Week 1 - Intro to Law (Student) PDF

PLG 120 Introduction to the Canadian Legal Process Pro f e s s o r S a r a h Vo e g e l i West  Your Week so Far Table of Paralegal Society Course Outline contents Course Syllabus Chapter 1: Introductio...

PLG 120 Introduction to the Canadian Legal Process Pro f e s s o r S a r a h Vo e g e l i West  Your Week so Far Table of Paralegal Society Course Outline contents Course Syllabus Chapter 1: Introduction How is Your Week Going so Far? Syllabus & Outline: Learning After this week, you will be able to: Outcomes Understand how law is commonly defined. Describe how law relates to morality, justice, and religion. Define key theories of law, including natural law theory, legal positivism, and legal realism. Understand the concept of the rule of law. Differentiate between the main divisions of law. Understand the nature of legal language and some recent  What is Law? “Few questions concerning human society have been asked with such persistence and answered by serious thinkers in so many diverse, strange, and even paradoxical ways as the question ‘What is law?’” HLA Hart, The Concept of Law, 2nd ed.  What Do we Why do do you even we think need obey the law laws? laws? is?  A New Society 1. Break off into groups of 4-5 people. 2. Together you will design a new society. You will determine the laws and system of government for this new society. 3. How will you set up this system of laws? 4. Who gets to decide on the laws? 5. Who would be responsible to decide on punishments for breaking laws? 6. How will these laws be enforced? 7. What about if someone in the new society thought that the laws were unfair? 8. Which political system will the society have? 9. How will you determine who is in charge? 10.What will the official language of your society be? 11.Will citizens be allowed to carry guns?  “A system of enforceable rules that governs the relationship between the individual members of a society and between those members and the society itself.” The law allows us to live in Definitions communities safely and to balance the needs of the Types of Rules 1. General norms or standards of behaviour Rules that prohibit certain activities. Ex) murder or careless driving 2. Condition Rules Rules that establish conditions or requirements that must be met first. Ex) Driving 3. Power-Conferring Rules Rules that allow you to define your own legal relationship within certain contexts. Ex) Rules of contract, rules relating to wills and how you Structure “If A, B, and/or C, then X” of Rules Conjunctive: Must have all elements satisfied or proved to get the legal result “X”. Joined by “AND”. Ex) actus reus + mens rea + causation in a criminal matter = X (legal result) Disjunctive: Only requires one element to be satisfied or proved to get the legal result “X”. Joined by “OR”. Conjunctive vs. Disjunctive When you see a list in a statute, the items are generally joined either by the term "and" or the term "or." If they are joined by "and," the statute is conjunctive. If they are joined by "or," the statute is disjunctive. In conjunctive statutes describing the elements of a crime, for example, every single item on the list must be proved for someone to be found guilty of that crime. In disjunctive statutes, proof of any one of the elements is sufficient.  Dog Owners' Liability Act, Example: R.S.O. 1990, c. D.16 Liability of owner 2(1) The owner of a dog is liable for damages resulting from a bite or attack by the dog on another person or domestic animal. R.S.O. 1990, c. D.16, s. 2 (1). Is this a conjunctive or disjunctive statute? Why?  What is Morality? A system of values or principles concerning what is right or wrong with respect to human behaviour. Law & Morality What do you think? Law & “In civilized life, law Ethics floats in a sea of ethics” – Earl Warren Ethical rules underlie the laws of society – used in professional conduct, etc. The law and ethical standards share a  Models of Justice 1) Corrective Justice: – Closest to the deontological approach. – A person has a moral responsibility for the harm they cause another, and that loss must be rectified or corrected. – Usually through compensation. – Primarily seen in private law disputes. 2) Retributive Justice: – Primarily seen in criminal law. – Reflects both a deontological and instrumentalist approach (hybrid theory). – “an eye for an eye” law of retaliation where the punishment fits the crime. 3) Distributive Justice: – Concerned with the way assets and entitlements are shared among members of a society. – Primarily seen in public law: government initiative to raise taxes to pay for new community programs.  A cornerstone of Canada’s legal system. Rule of Law Concerns fairness in the administration of the law. Central Tenets: “We are servants 1.Everyone in a society should be of the law, that we treated equally before the law. all may be free.” 2.Power under the law should not be used arbitrarily. Principles appear in Greek and Roman legal culture, and in the Middle Ages. Magna Carta: “Signed” by King John in 1215 to place limits on Rule of A.V. Dicey’s three core ROL principles: Law 1.Law must have supremacy over influence of arbitrary power. 2.The law applies equally to everyone. 3.Anyone who is denied a right/liberty may seek a remedy in court. Internationally, adherence to ROL Roncarelli v. Duplessis Figure 1.1 Divisions of Law  Corrective Jurisprudence Private law, justice, 9 , 12 20 Critical legal Law and Procedural studies, 17 society, 17 law, 18 Critical race Legal Public theory, 17 positivism, 14 international Deontological Legal realism, law, 18 ,9 15 Public law, 20 Distributive Marxist Retributive justice, 10 theories of justice, 9 Domestic law, law, 17 Rule of law, 20 Military law, 16 Ethics, 7 21 Sociology of Key Terms Feminist theories of law, 17 Morality, 6 law, 15 Natural law, Substantive 12 laws, 18 Instrumentali Positive law, st, 9 14 See you next week!