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The paradigm of family has shifted rapidly and dramatically, from nuclear unit to diverse constellations of intimacy. At the same time, some norms resist change, such as women’s continuing role as primary care providers despite their increased uptake of paid work. This tension between transformation and stasis in family arrangements has an impact on economic, emotional, and legal aspects of daily life. House Rules critically explores the intertwining of norms and laws that govern familial relationships. The authors in this incisive collection engage with four countries – Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan – and expose the ingrained and unsettled norms that affect families and the law’s role in regulating them. Over recent decades, the law has struggled to adjust to transformations in what typifies the structures and practices of family life. House Rules provides tools to analyze those difficulties and, ultimately, to design laws to better respond to ongoing change and avoid entrenching inequalities.
When the Supreme Court of Canada makes a decision that invalidates a statute, it creates a constitutional moment. But does that have a direct and observable impact on public policy? Constraining the Court explores what happens when a statute involving a significant public policy issue – French language rights in Quebec, supervised consumption sites, abortion, or medical assistance in dying – is declared unconstitutional. James B. Kelly examines the conditions under which Parliament or provincial/territorial legislatures attempt to contain the policy impact of judicial invalidation and engage in non-compliance without invoking the notwithstanding clause. He considers the importance of the issue, the unpopularity of a judicial decision, the limited reach of a negative rights instrument such as the Charter, the context of federalism, and the mixture of public and private action behind any legislative response. While the Supreme Court’s importance cannot be denied, this rigorous analysis convincingly concludes that a judicial decision does not necessarily determine a policy outcome.
The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law aims to publish peer-reviewed scholarly articles and reviews as well as significant developments in human rights and humanitarian law. It examines international human rights and humanitarian law with a global reach, though its particular focus is on the Asian region. The focused theme of Volume 3 is Law, Gender and Sexuality.
Despite the common belief that they are found only in the common law tradition, trusts have long been known in mixed jurisdictions even where they have a civilian law of property. Trusts have now been introduced by legislation in a number of civilian jurisdictions, such as France and China. Other recent developments include the reception of foreign trusts through private international law in Italy and Switzerland and the inclusion of a chapter on trusts in Europe's Draft Common Frame of Reference. As a result, there is a growing interest in the ways in which the trust can be accommodated in civil law systems. This collection explores this question, as well as general issues such as the juridical nature of the trust, the role and qualifications of the trustee and particular developments in specific jurisdictions.
Wounded Feelings explores how people brought stories of emotional injury like betrayal, grief, humiliation, and anger before the Quebec courts from 1870 to 1950, and how lawyers and judges translated those feelings into the rational language of law.
Suing for Silence is a groundbreaking examination of how men accused of sexual violence use defamation lawsuits as a weapon to silence those who attempt to hold them accountable. As Mandi Gray demonstrates, Canadian defamation law helps perpetuate the myth that false allegations of sexual violence are common. Gray draws on media reports, courtroom observations, and interviews with silence breakers, activists, and lawyers to examine the societal and individual implications of so-called liar lawsuits. She argues that their purpose is not to achieve justice but to intimidate, silence, and drain the resources of those who speak out against sexual violence and even report their own assaults – and to discourage others from doing the same. This meticulous work reveals the gendered underpinnings of Canadian defamation law, which has long protected men’s reputations at the expense of women’s sexual autonomy. Sexual violence discourse must have adequate protection if it is to be heard.
The establishment of the International Criminal Court was a singular, even revolutionary, achievement. Uniquely within the realm of international criminal justice, the ICC Prosecutor can initiate investigations independently of any state’s wishes. Why would sovereign states agree to such sweeping powers? The Independence of the Prosecutor draws on interviews with key participants to answer that question. Case studies of Canada and the United Kingdom, which supported prosecutorial independence, and the United States and Japan, which opposed it, demonstrate that state positions depended on the values and principles of those who wielded the most power in national capitals at the time. Appendices provide a record of the arguments made by state delegations in the negotiations that produced the institutional design of the Court. This astute investigation demonstrates that now, over twenty years after its establishment, the ICC’s innovative arrangement of having an independent prosecutor continues to move law and international criminal jurisprudence forward and directly combats impunity for mass atrocities.
State-controlled refugee protection in Canada has gone through paradoxical developments in recent decades. While refugee rights have expanded, access to these rights has tightened. Previously unrecognized groups – such as women experiencing gender-based violence and LGBT populations – are now considered legitimate refugees. Yet, the implementation of stringent administrative measures has made it harder for refugees to secure protection. Refugees Are (Not) Welcome Here draws on archival and media sources, interviews, and organizational data to examine how refugee claims are administered within a complex and contradictory regime that maintains significant legal and bureaucratic silos. Azar...
The right to divorce is a symbol of individual liberty and gender equality under the law, but in practice it is anything but equitable. Family Law in Action reveals the persistent class and gender inequalities embedded in the process of separation and its aftermath in Quebec and France. Drawing on empirical research conducted on their respective court and welfare systems, Emilie Biland analyzes how men and women in both places encounter the law and its representatives in ways that affect their personal and professional lives. This rigorous but compassionate study encourages governments to make good on the emancipatory promise enshrined in divorce law.
This multi-faceted book combines theoretical, empirical and practical approaches to explore how family law is responding to the ever-changing social dynamics of the family. Bringing together a broad range of experts with innovative perspectives from across the globe, Rethinking Law's Families and Family Law highlights family law's current challenges and presents key avenues for future research.