations envers autrui fait partie de l’identité même des juristes. Peut-être vous irez jusqu’à concevoir l’étude du droit en général comme une étude de la responsabilité civile. Pourtant, la phrase dans Baudouin n’est pas sans complexité. Vous allez bientôt réaliser jusqu’à quel point les juristes sont capables de construire des catégories et tracer des distinctions. Or, la responsabilité civile se distingue de la responsabilité criminelle. La transgression d’un principe constitutionnel ne donne pas lieu aux mêmes conséquences juridiques que la transgression d’une norme de bon voisinage. Et à l’intérieur de la responsabilité civile se cache une distinction entre la responsabilité contractuelle et la responsabilité extracontractuelle, pourtant contestée par certains auteurs.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Premier Trimestre Examen (20%); Examen Final (50%); Un court travail obligatoire sera dû pendant le trimestre d’hiver (30%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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: Class journal (10% Pass/Fail); Mid-term paper (30%); Final exam (60%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor René Provost
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny..." - Isaac Asimov. Arriving at the law faculty 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: Participation (10%), Class Journal (10%); Seminar Report (10%) Final Essay (70%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Magistral participatif
Method of Evaluation: Présentation orale (35%); Essai (65%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Kirsten Anker
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course is about asking questions about law. The best, and the most interesting, will have no easy answer. In exploring these questions, the course aims to help you reflect on how a given ‘we’ know, represent, experience, talk about, do ‘law’, and what that reveals about the foundations of law. Both ‘we’ and ‘law’ are in quotation marks because they are always contingent and to be found in a specific time and place. The course thus builds on the work already begun in Indigenous Legal Traditions identifying the distinctiveness of different forms of legality and, in particular, of Canada’s “liberal constitutionalism”.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Seminar Report (20%); Final Essay (70%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Aaron Mills
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The central purpose of this course is to introduce students to Indigenous law in Canada by teaching, among other things, the connections between Indigenous ways of being and knowing and Indigenous law. To that end, we will explore (1) the worldviews and constitutional contexts of Indigenous legal traditions; (2) the colonial contexts that have shaped the current realities of Indigenous laws and Indigenous legal education and, reciprocally, Indigenous law revitalization; and (3) the contemporary relationships between Indigenous and state law in Canada. This course is intended to ground Indigenous law content taught throughout the Faculty’s transsystemic undergraduate program. To the extent practicable, instructors will deploy Indigenous pedagogies and will involve Indigenous community connections, partners, and guest speakers.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: No
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Midterm assignment (30%); Term Paper (60%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Kerry Sloan
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The central purpose of this course is to introduce students to Indigenous law in Canada by teaching, among other things, the connections between Indigenous ways of being and knowing and Indigenous law. To that end, we will explore (1) the worldviews and constitutional contexts of Indigenous legal traditions; (2) the colonial contexts that have shaped the current realities of Indigenous laws and Indigenous legal education and, reciprocally, Indigenous law revitalization; and (3) the contemporary relationships between Indigenous and state law in Canada. This course is intended to ground Indigenous law content taught throughout the Faculty’s transsystemic undergraduate program. To the extent practicable, instructors will deploy Indigenous pedagogies and will involve Indigenous community connections, partners, and guest speakers.
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Journal Entries (10%); Mid-term Exam (40%); Final Paper (50%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Kirsten Anker
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Le but de ce cours est de présenter aux étudiants les « lifewords » des traditions juridiques autochtones, et plus précisément celles du peuple Haudenosaunee, afin de les préparer aux rencontres avec les légalités et les pensées juridiques autochtones qui surviendront tout au long de leurs études en droit. Cette introduction comporte divers aspects : tenir compte du contexte colonial dans lequel le droit autochtone a dû être exprimé au cours des derniers siècles ; comprendre la logique interne des légalités autochtones extraites à partir d'histoires, d'artefacts, de cérémonies et d'autres pratiques, ainsi que d’expériences vécues ; explorer des cadres analytiques pour articuler le droit autochtone ainsi que pour comparer la normativité autochtone et non-autochtone ; s’attarder aux problèmes difficiles contemporains tels que la déséquilibre de pouvoir, la politique identitaire et l’essentialisme.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Non
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Journal Entries (10%); Written Assignment (40%); Final Essay (50%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Bogdan-Alexandru Dobrota
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The purpose of this course is to introduce you to legal advocacy, both oral and written, and to give you an opportunity to practice your legal advocacy skills in a range of settings. Those skills will be helpful in your future career and in your personal life, even if you chose not to become a litigator. We will begin with a short introduction on the nature and purpose of legal advocacy, after which we will explore some of its most frequent expressions in civil and commercial litigation: demand letters, statements of claim, mediation sessions, and oral advocacy before a trial court or tribunal.
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
• Explain the nature, purpose, and forms of legal advocacy;
• Critically reflect on what makes a good advocate;
• Identify relevant information to communicate effectively as an advocate; and
• Present that information persuasively in different contexts, both orally and in writing.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture & tutorial groups.
Method of Evaluation: Pass/Fail: To pass this course, students must meet both the Attendance requirement and the Coursework requirement, which are equally weighted. The Coursework requirement consists in four assignments evaluated on a Pass/Fail basis, i.e. two drafting exercises and two oral advocacy exercises. Most assignments will be completed during the tutorial sessions. If an assignment receives a “Fail” grade, the student will be required to complete a supplemental written assignment. To pass the Attendance requirement, any student missing more than two hours of lecture or tutorial time during this course will be required to complete a supplemental written assignment.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Jakub Adamski
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 (25%); Take-home final exam (75%).
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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 (30%); Final in-person exam (70%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Olga Redko
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 is in this sense that the course is transsystemic. 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.
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Midterm Written Assignment (25%); Final Exam (65%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Jakub Adamski
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:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Midterm Essay or Presentation (25%); Final Exam (65%).
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Daniel 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:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation, Midterm exam, Final assessment.

Instructor: Amanda Gibeault
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:
Format: Cours interactif et ateliers
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Présentation d'un texte (10%); Courte rédaction (30%); Examen Finale (50%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Moyse
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 (Fall) (30%); Group Assignment (Winter) (30%); Final Exam (Winter) (40%).
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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: Individual Essay (Fall) (30%); Group Assignment (30%); Final Exam (Winter) (40%).
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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 individuel (automne) (30%); travail de groupe (hiver) (30%); examen (hiver) (40%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: William Dion-Bernard
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: 
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Mid-term Exam (30%); Take-Home Essay (30%); Final Exam (40%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Mark Antaki
Language of Instruction: Français
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 (probablement entre 50% et 70%), devoirs dans la session (probablement entre 40% et 20%), participation (probablement 10%)
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: Lecture
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: Participation (10%); Group Project (co-facilitation and designing of an assigned class) (15%); Final Paper (including 10% peer review participation) (75%)
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: Evaluation will be based on participation in class (15%); five reflections of 500 words submitted before class (25%); leading a class discussion (in a group, depending on enrolment) (30%); and one final reflection on the course as a whole of 2000 words that may build on prior reflections (30%).
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: Research paper (8,000 words - excluding footnotes & bibliography) (75%); Short oral presentation of your research findings (10%); Seminar participation (15%).
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 (10%), Treaty Presentation/Report (20%), Term Paper (70% or 80%)
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”.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Team presentation (40%); Take-home exam (60%)
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 (25%); Final Exam (75%)
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: Undergraduate students – Final paper (75%), LLM students – Two policy briefs and a longer policy paper (75%); Group Blog (15%); Class Participation (10%)
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: Participation (10%), in-class oral critique (10%), team report (25%), team peer assessment (5%), and open-book final exam (50%).
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Stephen De Four-Wyre
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: This course explores the relationship between legal institutions and poverty in Canada and beyond. While it may touch on appellate court decisions, its main focus will be on how people living in poverty experience the law through their everyday engagements, the concrete challenges that arise in these settings, and opportunities for change. Throughout the course, connections will be drawn across themes that touch on many areas of law, from employment, criminal and administrative law, to social benefits, migration, and human rights law. Given the growing “digitalization” of the institutions operating in these areas, we will also examine how digital government initiatives disproportionately impact people living in poverty. Students will become familiar with a rich body of sources on these issues, including academic scholarship, legislative frameworks, court and administrative decisions, and domestic and international advocacy materials. This course will take a participatory and critical approach to the future of law. It will invite students to sharpen their skills as readers, writers, and advocates as they explore course themes.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None, but Judicial Review of Administrative Action and Administrative Process are strongly recommended pre- or co-requisites.
Format: Interactive seminar that relies on regular student engagement.
Method of Evaluation: 20% engagement and discussion leadership, 20% course journal, 5% peer review, 55% reflective essay of approximately 4000 words.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Peer Zumbansen
Language of Instruction: English
Description: We will study the regulation of AI as a challenge of how knowledge is formed, accessed, disseminated and used, how it is being instrumentalized and fought over. That requires us to understand the different forms that knowledge has taken over time and the political economy as it continues to evolve. We will explore the forms and usages of knowledge and artificial intelligence in different contexts that – taken together – shed light on the structures of power and human / institutional interaction today. The seminar will be taught over two weekly 80-minute sessions, which will allow us to dive into the substantive literature during our class on Monday and engage with a case study on Wednesday. There will be assigned readings which you are required to read before each class. There will also be some “recommended”, optional readings, which you can explore at our leisure or if they could prove helpful for your final paper.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Reaction Paper to Course Readings (10%); Class Conference Presentation (15%); Final Paper (75%)
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: John David Howes
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: 
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation (15%); Quizzes (35%); Formal Presentation and Memo (20%); Final Paper (30%)
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: Research paper (8,000 words - excluding footnotes & bibliography) (75%); Short oral presentation of your research findings (10%); Seminar participation (15%).
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternate Method of Evaluation: No 

Instructor: Robert Raizenne
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Examination of tax practice from a theoretical and practical perspective in five experiential modules featuring local practitioners, including tax planning for families, analysis of application of general anti-avoidance rules to planned transactions, analysis of tax aspects of new technologies.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: TBA
Meets the Writing Requirement: TBA

Instructor: Professor Stephen De Four-Wyre
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: Infographic (10%); Participation (15%); Case Comment (25%); Final examination (50%) 
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Geoffrey Garver
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: The final exam (timed take-home) will be worth either 40% or 70%. There will be an optional written assignment worth 30% of the course grade, and for students who elect to do the written assignment, the final exam will be worth 40%. The remaining 30% of the course grade will be based on class participation (including reflection/response worth 10%) and two short in-class exercises worth 10% each).
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructors: Christian Lachance et Gabriel Lavery LePage
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Ce cours vise à familiariser les étudiants avec le régime législatif canadien applicable en matière de faillite et d’insolvabilité et de restructuration d’entreprises insolvables. Le droit de la faillite et de l’insolvabilité affecte de façon fondamentale, et parfois de façon surprenante, les droits et obligations des parties traitant avec des personnes insolvables. La première partie du cours sera consacrée au régime de faillite tandis que la seconde partie traitera de la restructuration d’entreprises insolvables. À la fin du cours, l’étudiant devrait mieux comprendre les enjeux pour les débiteurs, les fournisseurs, les employés, les créanciers, les gouvernements et les autres intervenants affectés par l’insolvabilité d’une entreprise ou d’un individu, le processus de liquidation ordonnée qu’est la faillite, et les options de redressement qui s’offrent à une personne insolvable.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: In-person mid-term exam (40%); In-person final exam (60%).
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

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 course in public law that examines the theory and practice of judicial review of administrative action. Because our subject matter is judicial review, our focus is the law found in judicial decisions in which the courts review the determinations and actions of administrative agencies. The jurisprudence we will cover is relevant to many substantive areas of law such as labour law, immigration law, environmental law, municipal law, commercial licensing law, communications law, as well as banking and securities law. In each of these fields, public bodies are charged with interpreting and implementing a sophisticated public law regime. As we shall see, public administrators have developed their own understandings of their statutory mandates, and these are often expressed in the practices, guidelines, circulars, and decisions that connect statutory authorization of administrative powers to its actual exercise and application to particular cases.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: You are encouraged to take Administrative Process prior to or concomitantly with this course, since the focus of that offering is the internal law developed by administrative agencies, and it is judicial review of this law and its outcomes that comprises the subject matter of the present course.
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Group Assignment (30%); Final Exam (70%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Michelle Kellam & Justice Alexandre Pless
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Ce cours a été conçu de manière à introduire auprès des étudiants certains enjeux de fond qui se retrouvent dans presque chaque domaine de droit public tels le droit du travail, le droit carcéral, le droit de l’environnement, le droit de la concurrence, le droit municipal et le droit de l’immigration et des réfugiés. Ce cours se veut une introduction à la fois à la théorie qui sous-tend le contentieux administratif, et aux règles, constitutionnelles et autres, qui encadrent ce domaine de droit.
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 Travail écrit en mi-session (30%); Examen final (70% or 100%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: Non

Instructor: Stephen De Four-Wyre
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 (25%), Final Take Home Examination (75%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Jennifer Raso
Language of Instruction: English
Description:This course explores the relationship between legal institutions and poverty in Canada and beyond. While it may touch on appellate court decisions, its main focus will be on how people living in poverty experience the law through their everyday engagements, the concrete challenges that arise in these settings, and opportunities for change. Throughout the course, connections will be drawn across themes that touch on many areas of law, from employment, criminal and administrative law, to social benefits, migration, and human rights law. Given the growing “digitalization” of the institutions operating in these areas, we will also examine how digital government initiatives disproportionately impact people living in poverty. Students will become familiar with a rich body of sources on these issues, including academic scholarship, legislative frameworks, court and administrative decisions, and domestic and international advocacy materials. This course will take a participatory and critical approach to the future of law. It will invite students to sharpen their skills as readers, writers, and advocates as they explore course themes.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: No, though JICP and JRAA are both strongly recommended.
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Engagement (20%); Course Journal (20%); Peer Review (5%); Reflective Essay (55%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Andrea Bjorklund
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course will concentrate on the fundamental aspects of the law governing international economic relations between states in the global economy. The course will primarily focus on the World Trade Organization and the Agreements that states have undertaken by virtue of their membership in that body. We will analyze the principal obligations found in the WTO Agreements, with particular focus on trade in goods and services and on the dispute settlement processes states can invoke when they allege violations of the covered agreements. We will look briefly at the rise in the number of regional trade agreements and assess their interaction with the multilateral trading regime of the WTO. We will also study the intersection between WTO law and domestic law and become familiar with domestic trade law remedies. Special attention will be paid to the implications of the rise of new actors (such as China and India) in the global economy and current events.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Public International Law (recommended)
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Final Exam; In-course Assignments
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Ignacio Cofone
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Privacy problems exist in many dimensions of our daily lives, and the legal regulations that address those problems are increasingly relevant. This interactive seminar will provide an overview of the rapidly growing area of information privacy law with a focus on the digital environment. We will go through domestic and international regulations, case law, legislation, and recent public policy developments pertaining to the collection, storage, and dissemination of personal information. We will structure it along three kinds of relationships: among individuals, between individuals and companies, and between individuals and the State.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Take-Home Assignment(s) (20% or 40% optional); Final Assignment (80% or 60%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No
Notes: Please note you cannot take the course if you have already taken it as a Specialized Topic course.

Instructors: Nicolas Morin
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: Mid-Term Assignment (25% of final grade), Class Participation (10% of final grade), Final Exam (65% of final grade)
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: Participation (5%); Midterm Assignment (20%); Final Paper (75%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructors: Professor Jennifer Raso
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course introduces students to administrative process or administrative justice: the diverse ways in which administrative agencies bring laws to life through their institutional structure, their policy making, and their decision-making practices. In addition to courts and legislatures, administrative agencies are vital actors that generate, interpret, and apply legal norms. By drawing on a range of readings and other materials, this course will challenge conventional notions of what law is, where is comes from, and how it obtains legitimacy in different contexts. It will introduce students to concepts such as statutory interpretation, delegated legislation, policy, discretion, institutional design, procurement, and digital government.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None, though Judicial Review of Administrative Action is a strongly recommended pre- or co-requisite.
Format: Lecture-sized class, but the course relies on regular student engagement.
Method of Evaluation: Engagement (20%); Team Assignment (50%); Final Short Essay (30%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Ralph Cecere
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Quizzes (30%); Midterm (30%); Final Exam (40%).
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Marianna Ferraro
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: Midterm Group Presentation or Essay (25%); Final Paper (75%)
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: 20% presentation + peer review (both pass/fail); 80% paper
Meets Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternative Method of Evaluation: Yes 

Instructor: Sarah Woods
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: Class Participation: 40%; Final Trial Performance: 60%
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Laurence Ricard
Language of Instruction: French
Description: Dans ce cours, nous étudierons les grands concepts de la protection de la jeunesse et tenterons une réflexion critique sur le contenu et la pratique dans ce domaine de droit. Le droit de la jeunesse, méconnu du monde universitaire, est pourtant riche d'enseignements sur les contours du droit, puisqu'il évolue dans une tension constante entre les droits et libertés fondamentaux protégeant la sphère privée et le rôle de protection de l'État. Son étude permet de questionner les limites du droit, d'une part dans les relations entre l'État et le citoyen et, d'autre part, dans l'arbitrage des relations étatiques d'aide aux populations vulnérables. Le cours portera principalement sur la Loi sur la protection de la jeunesse québécoise, en incluant des comparaisons ponctuelles avec les lois équivalentes dans les autres provinces canadiennes. Une attention particulière sera portée aux fondements cliniques des principes de protection de la jeunesse, en particulier au rôle et à l'impact de la théorie de l'attachement dans les lois de protection de l'enfance. L'adoption et le système pénal pour adolescents seront aussi brièvement abordés.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: 45% reflection paper; 55% situational exercise
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Keith Serry & Justice Jeffery Edwards
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: Participation (10%); Optional Paper (40%); In Person Exam (90% or 40% if optional paper completed)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Marc Barbeau
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course aims to introduce students to the relationships between firms and the principal participants in their financial capital structure. Corporations raise capital essentially in one of two ways: they either borrow money or issue debt obligations (debt) or issue shares (equity). These forms of financing create rights, obligations and expectations. In this course, we will carefully examine related considerations. A table of materials will be made available providing required and discretionary readings.
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: (i) a 75% take home final exam during the term’s final exam period to be completed within six hours of having been accessed by the student (3000 words limit in English); and (ii) a 25% mid-term assignment during a one-week mid-term period (to be confirmed) to be completed within six hours of having been accessed by the student (1000 words limit in English); the mid term can be completed in a team.
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Nadia Rusak
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Mid-term Assignment (30%); Final Take-Home Exam (70%)
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).
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation 10%, Mid-term essay (25%), Final essay (65%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Walid Hijazi
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: Mid-term Evaluation (25%); Final Exam (75%)
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: Ethics Lab (20%), Group Presentation (10%), Group Reflection (20%), 2.5 hour open-book final exam on a scheduled time slot (50%).
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Individual or Group Essay (20%); Group Project (30%): Final exam (50%)
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 (25%), Final Paper (75%)
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 (10%), Presentation (15%), Final Paper (75%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternative Method of Evaluation: Yes

Instructor: Patrick Ferland
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Quizzes (10%); Examen Optionnel (30%); Examen Final (90% or 70%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: Non

Instructor: Professor Geneviève Saumier
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Private international law refers to the body of norms that regulate private law issues in factual scenarios that involve a significant foreign connection. It deals with court jurisdiction over transborder legal relationships, the law applicable to transborder claims and the effect of judgments across borders. In a world of globalized markets and increasing corporate and personal mobility, every jurist requires at least a basic understanding of the subject.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Judicial Institutions and Civil Procedure recommended.
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: In-term Assignments (50%); Final Exam (50%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Jean-Phillipe MacKay
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Ce cours offrira une vue panoramique des deux grandes phases de la procédure en matière criminelle : l’enquête policière et les procédures judiciaires. Ce cours s’intéressera aux sources de la procédure en matière criminelle, à ses nombreuses mutations historiques et à sa constante évolution. À travers l’exploration des différentes étapes du processus pénal (de l’enquête policière jusqu’aux pourvois à la Cour suprême en matière criminelle, en passant par la comparution, l’enquête sur mise en liberté et le procès lui-même), une place importante sera accordée aux garanties juridiques découlant de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Criminal Law
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Examen de mi-session (20%); Examen final (70%)
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Éditorial/Op Ed: Travail de session en équipes (50 %) et examen de type “take-home” (24 h) à date fixe (50%)
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Mandatory In-term Written Assignment (25%); Optional In-term Written Assignment (25%); Final Exam (75% or 50% with optional assignment)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Marie Manikis
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course aims to introduce students to the law, theory, policy and practice of sentencing in Canada with comparative perspectives. It will provide students with an introduction to the general theories of punishment, objectives, foundations and principles of sentencing in Canada. Further, procedure and evidence in sentencing will be looked at and situated in a broader socio-legal context. A number of critical perspectives will be explored, including victims’ rights, race, indigeneity, and gender. Finally, selected topics of this course will be analyzed and include mandatory sentences of imprisonment and constitutional considerations, comparative models for controlling judicial discretion, victim participation in sentencing, plea negotiations, and reflections regarding the sentencing of racialized and Indigenous offenders.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Mid-Term Take-Home Assignment (45%); Group Presentation and Paper (45%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Fernando Belton
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: Michael Bergman
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: Molly Krishtalka
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course studies the principles and practice of media law in Canada as applied to the work of media actors and others involved in the investigation and publication of news and other information of public interest. Starting from a comprehensive grounding in freedom of expression and freedom of the press, the course will notably highlight and engage with defamation law, privacy law, access to the courts and legal proceedings, access to documents held by public bodies, protection of confidential sources, and copyright law. This course will also touch on legal issues arising from journalistic coverage of developing situations (public protests, acts of civil disobedience, etc) and from the use of digital technologies. Students will be asked to assume various legal roles – advisor, litigator, judge – as they explore these topics.
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: In-term Assignment (40%); Final Assignment (60%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Shaun Finn
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: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Preliminary Opinion (30%); Written Outline of Argument (45%); Oral Pleading (15%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Andréa Morrison
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Through experiential learning in class and readings, the course explores how different models of intervention in conflict dynamics can influence and impact outcomes, as well as identity, relations, and culture. Students will develop tools for understanding and analysing conflict dynamics, and for strategically intervening in conflict situations. Students will also build competence in negotiation and mediation. The course takes into account cultural differences and power imbalances, and addresses the role of lawyers and lawyers in participatory justice.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Journal (pass/fail) (40%); Essay (60%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Edward Claxton
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: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Group Assignments (30%); Final Exam (60%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Nora Demnati
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 (5%); In-course Assignments (45%); Final Assignment (50%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Frederick Headon
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.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None but LAWG 210 recommended
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Midterm Paper (15%); Group Presentation (35%); Final paper (50%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Arthur Wechsler
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: Participation (15%), Mid-term take home paper (20%), Final exam (65%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Carol Cohen
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: All students registering for this seminar course must have successfully completed the basic course in Criminal law. Criminal Procedure and Criminal Evidence are strongly recommended. No more than 20 students will be accepted into the seminar.
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Written Paper (50%); Presentation (40%)
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: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); In-term assignment(s) (20%); End-of-term assignment(s) (70%)
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: The course is essentially a writing course on current, “hot button issue” developments in business law, widely understood. The course will engage students in current developments in Canadian and transnational business law with examples from corporate governance, supply chain regulation, board structure, executive compensation, arbitration, artificial intelligence, securities and bankruptcy law, environmental, social and governance (“ESG”), modern slavery law, and others. Students will write graded, short essays, the best of which will be published as blog entries on the McGill Business Law Platform “Meter” website (https://www.mcgill.ca/business-law/)
Restrictions/Prerequisites: 
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Group Blog Entry (20%); Individual Blog Entry (50%); Reaction Paper (10%); Outline & Pitch for Individual Blog Entry (10%); Oral Presentation of Individual Draft Blog Entry (10%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Allen Mendelsohn
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. Throughout the course we will take a practical approach to many of these questions, learning how the courts and the attorneys who practice in this area deal with these issues on a day to day basis.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); In-term Assignment (20%); Final Assignment (70%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Meaghan Daniel
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: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Mid-term assignment (30%); Final research essay (60%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Darren Rosenblum
Language of Instruction: English
Description: We will study the law of corporate governance. After we examine central questions of governance, we will focus on several key debates. These debates include shareholder and stakeholder theory, shareholder democracy, and especially diversity in corporate governance. We will consider both voluntary and mandated diversity measures in Canada, the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Our examination will incorporate a perspective on how social science has influenced regulation. This course has several equally essential objectives. The course will: (1) introduce through readings, class discussions, and team exercises some of the most prominent concepts, doctrines, and controversies relating to the law’s regulation of business associations; (2) cultivate transsystemic critical, interdisciplinary thinking about legal problems; (3) hone reading, research and writing skills through various assignments; and (perhaps most importantly) (4) develop your capacity for collegiality and constructive criticism through meaningful engagement with your classmates’ ideas and written work.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: A strong preference for studying Business Associations either in advance or in tandem with the course.
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Participation (15%); Presentation (15%); Critical Reaction Paper (10%); Final Exam (60%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

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: Participation (15%); TikTok Assignment (15%); Movie Analysis (20%); Quizzes (20%); Final Exam (30%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Alana Klein
Convenors: Emin Youssef, Andréa Biron-Boileau and Anna Pringle
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Transformative Justice scholar Mariame Kaba asks, “What can we imagine for ourselves and the world?” This seminar responds to Kaba’s query by juxtaposing Canadian legal systems with the alternatives proposed by Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities under the banner of Transformative Justice. 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.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Presentation; Final Written Assignment
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Michael Whitman
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: Class participation (10%), responses to questions about reading (15%), and a research paper of 8,000 words (75%).
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternative Method of Evaluation: No

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: Four Assessment Modules (25% each)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professeure Allison Christians
Language of Instruction: Français
Description: Ce cours est une introduction aux principes du droit fiscal fédéral canadien. Nous nous concentrerons sur l’acquisition du vocabulaire du droit fiscal et sur l’exploration des facteurs sociaux, politiques et économiques qui façonnent le développement de la loi. À la fin du cours, les étudiant·e·s comprendront les principes généraux du système du droit fiscal fédéral canadien ; développeront des compétences en lecture attentive et critique et en interprétation des sources juridiques primaires et secondaires ; et comprendront le rôle que jouent les avocat·e·s dans la conformité fiscale.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: Aucun
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Quatre modules d’évaluation (25% chacune)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Corey Omer
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Teach students the basic techniques of written and oral advocacy, including developing a theory of a case, drafting pleadings, engaging in effective examinations on discovery, direct examinations, cross-examinations, and examinations of expert witnesses, and delivering a closing argument. The class is hands on and requires active participation in practical exercises.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture, exercises and panel discussions.
Method of Evaluation: Participation (20%); In-Class Assignments (30%); In-Class Oral Assignment (50%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Adelle Blackett
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The advanced Transnational Labour Law seminar examines the emerging field of transnational labour law. The seminar 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).The course is meant to build on the foundation that students will have gained in the Faculty’s basic Public International Law course, alongside its basic (Collective) Labour Law and (Individual) Employment Law courses. It offers important opportunities for engaging with a range of courses, including migration law, human rights law, trade law, European Union Law, development law and business law.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (25%); Final Assignment (75%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: Yes
Alternate Method of Evaluation: Yes

Instructor: Robert Leckey
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Grounded in the experiential learning associated with students’ roles as tutorial leaders for the Integration Workshop, this course will enable them to develop and strengthen their knowledge and skills as legal educators and, more broadly, as aspiring legal professionals. Drawing on key insights from the fields of education, law, management, and the social sciences, this seminar will cover some of the traits, skills, strategies, and practices that are critical for teaching and practicing law. Through small-group discussions, individualized support and feedback, peer-to-peer learning, and self-reflection, this seminar will cultivate the abilities of students to serve as effective leaders, collaborators, and mentors in their legal studies and professional pursuits.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Review of Grading and Feedback on Legal Memo (20%); Peer Observation of Teaching in One Workshop (10%); Review of Grading and Feedback on the Factum (30%); Reflection Essay (40%)
Meets the Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Corey Omer
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.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Workshop
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail. Participation (45%); Final Assignment (55%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructors: Louise Otis & Lyne Morissette
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This 12-hours intensive course explores the basics rules and skills of negotiation and mediation in the field of environmental conflicts. In a dynamic and interactive context, students will also get an opportunity to reflect on the role of the lawyer assisting a party to an environmental negotiation or mediation and the ethical guidelines governing all parties involved. Through role-play exercises, live demonstrations and discussions with experts, students will have the opportunity to practice the basics skills required for effective dispute resolution and learn from the experience of experts in that field.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Workshop
Method of Evaluation: Attendance & Participation (80%); Essay (20%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Marion Sandilands
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.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Workshop
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail. Participation (50%); Final Assignment (50%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Amee Sandhu
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.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Workshop
Method of Evaluation: Participation (20%); Presentation (30%); Research Paper (50%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Martin Toulouse
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.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Workshop
Method of Evaluation: This course is Pass/Fail. Participation (40%); Final Assignment (60%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Amanda Arella
Language of Instruction: English
Description: Governments, scholars and human rights advocates are increasingly articulating the concept of housing as a human right. In Canada, the National Housing Strategy Act, passed in 2019 recognizes that the right to adequate housing is a fundamental human right and committed the federal government to furthering the progressive realisation of the right to adequate housing. But what does this right mean in practice? And how can the right to housing be realised equitably in the Canadian context, where women and gender diverse people are experiencing the most significant housing need across the country? This workshop will introduce students to the legal framework for the right to housing in Canadian and international law. It will also explore the connection between the right to housing and gender equality. It will introduce students to the practical implications, challenges and opportunities of developing social policy from a rights-based perspective.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Workshop
Method of Evaluation: Participation (50%); Reflection Paper (50%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Sonia Struthers
Language of Instruction: English
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 agreement.
Restrictions/Prerequisites: 
Format: Workshop
MOE: Pass/Fail. Participation (20%); Group Presentation (30%); Group Written Argument Summary (50%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Lex Gill
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This interdisciplinary seminar explores the legal, political and moral dimensions of the conscientious choice to break the law. From the struggle to abolish slavery, resistance to European fascism and the end of apartheid to movements toward civil rights, reproductive freedom, and environmental justice, history’s great heroes are also often criminals in their own time. Whether through non-violent protest, conscientious objection, whistleblowing, wildcat strikes, or direct action, students will ask when and whether there is a right — or even a duty — to disobey an unjust law. By spending time at the uncomfortable boundary points between that which is just and that which is lawful, students will strengthen their ability to navigate fundamental concepts like legitimacy, justification, legality, and the rule of law. This course also explores the practical, ethical and legal issues that lawyers face in litigating a bona fides test case or mounting a constitutional challenge, as well as in navigating relationships with clients who engage in potentially unlawful conduct for political or moral reasons.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Workshop
Method of Evaluation: Participation (50%); Reflection Paper (50%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Pierre-Luc Bouchard
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The objective of the course is to familiarize students with the asylum process in Canada and humanitarian immigration in general. The course is an in depth analysis of the procedure legal practitioners follow along with their clients, when a claim is made at a Canadian port of entry or through Roxham road.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Workshop
MOE: Pass/Fail. Participation (40%); Final Assignment (60%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No
 

Instructor: George Petsikas
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation; Term paper; Student performance on the 24-hour take-home exam.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Zachary Abram
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Article Analysis Chart (20%); Article Summary (20%); Revised Article Summary (20%); Search Exercise Quiz (15%); Citation Exercise Quiz (15%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Zachary Abram
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Research Assignment (15%); Academic Publishing Assignment (15%); Literature Review Matrix (20%); Draft Synthesis (20%); Revised Synthesis (20%).
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Ludwig Weber
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: In-term assignments (25%), Final Examination (75%)
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Class participation (20 %); Formal presentation in the class, including written text of the presentation (20%); and Written term paper (60%)
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: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Leading a Session (25%); Observation Memo (15%); Final Paper (60%)
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: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Pass/Fail. Research statement (50%); Literature review (50%).
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: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Pass/Fail basis. Presentation (100%).
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: Seminar
Method of Evaluation: Multiple assignments. Graded on a Pass/Fail basis.
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Joseph Wilson
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (5%); Presentation and term paper (35%); Final exam (60%).
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Yaw Nyampong
Language of Instruction: English
Description: This course introduces students to the private international air law regimes governing liability in international air transportation. It examines the unification of certain rules of private international air law through the adoption of international treaties. In particular, it focuses on the liability of the air carrier towards passengers and cargo consignors and consignees under the 1929 Warsaw Convention, as amended, supplemented or modernized by several other international legal instruments, including, most notably the Montreal Convention of 1999. The course will address the emergence of air consumer rights in international air transportation – public/private passenger compensation and accommodation schemes for delay, denied boarding, cancellations; for passengers with disabilities or reduced mobility among others in several jurisdictions in parallel to the Warsaw/Montreal system. The course also examines the international liability framework governing the relationship between the aircraft operator and third parties on the ground as established under the 1933 and 1952 Rome Conventions, and recent initiatives to modernize the 1952 Rome Convention regime through the adoption in 2009 of the Convention on Compensation for Damage Caused by Aircraft to Third Parties (the General Risk Convention) and the Convention on Compensation for Damage Caused to Third Parties Resulting from Acts of Unlawful Interference Involving Aircraft (the Unlawful Interference Convention). Although the scope of private international air law extends to issues relating to rights and security interests in aircraft objects (governed by the 2001 Cape Town Convention/Aircraft Protocol regime), this highly dynamic area of aircraft financing and registration of security interests will be covered separately in another course.
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Students will be evaluated by means, firstly, of a mid-term assignment (which will account for 25% of the final grade) and, secondly, a final 24-hour take-home (open book) examination (which will account for 75% of the final grade).
Meets Writing Requirement: No

Instructor: Professor Ludwig Weber
Language of Instruction: English
Description: The course in Public International Air Law examines the relevant principles and rules of public law that govern civil aviation, including the Convention on International Civil Aviation, rules governing air navigation and the use of air space, air transport and bilateral agreements, and related civil aviation subjects. The following topics are reviewed:
1. Sources and subjects of public int. law, territory and airspace, law of treaties.
2. Historical Background: Paris Convention 1919 and its principles and rules
3. Chicago Convention of 1944: General principles, rules, and their application
4. The International Civil Aviation Organization –Part II of the Chicago Convention
5. Air transport: IASTA / bilateral/multilateral air services agreements
6. Air Navigation: Aviation safety, airports and air navigation service providers
7. Aviation Security, including cybersecurity
8. Aviation environmental and other emerging issues
Restrictions/Prerequisites:
Format: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: In-term assignments (25%); final examination (75%)
Meets Writing Requirement: No

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: Class participation (20 %); Formal presentation in the class, including written text of the presentation (20%); and Written term paper (60%)
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Article Analysis Chart (20%); Article Summary (20%); Revised Article Summary (20%); Search Exercise Quiz (15%); Citation Exercise Quiz (15%)
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: Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Participation (10%); Bi-weekly writing exercise (20%); Peer review (10%); Final essay (60%).
Meets Writing Requirement: No