Course:Law3020/2014WT1/Group K

Course:Law3020/2014WT1/Group_K/Case_overview

Course:Law3020/2014WT1/Group_K/Natural_Law

Natural Law

R v Khawaja

1. Must be directed to the common good - CC 83.01 Terrorism - Directed at the common good for the people of the country - Terrorism kills innocent people, clearly prohibited for the common good of the people - P 55  the objective of the law - The parties agree that the objective of the terrorism provisions is to prosecute and prevent terrorism. The need to prosecute acts that support or assist terrorist activity that may never materialize into acts of terrorism flows from the great harm resulting from terrorism offences, the Crown contends. - S. 1 Oakes would allow infringement of s. 2 freedom of expression because it is for the common - Para 62  Court’s response to argument that the definitions are broad - Objective of preventing devastating harm resulting from terrorist activity - Justified it without using Oakes -

2. Must follow practical reason (reasonable steps leading to the common good - CC 83.01 definition; prohibited act - Para 82  Accused’s argument for s. 2 (freedom of expression) - Problem with definitions of terrorism and terrorist activity  vague - Definition in CC 83.01 Para 57 & 58  preliminary to the commission of the inchoate offence

3. Must be made by valid lawmaker (ruler within community, who holds this position by reason of the natural order) - In the CC, part of legislation which Aquinas liked - Judge interpreted it in the way it was intended to be interpreted (in our opinions) - Appealed all the way up to the SCC

4. Must be promulgated - Was promulgated, it’s in the CC - Well known to the public, 9/11 2001 had just happened

Conclusion - Aquinas would support this law - Passes all of the requirements for good law according to Aquinas

Course:Law3020/2014WT1/Group_K/Positivism

Positivism

1. Must be directed to the common good - CC 83.01 Terrorism - Directed at the common good for the people of the country - Terrorism kills innocent people, clearly prohibited for the common good of the people - P 55  the objective of the law - The parties agree that the objective of the terrorism provisions is to prosecute and prevent terrorism. The need to prosecute acts that support or assist terrorist activity that may never materialize into acts of terrorism flows from the great harm resulting from terrorism offences, the Crown contends. - S. 1 Oakes would allow infringement of s. 2 freedom of expression because it is for the common - Para 62  Court’s response to argument that the definitions are broad - Objective of preventing devastating harm resulting from terrorist activity - Justified it without using Oakes -

2. Must follow practical reason (reasonable steps leading to the common good - CC 83.01 definition; prohibited act - Para 82  Accused’s argument for s. 2 (freedom of expression) - Problem with definitions of terrorism and terrorist activity  vague - Definition in CC 83.01 Para 57 & 58  preliminary to the commission of the inchoate offence

3. Must be made by valid lawmaker (ruler within community, who holds this position by reason of the natural order) - In the CC, part of legislation which Aquinas liked - Judge interpreted it in the way it was intended to be interpreted (in our opinions) - Appealed all the way up to the SCC

4. Must be promulgated - Was promulgated, it’s in the CC - Well known to the public, 9/11 2001 had just happened

Conclusion - Aquinas would support this law - Passes all of the requirements for good law according to Aquinas

Positivism - A reaction to the teleological nature of natural law - Teleological = All things have a proper end or function that can only be understood with that in mind - Law’s end or function is the rational pursuit of the common good (morality) - Separation between the law and morality; wants to separate the 2 concepts

John Austin Theory - Different between positive morality and positive law; separation - Can have a positive law that doesn’t have to be moral - Idea that law makers are divinely placed by God and have righteous authority - Positive morality (norms)- manners, customs, club rules, international law, (English) constitutional law  positive morality is not valid law - Legal positivists are reacting against the idea of moral content required for law - Positive law-3 essential components  1. Command, 2. Issued by superiors to subordinates, and 3. backed by sanctions - Command  order or direction - Superiors to subordinates  sovereign (superior) is a governing individual or aggregate body (eg. Parliament or monarch) - Subordinate  the public/ masses under the control of the sovereign - Sanctions  repercussions/ punishment for disobeying the sovereign’s command

John Austin application to R v Khwaja - Charged under CC 83.01 (1)(b)(i)(A) - (b) an act or omission, in or outside Canada, (i) that is committed (A) in whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause - 83(1)(a), 81(1)(d), 83.2, 83.18, 83.21(1), 83.03(a), 83.19 - Command  all provisions under the main section 83.01 (terrorism) are commands - To not conduct an act or omission related to terrorist activates - All provisions of CC are commands

- Sovereign/Superior to Subordinate Sovereign the parliament who passes the legislation - Constitution could be considered positive morality under Austin’s view, whereas in Canada the Constitution is positive law (which does have sanctions if you include the Charter) - Constitution as the sovereign but cannot pass legislature on its own; parliament does this for the sovereign and in that can be treated like the sovereign - - Sanctions There are sanctions included in the provision - They were applied improperly, and the SCC judge reapplied them correctly by upping the sentence - Interpreted it differently; went with a deterrence effect

HLA Hart theory & application - Laws have to be recognized in order to be valid - Recognized by officials within the legal system - Must be consistently applied and they have to believe that there are obligations to apply them - disobedience may be warranted where laws immoral (ex. Marijuana)

Course:Law3020/2014WT1/Group_K/Separation_Thesis

Course:Law3020/2014WT1/Group_K/System_Of_Rights

Course:Law3020/2014WT1/Group_K/Liberty-Paternalism

Law as Efficiency

Theory: The focus of this theory is to maximise social wealth through efficiency. Social wealth is not necessarily a monetary measure. All measurable satisfactions are included in ‘social wealth’ in the context of the law and economics theory. The law and economics theory is based on efficiency, which is the premise that human beings will participate in the market as rational, free actors and will make decisions based solely on their best interest. From a law and economics point of view, a person’s best interest will be to gain as much value or social wealth as they can from a transaction, and only participate in transactions that will help them gain more social wealth.

Where Legal Positivists say we can evaluate the laws against morality, and here morality is replaced with efficiency.

Pareto-superior transactions are those in which there will be at least one winner, and no losers. A Pareto-optimal state is one in which no more Pareto-superior transactions can occur. Free market transactions by rational persons will always be Pareto-superior because the two parties would not make a transaction in which they would lose social wealth.

Third parties may be effected by transactions they are not involved in, and the cost to them must also be considered by this theory. The parties conducting the transaction need to invest in diminishing externalities or they simply need to be better off so that the can compensate the third parties for the cost to them. The Kaldor-Hicks principle is that the parties conducting the transaction must gain enough value that they can fully compensate the losers, or can invest enough to mitigate eradicate the loss by the third aprties.

Application to Khawaja: The theory requires the actors participating in society and transactions to be rational. In this case, Khawaja is not a rational actor because he did not act to maximise the social wealth. The lack of rationality is based in the risk of losing, and the loss he would subsequently experience is he was caught.

The inclusion of terrorism as a criminal offence is worth the cost to society. The cost of enforcing the criminal law system is much less than the cost to society would be if any terrorist bombing succeeded. It is more efficient for the criminal system to try and stop a terrorist bombing before it occurs than for the cost of stopping a bombing to be put toward compensating victims.

Stopping the terrorist bombing will maximise social wealth because of the high interest that society has in this area. Wealth will be maximised for society if lives are saved and if people aren’t fearful. The cost to maintaining terrorism as a criminal offence is less than the social wealth maximised.

Course:Law3020/2014WT1/Group_K/Feminist_Jurisprudence

Feminist Legal Perspective

The theory of Feminist Legal Perspective: Feminism is based upon a cluster of views - not a single school of thought. Feminist theory focusses on specific, concrete, and lived experiences of women. There are various different theories regarding feminism and the law, but they all have a common core. This includes an analysis of patriarchy as a starting point. Patriarchy is the system in which the world works and has worked for many of years. It's the systematic domination of women by men and it's invisible and this perpetuates it (people cannot change what they do not see!). Patriachy presents itself as being a natural embodiment of society, however, is constructed by us and maintained socially as our way of being. How does feminism and feminist theories relate to law?! It challenges traditional legal values and determines that they are falsehoods. Feminism also looks at the neutrality of law and how the rule of law affects women. Feminist theory challenges the idea that law is neutral, law is separate from politics, and law is separate from morality. The various theories of feminism bring forth different ideas under the same umbrella that aims to address the discrimination of women. - Liberal feminism: blocks can be removed to create equality, but the informal discrimination must also be recognized in order to acknowledge women's oppression. - Radical feminism: we need to change everything in order to change the system of discrimination. Children need to be socialized differently from the start. - Marxist feminism: this claims that the oppression of women is a necessary function of the capitalist system. - Postmodern feminism: Women are different and this should be embraced by society! - Relational feminism: Women's experiences are based on their relationships. These are the reality of women's experiences and need to be addressed for changes to occur. In applying this theory to R v Khawaja: The legal system is created by a system of ideas that perpetuate the patriarchy. The anti-terrorism provisions within the Criminal Code were made within this patriarchal system where there is power by men over women, and the power relationship can be seen as transferred to other oppressed groups as well. When the provisions were created, if the lawmakers has taken into account the experiences and lived lives of individuals, including women and other oppressed groups, the law could have potentially looked very different. Most women are in a position of disempowerment and the same can be said for individuals in different oppressed groups. Khawaja is a young man as part of a minority group in Canada and belongs to a religion (muslim) that is contrary to the Christianity that Canadian society and Canadian laws are based upon. The power is in the hands of men in Canada, and they are creating the power that they have over other groups. The anti-terrorm provisions in the Code reflect the power imbalance between the group in power and the oppressed. In this case, decided by the Supreme Court of Canada, which is led by (a female) Chief Justice McLachlin, it is important to note that McLachlin is a good example of classic liberal feminism. She would agree that by taking away the blocks there is no reason why women cannot be equal. Justice L'Heureux Dube, however, who sits on the bench as well, can be seen as a liberal feminist as well, but in her decisions she implies that the relationships and experiences of women are important too, and the removal of the blocks is important but not the end of the story for creating equality for women.