McGill Podcasts » Law & Society

Last year startups in California alone raised $15 billion in funding – Canada? Less than $2 billion. In this episode we compare Canada and Silicon Valley as destinations for tech startups. How can Canada become a hub for innovation? We speak with James Smith, partner at LaBarge Weinstein LLP; Joe Frasca, general counsel at Shopify; [...]

Stephan Hashemi has asked the Supreme Court for permission to sue Iran for his mother’s death. David Groves sat down with Mathieu Bouchard, Payam Akhavan, and René Provost, to talk about the case, human rights, and the evolution of state immunity.  

Voltage, a US film producer and distributor, is using a controversial legal procedure to go after illegal downloading. We talk to Allen Mendelsohn, internet law expert, David Fewer, Director of CIPPIC, and Voltage’s lawyer, John Philpott, about how this will impact Canadian Internet users  

Consideration of the child protection, crime prevention, and criminal law response to youths' production and distribution of digital sexual imagery, the limits of the emerging construction of consensual sexting as ‘self-exploitation' and the relationship of this rhetoric to mounting fears about the so-called ‘sexualization of culture'. Conclusion: criminal law is too blunt a tool to [...]

Defining the line on cyber-bullying and cyber-harassment. Shariff argues for a need to engage young people in critically assessing the impact of their online postings through dialogue and interactive projects that help them “define the line” as well as increased sensitization of the legal community to the realities of young people’s modes of communication. She [...]

Dans cet épisode, Eloïse Gagné rencontre le professeur Charles Jarrosson, de l'Université Paris II et Me Alexis Mourre, Vice-président de la Cour internationale d'arbitrage de la Chambre de commerce internationale afin de discuter de l'arbitrage et ses impacts

In this episode, we ask whether three new law schools could be the solution to Canada's access to justice crisis. Professors Harry Arthurs of Osgoode Hall Law School and Jason Maclean of Lakehead University's Law Faculty weigh in on the future of legal education.

This summer, major portions of the controversial US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act come into effect. What will it mean for Canada? We met with Professor Allison Christians of McGill University to talk about international tax, individual privacy, and national sovereignty.  

Dans cet épisode, Eloïse Gagné rencontre l'ancienne juge de la Cour Suprême, Marie Deschamps, et le Professeur Frédéric Bachand de l'Université de McGill, afin de discuter des réformes du Code de procédure civile du Québec et de ses impacts sur l'accessibilité à la justice.

Despite a significant place in the legal profession, little attention has been given to the unique ethical challenges of the government lawyer. We spoke with Professor Adam Dodek (University of Ottawa) and Michael Morris (Department of Justice) on their efforts to change that.

The Supreme Court started its winter term January 13th. To get a sense of what cases and issues are coming up, we spoke with our expert court-watcher Eugene Meehan, a litigator at Supreme Advocacy LLP and McGill grad.

In November, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of reforming, or even abolishing, the Senate. We sat down with Professor Carissima Mathen of the University of Ottawa and Dean Daniel Jutras of McGill to make sense of this vital yet complex case.

In this episode, Laura Rhodes met with Professor Jane Bailey of the University of Ottawa to discuss her work with the eGirls Project, which studies privacy, security, and equality in the increasingly online lives of young women.

Dans cet épisode, Eloïse Gagné parle avec Maître Bernard Synnott, Vice-Président du Barreau du Québec, et Professeur Paul Daly, de l'Université de Montréal, sur l'affaire complexe de la nomination du juge Marc Nadon à la Cour suprême.

In this episode, Alyssa Clutterbuck sat down with Professor Mohsen al Attar of Queen's University Belfast to discuss his provocative article in the latest issue of the MLJ, “Reframing the “Universality” of International Law in a Globalizing World”.

In this panel discussion from Oct. 2013, McGill professor emeritus Charles Taylor and Université de Montréal's Daniel Turp consider Quebec's controversial Charter of Values and the role of religion in secular societies.

This summer, the SCC heard arguments for Attorney General of Canada v Bedford, a high-profile constitutional challenge to Canada's current approach to prostitution. In this episode, part 2 of 2, we discuss the principle of “harm reduction” in Charter jurisprudence and what it means for the rule of law.

This summer, the SCC heard arguments for Canada (Attorney General) v Bedford, a high-profile constitutional challenge to Canada's current approach to prostitution. In this episode, part 1 of 2, we discuss the history, the positions, and what's at stake.

The Supreme Court is back in session October 7th, and this fall is going to be a big one. We sat down with SCC expert Eugene Meehan, QC, of Supreme Advocacy LLP, to discuss some upcoming cases and their legal significance.

The Trayvon Martin shooting has ignited a debate in the US about racial profiling. We met with Fo Niemi, executive director of CRARR, and Tamara Thermitus, Ad.E., who has written on race and the law, to discuss these issues in the Canadian context.

We sat down with Dr. Hugo Tremblay of Montréal's Centre for International Sustainable Development Law to discuss his fascinating article in the latest issue of the MLJ, “Eco-Terrorists facing Armageddon: The Defence of Necessity and Legal Normativity in the Context of Environmental Crisis”.

Apple, Google, Starbucks: Some of the biggest corporations on the planet are paying virtually no tax on the profits they make. We sat down with Professor Allison Christians, H. Heward Stikeman Chair in Tax Law, to discuss fairness and justice in taxes.

The US Supreme Court will soon rule on the controversial question of whether human genes are patentable. Professor Richard Gold, who submitted an amicus brief to the Court on the case, and Serge Shahinian, a patent agent at Goudreau Gage Dubuc, discuss.

Are Quebec's marriage laws unconstitutional? This was the question in the recent Supreme Court case of Eric v Lola. Maître Johanne O'Hanlon, who intervened in the case on behalf of LEAF, and Professor Robert Leckey, an expert on family law, discuss.

Le procès d'Hissène Habré, ancien dictateur du Tchad, marquera les annales d'histoire. Souleymane Guengueng, victime du régime devenu porte-parole, Reed Brody, de Human Rights Watch, et Prof. René Provost, spécialiste de droit humanitaire, nous parlent des nombreux enjeux de l'affaire.

Le 2 février 2012, la Revue de droit de McGill a organisé un débat sur le thème de la constitution et le 30e anniversaire de son rapatriement. Les participants étaient les professeurs Benoît Pelletier, Daniel Turp et Serge Rousselle.

In this interview, Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's international justice program, discusses the International Criminal Court and what role it could play in the ongoing conflict in Syria.

This conference and roundtable engage the public in an effort to address many of the media, political and social themes that have transpired during the months-long Occupy protests. Panel discussion, featuring: Anna Feigenbaum, Richmond University Patrick McCurdy, University of Ottawa Nathalie Des Rosiers, General Counsel and Executive Director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association Moderator: [...]

This conference and roundtable engage the public in an effort to address many of the media, political and social themes that have transpired during the months-long Occupy protests. Keynote address by Chris Hedges: journalist, author, war correspondent, and public intellectual. His most recent book is The World As It Is (2011).

It is commonly accepted that the law must punish those who act badly towards others. But can it require us to be good? This interview with Professor Emeritus Pierre-Gabriel Jobin examines the traditional and emerging civil and common law positions on so-called Good Samaritan laws, as well as the theoretical assumptions that may have contributed [...]

Mary Dawson, C.M., Q.C., takes questions from the audience, after delivering the 2012 McGill Law Journal Annual Lecture.

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the patriation of the Constitution of Canada, the Law Journal invites Mary Dawson, C.M., Q.C., to deliver the 2012 Annual Lecture and share her experiences as one of the final drafters of the Constitution Act, 1982 and as the principal legal advisor for the Meech Lake and Charlottetown [...]

Victims of corporate complicity in violations of international law continue to face some very serious legal hurdles in adjudicating their claims. In this interview, the Honourable Justice Ian Binnie (most recently with the Supreme Court of Canada) examines some of these legal hurdles and explains why existing domestic and international legal fora have not yet succeeded in the pursuit of corporate accountability.

In this interview, Professor Roderick Macdonald explores the impact of information technology on law, legal scholarship, litigation, and access to justice in the twenty-first century.

Professor Timothy Wu of Columbia Law School gave a free public lecture on Thursday, March 22, 2012, based on material from his most recent book, The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Alfred A. Knopf: 2010). In The Master Switch, Wu speaks of the cycle of monopolization that has beset the development [...]

Annual conference of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada – Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations, March 2011 Speakers: Gary Doer, Canadian Ambassador to the United States, The Embassy of Canada David Jacobson, United States Ambassador to Canada, The Embassy of the United States of America

Annual conference of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada – Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations, March 2011 Opening address by His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General and Commander in Chief of Canada

Annual conference of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada – Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations, March 2011 Speakers: The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, Lawyer & Senior Partner, Ogilvy Renault The Honorable James A. Baker, III, the 61st U.S. Secretary of State and 67th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

Annual conference of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada – Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations, March 2011 Speakers: The Honourable Jean Charest, Premier of Québec, Canada The Honorable Peter Shumlin, Governor of Vermont, United States of America

For more than 20 years, Mr. Pound has been one of the most influential members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He built the Olympics into a multi-billion dollar enterprise by branding and marketing the Olympic rings, and negotiating deals for television rights around the world. Under his leadership, the IOC has grown into one [...]

In North America, people have often tended to be optimistic about solving major problems, but has this optimism helped or hurt them? Can positive thinking actually get in the way of finding solutions, preventing people from accurate and critical examination of a crisis? Barbara Ehrenreich will address that question of optimism: whether, somehow, that thinking [...]

Hailed as one of America’s leading foreign policy experts and architects, former Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government Joseph Nye delivers the 2011 Bombardier Lecture.

L’Université McGill contribue à solutionner la pénurie de médecins en région en mettant sur pied un programme d’enseignement intégré en Outaouais. Elle veut donner une nouvelle vie à l’industrie des pâtes et papiers et réinventer les serres québécoises. Enfin, une chercheuse s’intéresse à la vie après le cancer du sein, et veut l’améliorer par l’exercice [...]

A new website, created by a McGill University research team led by Prof. Shaheen Shariff, aims to help prevent cyberbullying and promote digital citizenship. “Define the Line” will help define and discourage cyber-bullying, while offering valuable information, advice, and resources for youth, parents and educators across North America.

This video documents the inaugural Aboriginal Field Course of the McGill School of Social Work. Twenty McGill students from Anthropology, Law and Social Work spent a week in the Kahnawake Mohawk community, where they had the opportunity to learn first hand through presentations, interactive workshops and cultural activities.

Judith E. Heumann is Special Advisor for International Disability Rights to the U.S. Department of State and former World Bank Advisor on Disability and Development. Steven Estey is former Human Rights Officer at Disabled Peoples International and Chair of the International Committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.

Voices from the Quiet Revolution, The group of Six, is a half-day conference that brings together some of the pivotal actors involved in major reforms during the 1960s and 1970s. The panelists offer their perspectives on these events and shed light on some of the myths and symbols associated with the Quiet Revolution and Quebec.

Voices from the Quiet Revolution, The group of Six, is a half-day conference that brings together some of the pivotal actors involved in major reforms during the 1960s and 1970s. The panelists offer their perspectives on these events and shed light on some of the myths and symbols associated with the Quiet Revolution and Quebec.

This lecture is the first of the CREOR Lecture Series, of the Faculty of Religious Studies, and was held in the Birks Heritage Chapel.

This second talk of the 2010 Birks Lecture Series, from the Faculty of Religious Studies, and was held in the Birks Heritage Chapel. This year’s featured speaker, Professor Jan Assmann, is a distinguished scholar of cultural memory and Egyptology.

This first talk of the 2010 Birks Lecture Series, from the Faculty of Religious Studies, and was held in the Birks Heritage Chapel. This year’s featured speaker, Professor Jan Assmann, is a distinguished scholar of cultural memory and Egyptology.