Faculty Research News
April 23, 2012
ERIKA CHAMBERLAIN presented, “The Duty of Care: A Decade After Cooper v Hobart” at the National Judicial Institute’s Civil Law Seminar in Montreal, and “Negligent Investigation: Faint Hope for the Wrongly Accused” at the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association Annual Spring Conference in Toronto. Along with Professors Robert Solomon and Stephen Pitel and former Professor Mitchell McInnes, she published the 8th edition of Cases and Materials on the Law of Torts (Carswell, July 2011). Finally, along with Professor Robert Solomon and others, she published “Silence May Not be Golden: A Review of Health Professionals’ Statutory Obligation to Report Unfit Drivers” in the Health Law Review, and “The Case for Comprehensive Random Breath Testing Programs in Canada: Reviewing the Evidence and Challenges” in the Alberta Law Review. CBC Radio interviewed Erika Chamberlain on December 1 on the issue of holiday party host liability.
DOUG FERGUSON, Community Legal Services Director, organized the second annual Conference on Canadian Clinical Legal Education at Osgoode Hall Law School on September 24. Faculty and clinical staff attended from almost all common law schools in Canada, plus several from Quebec. CLS lawyer Jason Voss sat on a plenary panel on teaching professionalism in student legal clinics. Doug Ferguson was elected to the board of the new Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education. More information, including videos can be found on the conference website.
RANDAL GRAHAM most recent publication, “The Myth of Originalism”, was published in October in “Interpretatio Non Cessat” (Montreal: Les Editions Yvon Blais, 2011). His most recent book, Legal Ethics, (2nd edition), was published by Emond Montgomery Publications in 2011. In July, Professor Graham (together with his Professor Stephen Pitel) was once again awarded the title “Goodmans LLP Faculty Fellow in Legal Ethics”.
GRANT HUSCROFT The Challenge of Originalism: Theories of Constitutional Interpretation, a collection of essays edited by Professors Grant Huscroft and Bradley Miller, was published by Cambridge University Press, New York, in October. The collection includes contributions from some of the world's leading constitutional law scholars. Professor Huscroft's contribution is a paper entitled: "Vagueness, Finiteness, and the Limits of Interpretation and Construction". The Introduction to the book, written by Huscroft and Miller, can be downloaded from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). In addition, Professor Huscroft contributed an invited paper to the University of Queensland Law Journal, which published a special issue on the twentieth anniversary of the implied rights cases in Australia. His paper, "Romance, Realism, and the Legitimacy of Implied Rights" can also be downloaded from SSRN. He also appeared on TVO's "The Agenda with Steve Paikin" on October 24 debating ”When is free speech hate speech?”.
RANDE KOSTAL was an invited speaker at a conference on
“The University and the National Security State since 9/11” held at Case
Western Reserve University on 24 September.
Professor Kostal discussed his work on the participation of legal
academics in the American military occupation of Germany during the early Cold
War.
MICHAEL LYNK was interviewed on CBC Radio regarding the dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board and on use of social media by Canadian unions.
RICHARD MCLAREN was an invited speaker to the 55th Congress
of Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) that was held 31 October to 4
November at the Lowes Hotel in Miami. Professor McLaren was invited to
speak on the “Global Issues Surrounding Professional Sports”. His talked
about the increasing threat to professional sport of corruption through doping,
match fixing and gambling on the internet. The discussion included
dealing with the CAS award in which he chaired the panel declaring the IOC Rule
banning doping offenders from attending the Olympics after they served their
sanction (USOC v. IOC); corruption decisions in professional tennis, cricket
and soccer including the civil trial decisions of 1 November 2011 in the UK
High Court on conspiracy to corrupt cricket. Professor McLaren also spoke at Marquette
University in Wisconsin on the issue “Changing Methods of ADR and Their Impact
on Sport”.
VALERIE OOSTERVELD published two articles and a book chapter: “Atrocity Crimes Litigation Year-in-Review (2010): A Gender Perspective” (2011) 9(3) Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights 239-266; “The International Criminal Court and the Closure of the Time-Limited International and Hybrid Criminal Tribunals” (2011) 8(1) Loyola University Chicago International Law Review 13-31; and “International Criminal Law Year in Review: 2009-2010” in Elizabeth Andersen and David M. Crane (eds.), Proceedings of the Fourth International Humanitarian Law Dialogs (Washington D.C.: American Society of International Law, 2011) 111-149. In addition, she contributed two blog entries on the Special Court for Sierra Leone to the highly-ranked blog, IntLawGrrls. An article and book chapter are being published next month: “Forced Marriage and the Special Court for Sierra Leone: Legal Advances and Conceptual Difficulties” (2011) 2(2) Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies 1-32; and “Contextual Investigation and Prosecution of Sexual Violence Crimes” in Morten Bergsmo (ed.), Thematic Investigation and Prosecution of International Sex Crimes (Forum for International Criminal and Humanitarian Law and Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2011).
ADAM PARACHIN presented "Why The Proposed Stretch Tax Credit for Charities Should be Rejected" [PDF] at the ARNOVA (Association for Research on Nonprofit Organization and Voluntary Action) conference in Toronto on Nov. 19. His article "The perilous presumption of undue influence" appeared in The Lawyers Weekly on Dec. 2.
MARK PERRY and Thomas Margoni published "Scientific and Critical Editions of Public Domain Works: An Example of European Copyright Law (Dis)Harmonization" in the Canadian Intellectual Property Review. Vol. 27, P. 157 No. 1 - June 2011
STEPHEN G.A. PITEL is the Goodmans LLP Faculty Fellow in Legal Ethics. His book Conflict of Laws (2010) was short-listed in 2011 for the Walter Owen Book Prize. He co-wrote a new edition of Cases and Materials on the Law of Torts (2011) and “Predicting the Impact of Random Breath Testing on the Social Costs of Crashes, Police Resources, and Driver Inconvenience in Canada” which was published in the Criminal Law Quarterly. He also published “The Canadian Codification of Forum Non Conveniens” in the Journal of Private International Law. He presented a paper entitled “Revising Canada’s Ethical Rules for Judges Returning to Practice”, co-written with law student Will Bortolin, at the University of Calgary and the University of New Brunswick. He is a co-founder of the Tort Law Research Group.
MELANIE RANDALL is currently a member of a SSCHR funded Nova Scotia Restorative Justice Community Research Alliance project. She made two presentations at the recent 14th World Conference of the International Institute for Restorative Practices, held Halifax, Nova Scotia, in June 2011, including one entitled “Law, Restorative Justice and Gender-Based Violence: Exploring the Intersections.” Her article “Sexual Assault Law, Credibility, and 'Ideal Victims': Consent, Resistance, and Victim Blaming,” was published in the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, Vol. 22, 2010. She is a member of “The Equality Effect – Human Rights for Women and Girls Project,” a collaboration of human rights lawyers and advocates from Canada, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, and is writing an analysis of the judicial treatment of consent in Canadian sexual assault cases in intimate relationships, for this project. She was a member of the J.A. Sub-Committee of LEAF (Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund) an intervenor at the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. J.A., 2011 SCC 28.
PETER SANKOFF was featured in the Canadian Lawyer Magazine: "Animal law group debuts at Western"
SARA SECK presented a paper in May at the international interdisciplinary Earth System Governance conference at Colorado State University, Colorado. In October, she presented a paper at the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Conference: Capitalism and the Common Good, held at the Wayne Morse Centre, University of Oregon. Her paper Transnational Business and Environmental Harm: A TWAIL Analysis of Home State Obligations was published in a special TWAIL issue of the Trade, Law and Development journal of the National Law University, Jodpur. In November, she participated in a panel discussion on John Ruggie’s contributions to the development of international law relating to business and human rights at the annual conference of the Canadian Council on International Law in Ottawa.
ROBERT SOLOMON presented one-day workshops on health law to various organizations including: The Manitoba Institute of Registered Social Workers, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and The Sault Ste. Marie Group Health Centre. He also designed and completed the materials for a new undergraduate course on health law for The University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Health Sciences. The course will be offered for the first time this January. Professor Solomon was also the lead author of the following articles which have been published since the summer: (With E. Chamberlain and S. Chiodo), “Silence May Not Be Golden: Impaired Driving and The Statutory Obligation to Report Unfit Drivers” (2011), 19(2) Alberta Health Law Journal, at pp. 5-16; (With E. Chamberlain et al.), “The Case for Comprehensive Random Breath Testing Programs in Canada: A Review of the Evidence and Challenges” (July 2011), 49(1) Alberta Law Review at pp. 37-78; and (With S. Pitel, B. Tinholt and R. Wulkan), “Predicting the Impact of Random Breath Testing on the Social Costs of Crashes, Police Resources, and Driver Inconvenience in Canada”, (2011) 57(4) The Criminal Law Quarterly at pp. 438-463.
TOM TELFER published “Early Warning Signs on Olympia & York: an Introduction” in Janis Sarra ed, A Voice for Many—Margaret Philip, Journalist (Toronto: Carswell Thomson, 2011) 539-541. In August, Professor Telfer was invited by Case Western Reserve University to offer a course in their "Case Abroad at Home" program. The program is made up of intensive courses taught by visiting faculty from countries outside the US. Professor Telfer's course "Comparative Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law" covered a range of topics within personal and corporate insolvency law.
SAM TROSOW was featured on CTV News: "Profs ditch course material over copyright confusion"
MARGARET ANN WILKINSON has been pursuing research opportunities
both on intellectual property topics and in information and intellectual
property issues as they relate to the context of health. On
May 16, at UWO, Professor Wilkinson presented “The Copyright Conundrum: What Can and Can’t I Do in the Classroom?”
with Brenda MacEachern and Kim Luton as part of the Spring Perspectives on
Teaching conference. On May 25, 2011,
she gave a workshop on “Licenses, Tariffs and Copyright in Canadian Libraries”
with John Tooth and Rob Tiessen in Halifax in connection with the Canadian
Library Association conference. On October 4, 2011 she spoke on “Medical
Research: Reconciling Public and Private
Sector Interests through Law” at the Association of Canadian Clinical Academic
Administrators Annual Conference in London.
On June 15, in Montreal as part of the Transatlantic Intellectual
Property Summer Academy, Dr. Wilkinson spoke on “Canadian Copyright Collective
Regulation: Is anything special about
music?.” In September, she was invited to meetings at Columbia University as
part of a consultation hosted by the International Federation of Library
Associations about a draft copyright treaty project. On October 20, with colleague Mark Perry,
Professor Wilkinson spoke on “Future Plans in Canada” at the 2nd
Conference Annual Prior Art Collaboration Conference at the United States
Patent and Trademark Office.
