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Justice Behind the Walls: Human Rights in Canadian Prisons
Michael Jackson
In 1777, John Howard, the pre-eminent prison reformer of his generation, published The State of the Prisons in England and Wales, an indictment of the cruelty of prison life and a blueprint for radical change. Over two centuries later, Michael Jackson, Queen's Counsel, law professor and human rights advocate, gives us Justice behind the Walls, a compelling, compassionate and at times harrowing account of the state of justice in Canadian prisons. Weaving together the threads of correctional history, penal philosophy, landmark court decisions, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and legislative change, Justice behind the Walls describes the reality of reform against the backdrop of Jackson's years of observing disciplinary hearings and segregation review boards in federal penitentiaries and draws on hundreds of hours of interviews with prisoners, wardens and correctional staff. Conceived as both a personal and public journey in search of justice, this book is an unprecedented endeavor to chart the DNA of contemporary imprisonment. At a time when the issue of human rights in prison, never high on the horizon of public concern, is dangerously close to being eclipsed by rising fear about public safety, Justice behind the Walls takes us beyond the stereotypes of the keeper and the kept. In doing so, it holds up a mirror that reflects how far we have come in recognized and respecting human rights in places where those rights are most vulnerable. Jackson's book brings to the agenda of public and legal debate a remedial toolbox that has the potential to enhance Canada's claim as an international model for a just society. Written in a language that appeals to our common humanity, it brings many lifetimes of experience to the struggle for justice. Justice behind the Walls was shortlisted for the 2002 Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian Public Policy. The Donner Prize Jury described Justice behind the Walls as "passionate, detailed and written by a highly knowledgeable and committed expert…both mind-enriching and soul-expanding".
[From http://www.justicebehindthewalls.net/02_publication_00_01.html]
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Director and Officer Liability in Corporate Insolvency: A Comprehensive Guide to Rights and Obligations
Janis P. Sarra and Ronald B. Davis
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The Chinese Legal System: Globalization and Local Legal Culture
Pitman B. Potter
The legal system of the People's Republic of China has seen significant changes since legal reforms began in 1978. At the end of the second decade of legal reform, law-making and institution-building have reached impressive levels. Understanding the operation and possible futures of law in the People's Republic of China requires an appreciation of the normative influences on the system, as well as an examination of how these norms have worked in practice.
[From The Chinese Legal System: Globalization and Local Legal Culture - 1st]
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Academic Freedom and the Inclusive University
Sharon E. Kahn and Dennis Pavlich
Battles over human rights, curriculum issues and hiring and promotion practices reveal to what extent efforts to integrate ideas of academic freedom and the inclusive university have engendered strife and debate on Canadian campuses. For some, the concept of academic freedom has become its own myth – an icon to be revered, an article of faith, an essentialist doctrine with roots firmly planted in tradition. For others, the concept of an inclusive university – a university reflecting the burgeoning diversity of cultures and ideologies in Canadian society – demands realization through the transformation of university structures and practices.
The four parts of Academic Freedom and the Inclusive University explore this conflict. In Clarifying Concepts in Language, Law, and Ideology, contributors examine the terms of reference and clarify the differences between Canadian and American viewpoints. The Changing Culture looks at the conflict between academic freedom and the inclusive university from theoretical, historical, and personal perspectives. The chapters in Academic Freedom in Peril contend that inclusion as a policy within the university has destroyed the consensus necessary for academic life, while the essays in Theoretical and Practical Challenges to the Inclusive University focus on the problems that arise when universities promote a policy of inclusion.
Although no final conclusions are drawn in this thought-provoking book, it provides insight into the relationship between academic freedom and the inclusive university. Lively, impassioned and informed, these essays will appeal to general readers, academics, and students alike.
[From https://www.ubcpress.ca/academic-freedom-and-the-inclusive-university]
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International Law Chiefly as Interpreted and Applied in Canada, 6th ed.
Hugh M. Kindred, Karin Mickelson, Ted L. McDorman, René Provost, Armand L.C. deMestral, Linda C. Reif, and Sharon A. Williams
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Transforming Cultural Conflict in an Age of Complexity
Michelle Lebaron
Focuses on three distinct ways in which culture affects conflicts: culture as a lens that facilitates or blocks effective communication; culture and world view differences as the subject of conflicts; conflicts related to identity and recognition as facets of cultural differences. The author discusses challenges and concrete recommendations for process design in culturally-complex conflicts.
[From Transforming Cultural Conflict in an Age of Complexity - Berghof Foundation]
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Pepper in Our Eyes: The APEC Affair
W. Wesley Pue
In November 1997, the world media converged on Vancouver to cover the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The major news story that emerged, however, had little to do with the crisis unfolding in the Asian economies. At the UBC campus, where the APEC leaders’ meeting was held, a predictable student protest met with an unusually strong police response. A crowd of students was pepper-sprayed, along with a CBC cameraman. The dramatic video footage of the incident that appeared on the evening news shocked Canadians. The use of noxious chemicals to attack non-violent protesters somehow seemed un-Canadian. It looked more like something that police and soldiers in less democratic countries would do.
Other news stories developed. Two dozen law professors wrote to Prime Minister Chrétien to report that a number of serious constitutional violations that had taken place on campus. One protester, held for fourteen hours for displaying a sign saying “Free Speech,” initiated legal proceedings. Other lawsuits followed. The RCMP and the government of Canada were named as defendants, and a public inquiry was launched. A central issue was whether the Prime Minister’s officials gave orders of a political nature to the police that resulted in law-abiding citizens being assaulted and arrested.
But why all the fuss? So what if the Prime Minister gave orders to the police? The contributors to Pepper in Our Eyes maintain that the “so what” question is of vital importance. The events at APEC raised serious questions about constitutional principle, the role of police in a democratic society, public accountability, and the effects of globalization on rights and politics. The contributors, experts in a variety of fields, draw upon their knowledge to explain – in plain English – the background issues and the values at stake. Some of the authors, such as Gerald Morin, chair of the first RCMP Public Complaints Commission, and CBC journalist Terry Milewski, had a direct connection with the APEC affair.
By getting at the fundamental issues behind the APEC affair, Pepper in Our Eyes seeks to raise our civic consciousness. It shows that there was much more at stake that day than the questionable use of pepper spray.
[From UBC Press | Pepper in Our Eyes - The APEC Affair, Edited by W. Wesley Pue]
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The Law of Evidence: Fact Finding, Fairness and Advocacy
Christine Boyle, Marilyn MacCrimmon, and Dianne Martin
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The Legal Capture of British Columbia's Fisheries: A Study of Law and Colonialism
Douglas C. Harris
Master of Laws - LLM Thesis
This is a study of the human conflict over fish in late nineteenth and early twentieth century British Columbia, and of how that conflict was shaped by law. Law, understood broadly to include both the legal forms of the Canadian state and those of Native peoples, defined and in part created both Native and state fisheries. When those fisheries clashed, one finds conflict between legal systems. When one fishery sought to replace the other, its laws had to replace the other. Thus, this is a study of law and colonialism, seen through a close analysis of the conflict over fish. Native fisheries and the web of regulation surrounding them preceded non-Native interest in British Columbia's fish. The fishery was not an open-access resource, but rather a commons, defined by entitlements, prohibitions and sanctions that allowed certain activity, proscribed others, permitted one group to catch fish at certain times in particular locations with particular technology, and prohibited others. The Canadian state denied the legitimacy and even the existence of Native fisheries law in imposing its law on the fishery. This study, based largely on government records and a secondary anthropological literature, describes the legal apparatus constructed by the Canadian state to reduce Native control of the fisheries in British Columbia through the creation, in law, of the "Indian food fishery". Law became a means of constructing a particular economic and social order that marginalized Native participation in the fishery and eliminated Native control. It was a "rhetoric of legitimation" that supported state domination, but also local resistance. Native peoples and their supporters used law, both Native and state law, to defend their fisheries. The history of the conflict over fish is the history of competing legal cultures, and the struggle on the Cowichan River and the Babine River over fish weirs reveals those cultures, constructed in opposition to each other. The study concludes by integrating the local conflicts over fish into a wider literature on law and colonialism, reflecting on the role of law in particular colonial settings.
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