La Faculté de droit de McGill classée 25e au monde!

Nouvelles de la Faculté, 8 mars 2021

Dans son classement mondial par discipline pour l’année 2021, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) a classé la Faculté de droit de l’Université McGill au 25e rang.

La Faculté de droit figure parmi les 30 meilleures institutions mondiales dans le classement QS chaque année depuis 2015. Le classement est déterminé en fonction de la réputation académique, de la réputation auprès d’employeurs, de l’indice h et du nombre de citations par publication. Lire l’annonce.

Le professeur Lionel Smith reconduit à la Chaire Sir William C. Macdonald

Nouvelles de la Faculté, 9 mars 2021

La Faculté de droit a le plaisir d’annoncer que le professeur Lionel Smith a été reconduit à la chaire Sir William C. Macdonald pour un nouveau mandat de sept ans en reconnaissance de ses importantes contributions à la recherche juridique en droit privé et comparé. Lire l’annonce.

Professor Adelle Blackett receives 2020 CCIL Scholarly Book Award

Faculty News, 8 March 2021

Everyday Transgressions: Domestic Workers’ Transnational Challenge to International Labor Law, by Professor Adelle Blackett, F.R.S.C., Ad. E., received the Canadian Council on International Law’s (CCIL) Scholarly Book Award for 2020. The CCIL Selection Committee noted that her book “is an eloquent narrative on a novel subject.” Read the announcement.

Professor Nandini Ramanujam on Academic Freedom and the Rule of Law

RevDem Podcast, 8 March 2021

Professor Nandini Ramanujam, who heads the Rule of Law and Economic Development (ROLED) research group and co-directs the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, discussed the connection between academic freedom and the rule of law, along with contemporary and historical challenges, and future prospects on Oliver Garner’s Review of Democracy podcast. Listen on Spotify, or read the summary here.

Has COVID-19 exposed cracks in the Canadian federation?

The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay, CBC Radio, 7 March 2021

From closing borders and procuring personal protective equipment, to vaccine rollouts and standards for long-term care… the Covid-19 pandemic has required governments to coordinate and act quickly to protect lives. While experts say the Canadian government has worked well with provincial and territorial leaders to tackle some pandemic-related issues, weaknesses in the Canadian federation have also been exposed. Professor Johanne Poirier, MacKell Chair in Federalism, joined the conversation to talk about how the pandemic has tested Canadian federalism. Listen to the discussion [23 minutes long].

L’Affaire Camara: Pour arriver au bon diagnostic

La Presse, 24 février 2021

Lettre signée par les Pr. Richard Janda, Marie Manikis, Nandini Ramanujam, Colleen Sheppard, Frederic Mégret, Vrinda Narain, Robert Leckey, François Crépeau, Evan Fox-Decent, et Alana Klein, ainsi que nombre de nos diplômé.e.s

Il se peut que l’arrestation et la détention de M. Camara mettent en cause des enjeux systémiques au sein du SPVM en ce qui concerne le traitement des personnes racisées. Le juge Dionne découvrira peut-être d’autres enjeux systémiques concernant l’utilisation de la force lors d’une perquisition ou la manière de procéder lorsque la victime est un policier. Les doutes entourant les actions de la police dans cette affaire minent la confiance du public à l’égard de ce corps de police. Si elle va au fond des choses en posant les bonnes questions et en formulant les recommandations qui s’imposent dans un rapport qui sera rendu public, l’enquête du juge Dionne pourra contribuer à rétablir cette confiance. Lire la lettre au complet…

To Protect Academic Freedom, Stop Rule of Law Backsliding: A Look at Russia, Hungary and Poland

Nandini Ramanujam and DCL candidate Vishakha Wijenayake, CEU Democratic Institute blog, 23 February 2021

Rule of Law and academic freedom are cherished political ideals of the liberal tradition. Insights from our work at McGill University’s academic freedom monitoring clinic, conducted in partnership with Scholars at Risk Network, has underscored the mutually reinforcing relationship between these two notions.  Our monitoring exercise, which examined recent developments in Russia, Hungary and Poland, highlighted an alarming trend in the erosion of academic freedom. The overarching thread we observed across these three countries is the instrumentalization of laws by the State to control universities and to restrict academic freedom.  Read the complete article.

Tax Justice as Social License: The Fair Tax Mark

Allison Christians, chapter from Business, Civil Society and the ‘New’ Politics of Corporate Tax Justice, now on SSRN, 19 February 2021

Tax justice advocates have spent the past decade building public consciousness about the tax planning practices of financial elites and large multinational corporations. They approached the project from a series of angles, from grassroots name-and-shame campaigns to documentary filmmaking to political lobbying. An early focus on transparency in the resources sector led to broader campaigns across industries and across countries, with multiple platforms around transparency and accountability. Inspired by the growing consumer response to these campaigns, a group of tax justice advocates created a “fair trade”-style branding and marketing strategy, called the Fair Tax Mark. The primary objective is to directly influence firm and consumer behaviors in the UK, but the standard has broader potential influence as an emergent quasi-legal regime. Download the chapter.

Camara case reveals systemic racism that SPVM must address

Richard Janda, CTV News, 7 February 2021

It is hard for me to imagine the horror that Mamadi III Fara Camara and those close to him experienced when he was arrested on the false and highly public accusation of attempted murder of a police officer. […] Mr. Camara could well have been one of my brilliant Nigerian doctoral students, who I hope will never cross paths with the Montreal police.

Consider another very recent case, that of Mr. Kwadwo Yeboah, stopped, arrested and handcuffed in front of his teenage daughter for no reason whatsoever, except perhaps because he “drives a car too luxurious for a black man,” a situation considered so serious by the SPVM that six police officers were on the scene to arrest a man who was going to pick up take-out food. Keep reading…

Droits des personnes trans et non binaires : Québec a l’occasion de faire amende honorable

Robert Leckey, Lettre d’opinion, La Presse, 5 février 2021

Le Québec se targue d’être un pionnier en promouvant l’égalité des minorités sexuelles. Bien que cela ait été moins vrai dernièrement, le Québec a l’occasion maintenant de redorer son image. Pour le faire, il doit accepter le remarquable jugement de la Cour supérieure rendu le 28 janvier concernant les droits fondamentaux des personnes trans et non binaires. Lire la suite…

Updating Canada’s Privacy Act for Artificial Intelligence

Ignacio Cofone, with BCL/JD candidates Ana Qarri & Jeremy Wiener, Policy Magazine, 4 February 2021

More and more of our lives take place online, where transactions, interactions, and conversations happen digitally. But the privacy rights of Canadians are protected by laws enacted before the development of key technological changes such as artificial intelligence. The federal government is, as a result, in the process of reforming Canada’s privacy statutes. McGill University law professor Ignacio Cofone is among the experts who provided guidance to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada regarding the reform of Canada’s private-sector privacy statute. He and his co-authors condensed that guidance for Policy as a contribution to the ongoing consultation process on updating the Privacy Act. Read the article.

In Defence of Domestic Workers: Adelle Blackett

CBC Ideas with Nahlah Ayed, 1 February 2021

Professor Adelle Blackett is the chief legal architect behind the International Labour Organization’s first comprehensive standards offering protections and rights to more than 60 million domestic workers. In her public lecture to Cornell University, the Canada Research Chair in Transnational Law at McGill University addresses why we urgently need to bring equality to the household workplace. Listen to the interview [54 minutes]

Juveniles Are Not So Different: The Punishment of Juveniles and Adults at the Crossroads

Mugambi Jouet, Federal Sentencing Reporter, Forthcoming, now on SSRN, 1 February 2021

The “juveniles are different” doctrine is gaining ground in America. It holds that children, unlike adults, should not receive merciless punishments like life without parole given their immaturity, impulsivity, and limited brain development. The doctrine’s impact has been both significant and modest because it operates in an exceptionally repressive context considering the advent of mass incarceration. Unless construed more broadly, it may help rationalize draconian sentences for adults and cement the status quo. Download the paper.

Decolonizing Labour Law: A Conversation with Professor Adelle Blackett

Amin Parsa & Niklas Selberg, TWAILR Dialogues, 24 January 2021

Professor Adelle Blackett asks ‘what happens when labour law is forced to see itself in historically rooted, relational, and contextualised terms’? While refusing continuity for its own sake, Blackett stresses the need for developing spaces in which alternative and counter-hegemonic narratives about the purpose of (labour) law are taken seriously – those emerging from labour law’s peripheries in colonised land, dispossessed and disenfranchised people in the global South and North. On 31 August 2020, Amin Parsa and Niklas Selberg from Lund University conversed virtually with Professor Blackett to discuss the trajectory of her research and teaching on decolonisation of labour law, as well as the Othering of labour law by even the most progressive factions of international legal scholarship. Read the full interview.

COVID-19 : La priorisation des soins est-elle justifiée en droit et inévitable ?

Pierre-Gabriel Jobin et Danielle Chalifoux, La Presse, 21 janvier 2021

Depuis quelque temps, avec l’accroissement des cas de COVID-19, la question de l’allocation des ressources et le besoin de priorisation de certains soins se pose. Le gouvernement québécois a adopté un protocole national de priorisation pour l’accès aux soins intensifs… Il est important de préciser que l’élaboration du protocole n’a pas été improvisée. La priorisation des soins et l’allocation des ressources sont des sujets qui sont discutés et analysés depuis fort longtemps, dans la communauté médicale, mais aussi juridique. Continuer la lecture…