4 Questions For

Professor Richard Haigh and Dan Priel are joined by Professor Wendy Wong of the University of British Columbia. Her latest book, We, the Data, looks at how our data-intensive world has had significant effects on our autonomy, community, dignity and equality. Wendy makes a strong case for re-imaging human rights to take into account the concerns manifested in big data. We had a very engaging talk with Wendy on a wide variety of topics. Enjoy! Link to book: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262048576/we-the-data/

Do you think police can be dishonest? Osgoode Professors Richard Haigh and Dan Priel are joined by Professor Luke Hunt of the University of Alabama, the author of this very provocative book. Luke takes this question and examines it from all sides. While he's not an absolutist (sometimes deception may be warranted) he believes strongly that many (if not most) deceptive police practices should not be permitted. Because they represent breaches of trust between us citizens and the state. Our conversation -- and the book -- should change the way you think about the police.

Lillianne Cadieux-Shaw: "Retaliatory Defamation Lawsuits, Equality Principles, and Access to Justice: Commentary on Hansman v Neufeld", volume 55, Advocates' Quarterly Osgoode Professors Richard Haigh and Dan Priel are joined by Toronto lawyer (and former student of ours) Lil Cadieux-Shaw '17 in a departure from our usual book review conversation. Lil has recently published an article on the fascinating Supreme Court of Canada defamation case of Hansman v Neufeld. The three of us have a wide-ranging discussion about the case, defamation law, anti-SLAPP legislation and more. If you want to Lillianne Cadieux-Shaw: "Retaliatory Defamation Lawsuits, Equality Principles, and Access to Justice: Commentary on Hansman v Neufeld", volume 55, Advocate's Quarterlyread the article, it is available on the York Centre for Public Policy and Law's website: https://ycppl.info.yorku.ca/category/blog/

Osgoode Professors Richard Haigh and Dan Priel are joined by two of the authors of this very handy book, Professor Jeffrey Schall and former Judge Morris Hoffman. It's always been the case that law is intimately connected with human behaviour. But now brain science is becoming more and more implicated in law. Neuroscience has begun to understand the brain on a level unimaginable even 25 years ago. That has potentially serious impacts on law. As examples, legislators are relying on brain science to create laws; regulators are using it to administer rules; lawyers are using it to advise clients and decide cases. The book is both a primer on brain anatomy and a guide on how it may assist those legal actors to use it wisely. Our conversation with Jeff (the neuroscientist) and Morris (the lawyer/judge) ranges widely across a number of areas. Link to book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/brain-science-for-lawyers-judges-and-policymakers-9780197748855?cc=ca&lang=en&

Osgoode Professors Richard Haigh and Dan Priel are joined by Professor Michael Heller of Columbia Law School and Professor James Salzman of UCLA School of law and UCSB Bren School of the Environment. The book is a provocative book about how ownership -- a legal concept -- is much more complicated than it seems. Ownership is value-laden, contextual and, in the infinite number of situations where scarcity exists, subject to a myriad number of conflicting claims. This fascinating, and eminently readable book will change the way you think about property.

Osgoode Professors Richard Haigh and Dan Priel are joined by Professor Travis Dumsday of Concordia University of Edmonton in a wide-ranging discussion about his book, Assisted Suicide in Canada: Moral, Legal and Policy Considerations. The book takes on the very complicated legal, moral, philosophical and ethical issues surrounding medical assistance in dying, particularly in Canada. Travis discusses the legal cases leading to Parliament's decision to legalize assisted suicide, the ethical quandaries provoked by that decision and where it may lead to.

Dan and Richard are joined by University of Oxford Associate Professor Zeynep Pamuk to discuss her recent book, Politics and Expertise: How to Use Science in a Democratic Society. The book's grand theme is captured in the two epigraphs found at the beginning: "It would not only be foolish but downright irresponsible to accept the judgment of scientists and physicians without further examination" and "the rational layman will recognize that in matters about which there is good reason to believe there is expert opinion, he ought not to make up his own mind." Zeynep provides a robust critique, and ideas for solutions, on how the longstanding tension between expert knowledge and democratic decision making can be resolved, using very topical examples such as the recent global pandemic. Link to book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691218939/politics-and-expertise

Dan and Richard discuss Osgoode School Professor Valerio De Stefano's timely book about the world of AI, algorithms and online platforms and their ever-increasing impact on the world of work. Co-authored with Antonio Aloisi, "Your Boss is an Algorithm: Artificial Intelligence, Platform Work and Labour" will trouble anyone who cares about the impact of technology on work and how it needs to be regulated.

Beyond Law is a podcast on books that discuss problems of law and regulation through the lens of public policy and social science. In this episode, the hosts, Richard Haigh and Dan Priel, talk with Benjamin van Rooij about his latest book “The Behavioral Code: The Hidden Ways the Law Makes Us Better or Worse”.

Loretta Merritt '85, '90(LLM), one of Canada's foremost lawyers specializing in sexual abuse and harassment cases, speaks with Osgoode Professor Janet Mosher about her trauma-informed approach to clients, confidentiality concerns and trends in damages.

Dean Mary Condon speaks with Kyle Elliott, Counsel, Diversity and Inclusion at Blakes about equity, diversity and inclusion in the legal education and the profession. Kyle graduated from Osgoode in 2016 where he acted as the President of the Black Law Students' Association (BLSA Osgoode), before serving as the National Articling Representative for the Black Law Students' Association of Canada (BLSA Canada).

Pandemics, wars, climate change! We're living in a world today increasingly shaped by crisis. In this podcast, Osgoode Hall Law School professors François Tanguay-Renaud and Saptarishi Bandopadhyay discuss the impact of disasters on the political and legal landscape.

Leading labour lawyer, Steven Barrett '84 interviews Osgoode Professor Valerio De Stefano on the rise in electronic monitoring of employees – a phenomenon known as algorithmic management.

Osgoode Professor Poonam Puri speaks with JD/MBA Class of 1990 graduate and banking industry veteran James O’Sullivan about the Digital Loonie. She and three colleagues from the University of Toronto recently responded to a Bank of Canada call for proposals from academic teams on what a Central Bank Digital Currency framework could look like in Canada.

The refugee decision-making system in Canada is flawed, Osgoode Professor Sean Rehaag tells lawyer Lorne Waldman ’77. Everything comes down to the luck of the draw. People who should be recognized as refugees are not being recognized as refugees. What’s happening is “a form of bias,” Rehaag says.

Osgoode Professor Eric Tucker, a labour law expert, discusses the workplace obligations of employers and employees during the pandemic with Professor Sara Slinn, Associate Dean, Research and Institutional Relations at Osgoode.

Dayna Scott, Associate Professor at Osgoode and York Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice in the Green Economy, talks with Priyanka Vittal, counsel at Greenpeace and an adjunct professor at Osgoode, about the impacts of environmental racism in Canada and what can be done about it.

Osgoode Professor Adam Parachin, a charity law expert, and Bob Wyatt, Executive Director of the Muttart Foundation, discuss the importance of maintaining a distinction between charity and government.

Welcome to Osgoode’s first-ever Virtual Pierre Genest Panel Discussion. We have invited a panel to discuss the pre-recorded talk by our Pierre Genest visitor, Catherine Fisk, titled “Protection by Law, Repression by Law: Bringing Labor Back Into Law and Social Movement Studies”. This talk is also a forthcoming paper in the Emory Law Journal, and challenges the line-drawing which has led to the erasure of the labor movement from the field’s conception of a social movement, and offers new theories of the role law plays in social movement activism. In our panel is Joo-Cheong Tham, professor at Melbourne Law School in Australia, Joshua Mandryk, Associate at Toronto’s Goldblatt Partners, and Barry Eidlin is a Comparative Historical Sociologist and Assistant Professor in McGill’s Sociology department.

Catherine Fisk's lecture “Protection by Law, Repression by Law: Bringing Labor Back Into Law and Social Movement Studies”, a forthcoming article in the Emory Law Journal, challenges the line-drawing which has led to the erasure of the labor movement from the field’s conception of a social movement, and offers new theories of the role law plays in social movement activism.

Professor Cynthia Williams has four questions for alumna Dianne Saxe ’74, ’91 LLM, ’91 PhD, one of Canada’s most respected environmental lawyers, on the climate change crisis.

Anil Kapoor ’86 of Kapoor Barristers interviews Professor Emerita Jamie Cameron on the subject of Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) offenders and the role of the Ontario Review Board in ensuring public safety and the offender’s rehabilitation.

Benjamin Berger, Professor & York Research Chair in Pluralism and Public Law, questions Professor Joan Gilmour, one of Canada’s foremost experts on health law as well as disability and the law, about our medical assistance in dying laws.

Professor Emeritus Harry Arthurs discusses his memoir, Connecting the Dots – The Life of an Academic Lawyer, with Professor Philip Girard.

Nye Thomas, Executive Director of the Law Commission of Ontario, and Carole Piovesan ’09 of INQ Data Law.

Osgoode Alumni Board Co-President, Patricia Olasker '77, a partner at Davies Ward Phillips and Vineberg LLP, has four questions for Osgoode Hall Law School Dean Mary Condon about the challenges and opportunities facing law schools today.