Category: Uncategorized

Long Live the Law Practice Program

I am struggling to understand the justification for the recent committee recommendation to end the Law Practice Program. The LPP is the Law Society’s alternative licensing program predominantly used by candidates unable to find articling positions.

The committee‘s central rationale seems to be that the LPP is “perceived as second tier.” They acknowledge that (i) “there is no evidence to suggest that the LPP is in fact second-tier” and (ii) the LPP is “of very high quality and may, in fact, excel over articling in a number of areas” in terms of preparing candidates for practice (para 59).

A regulator ending the LPP because it’s perceived as second tier to articling is like a regulator banning Chevrolets because they are perceived as second tier to Cadillacs. A regulator which does so must, at very least, have a realistic plan to ensure that everyone will be able to drive a Cadillac/get an articling position.  I can’t find any such plan in this Report.

The committee could have proposed reforms to expand the articling stream to accommodate everyone. For example they could have proposed that every licensed lawyer be required to either serve as an articling principal, or else contribute x% of his/her law practice income to a fund used to compensate lawyers who do serve as articling principals.

In the absence of any such plan, ending the LPP simply eliminates a path into the profession which is disproportionately used by equity-seeking and relatively disadvantaged candidates.  Perhaps more importantly, it also deprives equity-seeking/ disadvantaged would-be-clients of 200+ new lawyers per year who would be more likely to serve them than articling-track lawyers are.

The Report’s only other serious argument against the LPP is that we can’t decide who should pay for it. It costs roughly $17k per candidate.  At present a portion of this is absorbed by LSUC. Articling stream candidates pay a large share, due to the equalization of costs for LPP-stream and articling-stream candidates.

Who should pay is a tough problem, and there’s a convincing argument that the articling-stream candidates shouldn’t have to subsidize LPP-stream candidates to the extent that they currently do.  Personally, I think LSUC fees should be increased, and made progressive based on licensee income, in order to fund LPP and other A2J-enhancing initiatives.

But even requiring LPP candidates to pay the entire $17k per year themselves would be better than completely depriving them, and their would-be clients, of the opportunity to practice for which they have already invested so many years and so many tens of thousands of dollars.

The perception of second-tier or stigmatized status for LPP and its candidates is unfortunate. LSUC should fight this inaccurate perception, not surrender to it. But even if they can’t or won’t fight it, a professional path perceived as second tier is better than no path at all.

Osgoode Hall Graduate Law Students’ Association Conference: May 20th and 21st, 2010

Osgoode Professional Development Centre, 1 Dundas West, 26th floor.  Toronto, Ontario.

BEYOND LAW: AT THE EDGES OF LAW’S AMBIT

Thursday, May 20th

8:15-9:00 AM: REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST (Room E)

9:00-9:15 AM: CONFERENCE WELCOME (Room C)

    • 9:00: GLSA President Stu Marvel – Welcome Message
    • 9:05: Welcome Message from Incoming Dean Lorne Sossin
9:15 – 10:35 AM: KEYNOTE ADDRESS (Room C)

PROFESSOR JANET HALLEY (Harvard Law School)

10:35 – 10:50: COFFEE BREAK (Room E)

10:50 -12:00pm:  PANELS I & II

PANEL I: Tracking Financial Actors From Civil Society to the Marketplace (Room C)

DISCUSSANT: ANITA ANAND (University of Toronto Law) CHAIR: Charis Kamphuis

  • Virginia Torrie (LLM Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), Accounting Knowledge for Securities Law Scholarship
  • Vanisha H. Sukdeo (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), Corporate Social Responsibility and the Intersection of Workers’ Rights
  • Lori McMillan (Associate Professor of Law, Washburn University School of Law), Public Benefit Theory and Noncharitable Nonprofit Organizations in Canada

Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School

 PANEL II: Human Rights in Question: ‘Metanarratives of (Dis) Ability’ (Room D)

DISCUSSANT: LES JACOBS  (York)

CHAIR: Ruby Dhand

  • Megan Evans Maxwell (SJD Candidate, University of Toronto), Substantive Socioeconomic Rights: The Missing Link in the Evolution of Canadian Human Rights Jurisprudence
  • Susan Barak (PhD Candidate, York University), Of Tort and Trauma: the Vital Nature of Legal Remedies to Address and Redress
  • Bonita Heath (PhD Candidate, York University), Benefits versus Rights: A False Dichotomy in the Political Economy of Disability?

Sponsored by the York Centre for Public Policy and Law
12:00 -1:00 PM: LUNCH (Room E)

NOON SEMINAR – Edward Elgar Publishing, Law Acquisitions Editor Tara Gorvine (Room B)

1:00 – 2:50 PM: PANELS III & IV

PANEL III: Sustaining Resources, People & the Environment (Room C)

DISCUSSANT: TBC (Osgoode)                                          CHAIR: Patricia Hania

  • Karen Fernandes (LLM Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), Regulation, Sustainability and Planning Controls: Assessing the Global Development of Inclusive Communities
  • Sarah Hamill (PhD Candidate, University of Alberta), Creation and Control: the Battle to Control Liquor and Natural Resources in Alberta, 1905 – c.1940
  • Priscila B. Becker (LLM Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), The Convention on Biological Diversity, Indigenous Peoples and Conservation of Biodiversity
  • Tiffany MacLellan (MA Candidate, Ottawa University), Protecting Gaps or Addressing them: The Nexus between Climate Change and Forced Migration
  • Mostafa Mahmud Naser (PhD Candidate, Macquarie University), Climate Change and Forced Migration: In Search of Recognition in International Law

Sponsored by the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability

 PANEL IV: Rethinking Law’s Method
(Room D)

DISCUSSANT: BRUCE RYDER (Osgoode) CHAIR: Claire Mumme

  • Anastasia Tataryn (PhD Candidate, University of Ottawa), Excavations, Revolutions and Legal Research Methodologies: Bring the Inside-Out or the Out-Inside
  • Amaya Alvez (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School) Proportionality Analysis at the intersection of Comparative Law and Socio-Legal Studies
  • Erika Arban (PhD Candidate, University of Ottawa), Suggesting methodological approaches to the study of Comparative Constitutional Law
  • F.E. Guerra-Pujol (Associate Professor Barry University Dwayne O. School of Law), Mathematics and the Law: A Misunderstood Relation
  • Keith Crawford (PhD Candidate, University of Nottingham School of Law) Power, Replication and Certainty:  Problems with the use of Econometrics in Law

Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School

2:50 – 4:00 PM: PANELS V & VI

PANEL V – Tracking Copyrights Across the Globe (Room C)

DISCUSSANT: CARYS CRAIG (Osgoode)

CHAIR: Vanisha H. Sukdeo

  • Khadijeh Hamidian Shour Masty (PhD Candidate, University of Leeds), The Position of Copyright in Shia Islamic Jurisprudence and its Effect on the Future of Copyright Law in Jurisdiction Under its Influence
  • Dilan Thampapillai (PhD Candidate, Melbourne University), Copyright Reform for an Innovation Economy: an Australian Example in Time of Free Trade Agreements?
  • Jie Hua (PhD Candidate, University of Hong Kong), A Comparative Perspective: Copyright Protection Mechanism on Folklore in China

Sponsored by the York Centre for Public Policy and Law

 PANEL VI: Legal Immanence: Religion, Mythology and the Influence of the Divine (Room D)

DISCUSSANT: JANET MOSHER (Osgoode) CHAIR: Stu Marvel

  • Nicholas A. Bastine (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), Trokosi: An Investigation into Oppression of Ghanaian Women and the Relevance of National and International Laws for the Protection of Women and Children in Ghana
  • Farah Deeba Chowdhury (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), The Islamic Law of Dower and Maintenance: Case Studies of Iran, Tunisia and Bangladesh
  • Sirus Kashefi (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), God, Myth, and the State

Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School
4:00 – 4:15 PM: COFFEE BREAK (Room E)

4:25 – 5:55 PM: PANELS VII & VIII

PANEL VII: Knowledges Across Time: Traditional and Contemporary Frameworks (Room D)

DISCUSSANT: DAYNA SCOTT (Osgoode) CHAIR: Irina Ceric

  • Ana Eduarda Santos (SJD Candidate, Duke University), Opening Up Intellectual Property in the Information Age
  • Mizanur Rahaman (PhD Candidate, Kent Law School), Agrobiotechnology, Global Intellectual Property Laws and Biopolitics;
  • Chris Plecash (MA  Candidate, York University), Intellectual Property and the Endangerment of traditional Knowledge – the Case for Tribal Rights
  • Daniel R. Ruhweza (PhD Candidate, Kent Law School), Old Wine in New Jars: Re-Thinking the Place of Indigenous Justice Mechanisms in International Criminal Law

Sponsored by the Canada Research Chair in Feminist Political Economy

 PANEL VIII: Law, Youth and the Child: Exploring Vulnerabilities (Room C)

DISCUSSANT: USHA RAMANATHAN (Indian Law Institute) 
CHAIR: Mazen Mazri

  • Dayna Crosby (MA Candidate, York University), The Politics of ‘Community’ and the Scarborough Youth Justice Committee: A Conversation of Governance, Risk and the production of the “Good ‘Canadian’ Citizen”
  • Thoko Kaime (Lecturer in Law, School of Law, University of Surrey), Socio-legal Approach to Researching Children’s Rights Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Discussion of Methodology
  • Noel Semple (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), Whose Best Interest?
  • Jen Rinaldi (Critical Disability Studies, York University), Wrongful Life and Wrongful Birth: The Devaluation of Life with Disability

Sponsored by the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies
6:15 – 7:15 PM – SPECIAL COMMISSIONED PERFORMANCE WORK (Room C)

NATIVE EARTH PERFORMING ARTS presents

The Road Forward  – a staged reading

By Yvette Nolan

With Craig Lauzon, Michaela Washburn and Falen Johnson

(To be followed by Q&A)

7:20 – 9:00 PM: VINO DE HONOR RECEPTION (Room E)

Please be invited to join us for a glass of wine after the performance.

Osgoode Hall Graduate Law Students’ Association Conference
May 20th and 21st, 2010

Friday, MAY 21st

9:30-10:00 AM: BREAKFAST (Room E)

10:o0- 11:10 AM: PANELS IX & X

PANEL IX: Multiple Orderings: Legal Pluralism (Room D)

DISCUSSANT: KATE SUTHERLAND (Osgoode)                                              CHAIR: Amaya Alvez

  • Patricia Pinto Soares (European University Institute Researcher), The Merits and Limits of the Sociological Discourse in International Criminal Law: Framing the Role of Human Rights Law in International Criminal Judgments
  • Amy Jackson (PhD Candidate, University of Reading), A Critical Legal Pluralist Analysis of the Begum case
  • Sujith Xavier (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), Queering TWAIL

Sponsored by the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security

 PANEL X: Constructing Socio-Legal Identities (Room C)

DISCUSSANT: SONIA LAWRENCE (Osgoode)                                               CHAIR: Cailin Morrison

  • Stella Szantova Giordano (Quinnipiac University School of Law), Illegal Aliens and the American Legal System: Why Undocumented Immigrants Bring Lawsuits in the United States
  • Graciela Flores Mendez (MA Candidate, York University), Alien/ation: Race, Citizenship, and the Construction of the Mexican ‘Illegal Alien’
  • Kaushalya Bannerji (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), This Black Man is Lost! No One Knows Where He Is From: Discourses of the ‘Othering’ in Cuba 1886-1912

Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Socio-Legal Studies at York University
11:10 – 11:25 AM: COFFEE BREAK (Room E)

11:25 – 12:35 PM: PANELS XI & XII

PANEL XI: Bodies Beyond Borders
(Room C)

DISCUSSANT: MARY CONDON (Osgoode)                                             CHAIR: Mary Stokes

  • Stu Marvel (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School); Reprogenetics, Bioethics and the Law: Tracking the Impact of International Commercial Surrogacy
  • Sarah L. Steele (Lecturer in Law, University of Oxford) The forgotten gender(s): Men, Criminal Law and the United States Government’s Approach to Trafficking in Persons
  • Igor Gontcharov (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School)- From Human Subjects to Human Participants

Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Sexuality Studies at York University

 PANEL XII: Grappling Health Law’s Controversies (Room D)

DISCUSSANT: KIMBERLEY WHITE (York)                                                    CHAIR: Karen Fernandes

  • Lucy Costa (PhD Candidate, York University), Law, Madness and the making of Patient’s Rights
  • Ruby Dhand (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), Auditing Mental Health Legislation: International Perspectives
  • Christina J. Hollingshead (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), Little Girl Lost: Lessons Learned From the Ashley Smith Tragedy for (Re)Addressing Canada’s Custodial Obligation

Sponsored by the York Institute for Health Research
12:35 – 1:20 PM: LUNCH (Room E)

1:20 – 2:30 PM: KEYNOTE ADDRESS (Room C)

PROFESSOR FRANCISCO VALDES (Miami School of Law) – After Law

2:30 – 2:45 PM: COFFEE BREAK (Room E)

2:45 – 4:15 PM: PANELS XIII & XIV

PANEL XIII: Remembering and Resisting (Room D)

DISCUSSANT: KAREN KNOPP               (University of Toronto) CHAIR: Sujith Xavier

  • Amar T. Khoday (PhD Candidate, McGill University Faculty of Law), Protecting Those Who Go Beyond the Law: Granting Asylum to Individuals Who Challenge Oppression Through Resistance
  • Stacy Douglas (PhD Candidate, Kent Law School), Between Mo(nu)ments: Memorialising Past, Present and Future in South Africa
  • Vijaya Sripati (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), UN Constitutional Assistance [UNCA]: An International Law & Policy implementing mechanism or another tool of imperialism?
  • Naiara Arriola – (PhD Candidate, Deusto Faculty of Law), The Challenges for Constitutional Law Within the Transnationalization of the European Legal Framework

Sponsored by the Centre for Refugee Studies

PANEL XIV: Competing Orders or Competing Disorders (Room C)

DISCUSSANT: ROBERT LATHAM (York)                                                  CHAIR: Amar Bhatia

  • Saiful Karim (PhD Candidate, Macquarie University), Litigation as a Strategy for Settlement of Maritime Security Disputes: The ‘Volga Case’ Revisited
  • Saeid Mirzaei-Yengejeh (PhD Candidate, University of Ottawa), Implementation of Normative Resolutions of the Security Council in the Areas of Counter-terrorism and Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass-destruction
  • Ayodele Akenroye (LLM. Candidate, University of Manitoba), HIV/AIDS, Military and the Future of Peacekeeping in Africa
  • Demola Okeowo (LL.M. Candidate, Queen’s University) Resolution 1267 Committee in the War on Terror: A Ticking Time Bomb on Human Rights

Sponsored by the York Centre for International and Security Studies
4:15 – 4:30 COFFEE BREAK (Room E)

4:30 – 6:00 PM: PANELS XV & XVI

PANEL XV: Pushing the Limits of Rights (Room C)

DISCUSSANT: ANNIE BUNTING (Osgoode)                                           CHAIR: Igor Gontcharov

  • Opeoluwa Badaru (PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School), Exploring the Limits of Human Rights Law in Alleviating Third World Socio-Economic Hardships
  • Supriya Routh (PhD student, University of Victoria), Indian Supreme Court in Development: Constructing ‘Development’ in the ‘Law & Development’ Discourse
  • John L.S. Simpkins (PhD Candidate, University of Melbourne), Courts and Post-Colonial Constitution – Making: Lessons from Uganda and Zambia
  • Atudiwe P. Atupare (PhD candidate, Queens University), A Theory of Rights for Young Democracies in Africa

Sponsored by the Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Project

 PANEL XVI: Refusing Western Legal Universalisms (Room D)

DISCUSSANT: SEAN REHAAG (Osgoode) CHAIR: Kim Stanton

  • Noora Johanna Arajärvi, (Researcher, Tilburg University and European University Institute), Norms Beyond Custom? Opinio Juris and the Extra-Legal Considerations in the Formation of Customary International Law
  • Mukesh Bhatt (Birkbeck College, University of London), Hindu Law, Gujarati Migrants, Western Cultures
  • Muhammad–Basheer A. Ismail (PhD Candidate, University of Hull), Islamic International Diplomatic Law: Any Relevance Within the Contemporary International Legal Order?
  • Shiva Olyaei (PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia), Secular CEDAW or Islamic Shari’a: A Critical Analysis of the Role of Law in Women’s Right’s Dynamism

Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School

7:00 DINNER – Adega Restaurant – 33 Elm Street

We will convene in Reception Room E after the panels have concluded and walk over to the restaurant together.