Law 12 (14/15)

Useful Documents- General

Useful Documents- Unit 2- What has been said about justice?

Useful Documents- Unit 3: How do we achieve justice?

  • L12 Social Justice Capstone Project Coates (descriptions of each deliverable; consult as you work and before submission)
  • Law 12 Action Plan Rubric (all rubrics in one document)
  • Deliverable #1- Proposal- Monday May 11
  • Deliverable #2- Annotated Bibliography- Friday May 15
  • Deliverable #3- Action Plan- Tuesday May 26- CHANGE THURS MAY 28
  • Deliverable #4- Presentation to Panel- Monday June 1

Wednesday June 3- Final 2 projects, exam overview and finishing off the year.

Thanks to Ben and Naryan for their final presentations today.

Exam outline is posted above; you will recognise this exam as a final class.  Please bring a computer, let me know by Thursday if you can’t source one and I will help you find one.  I can’t help you with that on Friday.  Please come to Norris Theatre for 2:15 start on Friday.

It’s always hard to wrap up this course- we don’t end with any grand conclusions or “law 12 in a box”.  What I do hope though is that you are leaving more equipped to see the situations that require questioning and the conversations that should be had.  The final report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was released yesterday.

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What will you do- personally in your life- to make the changes our communities need?  I hope you feel a little more equipped to recognise areas that need change and how to start the conversations that move towards that change.

Resources: Exam review above.
Prep: Exam prep; ensure all project deliverables are posted to the hub by Friday morning.  All one pagers still to be handed in should be received at the latest by Wed June 10.

Monday June 1- Sharing your work

Thank you to our guests, Mr. Kern, Mr Lawrence, Ms. Lawrence, Mr Outerbridge (registrar BC Court of Appeal) and Mr. Neil Chantler ’97 (Chantler and Company) for their time and feedback.

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Thursday May 28- Project Tuning
Resources: Law 12 CF feedback on projects
Prep: Complete projects for Monday.

Friday May 22- work period
Deliverables submitted so far.  Action plans should be ready for Thursday May 28 for critical friends feedback in anticipation of June 1.

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Looking for creative ideas for your action plan? Check out this link….

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Friday May 15, Wednesday May 20- Work Periods
Friday May 15 annotated bibliographies due

Wednesday May 13
Class Notes:

Proposals received so far can benefit from:

  • a clearer statement of the injustice
  • a more robust analysis of why the issue is an injustice of significance- moral outrage, lack of virtue, mis-allocation of wealth/resources, philosophical wrongs, practical wrongs. etc. Basically, a snap-shot version of: apply what you know of the justice system and philosophy and tell me why I should care that you care about this issue.
  • richer language that is obviously drawn from a justice vocabulary

A shocking number of late submissions.  Here’s what the US National Institutes of Health late policy is:

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Resources: as above
Prep: Annotated bibliography due Friday May 15.  Please refer to the instructions on the types of sources expected.

Monday May 11

Working towards proposal, feedback on the submitted topics is posted to you on your hub discussion folder.

Resources: L12 Social Justice Capstone Project Coates
Prep: Proposal due today

Thursday May 7- Working towards proposal

The video below is a (slightly rambling) review of the project; especially useful for those not in class on Tuesday.


Resources: Google form: Action Plan update
Prep: 1) Ensure google form is complete, 2) work towards proposal due Monday.  3) outstanding one pagers are quickly losing relevance as a useful learning activity.

Tuesday May 5- Final Unit: How do we achieve justice?

We started off with a discussion about the case of Omar Khadr, who will likely be released from prison today after spending nearly half is life for the war-time death of a US medic in Afghanistan.  This is a case that is so multifacted that it is almost impossible to remember that at the core, is an individual.  How is his experience in the international and then Canadian justice system compromised by politics, a high-profile, etc?

We then viewed a series of videos, where I asked you to think about 1) what is the issue 2) how has the speaker problematised it and 3) what was their response to the problem?

We then spoke about the idea of problematising and consciousness. Paolo Friere is a big thinker in this regard. Visit this page for a summary of his work.

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Finally, we went through the big strokes of the work ahead of you.  The video below (to be posted May 5) might be helpful to those of you who were away.

Resources: L12 Social Justice Capstone Project Coates
Prep: Start thinking about what your issue will be.  Everything is fair game; so long as you can persuade that it is a problem of significance.

Monday April 27- Willing to be Disturbed
Today, we read the article, Willing to be Disturbed, and discussed it using a particular structure, called “Save the Last Word”, it went something like this:

  • in groups of 3- 1 person shared their phrase that resonated with them (nothing else).
  • Person 2 responded to the phrase for 1 minute.
  • Person 3 responded to the phrase for 1 minute.
  • Person 1 had 2 minutes to build, respond, rephrase, etc.
  • Rotate.

We then boiled the article down to one word…

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Prep: 1) Please read this article by Maxine Greene. It will be our last piece of philosophy  2) please complete either page 1 or page 4 of this document.

Wednesday April 22- One Pager Writing

Please review the information below to guide your one pagers for this section. Please complete one one  -pager by Friday, and the other we will set a due date for- it will be towards the end of next week.

Information for One Pagers

Information for One Pagers

Monday April 20- What is the right thing to do? Chapters 9 and 10

Thursday April 16- What is the right thing to do? Chapters 7   and 8

Tuesday April 14- What is the right thing to do? Chapters 5 (Kant) and 6 (Rawls)
And we’re back. Great discussions today on the ideas of…

Kant- Chapter 5.  Ben, Christos and Gabe led well-informed discussion on Kant’s idea of moral behaviour.  If you do the right thing for the wrong reason, is it moral?  Is there one moral truth regardless of differences of experiences, values, backgrounds?  Thanks to participants and Chris J for tracking the discussion and Rafi for taking notes on the philosopher.

Rawls- Chapter 6.  Will, Chris and Jewan led the discussion and brought us to Rawls’ idea of the veil of ignorance and the notions of inequality being only justified for pro-social purposes.  Thanks to participants and to Rafi for taking notes on the philosopher and Jeremy for tracking the discussion.

For your one pages, here is the information I spoke about in class:

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Prep: Thursday Chapters 7 and 8; One pagers for those who have done their discussions.

Friday April 10-
Today apparently disappeared due to massive attrition for school-sanctioned activities.

Wednesday April 8- What is the right thing to do? Chapters 3 and 4
Kudos from Ms. Lenny on your discussions!

Thursday April 2- What is the right thing to do?

Justice- Chapter 2

A really engaging first discussion. Well done to on-point leaders, Oscar and Zen.

Next week: Wednesday Chapters 3 and 4, Friday Chapter 7 and 8 (not the non-sequential change).

Tuesday March 31

  • Chapter 1- digesting and note taking
  • Review of on-point chapters

Resources: see section above,Justice:  Video of Lectures, Justice: Chapter by Chapter resources
Prep: Prepare for on point chapters, read Chapter 2 for Thursday-

Wednesday March 11

Part 1- Circling back to privilege.

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Part 2- Starting with Michael Sandel.

Two quotes are particularly relevant for the start of our journey into political and ethical philosophy:

1: “philosophy is unsettling- it forces us to confront what we know”

2: “philosophy is at once impossible and unavoidable”

Monday March 9
Class Notes: Today we will continue this know thyself beginning now looking at the concept of privilege.

What sources of privilege are powerful in our society? (Which societies?)

What sources of privilege are powerful in our society? (Which societies?)

Please follow the instructions in the activity sheet below.  Keep in mind that your informed opinions are valid, and contradicting the provided material is always fair game.  Justification for all positions are, subsequently, always required.

  1. Peggy McIntosh- White Privilege- Unpacking the Invisible Backpack (1989) https://www.isr.umich.edu/home/diversity/resources/white-privilege.pdf
  2. Andrew O’Hehir- White privilege: An insidious virus that’s eating America from withiin (2014) http://www.salon.com/2014/08/23/white_privilege_an_insidious_virus_thats_eating_america_from_within/
  3. The Economist- Education and Class: America’s new aristocracy (2015) http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21640331-importance-intellectual-capital-grows-privilege-has-become-increasingly

Resources: Law 12 Philosophy Privilege, Online Discussion Rubric; Online Discussion Guidelines, Hub discussion board

Discussion Groups

Discussion Groups

Prep: Complete the activity within class time.

Thursday March 5- Unit 2: What has been said about justice?
Today we will engage in an activity that will have you reflect on the impact of certain standards upon your own personal values and ethics.  We start off our philsoophy unit like this in the spirit of Socrates:

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Resources: Law 12 Foundations Personal Ethics Material Law 12 Foundations Personal Ethics Student Sheet
Prep: Last chance for OP #4 and 5 is Friday night.

Tuesday March 3– pulling it all together for Unit 1: What does justice look like? Is the Canadian justice system just?

Today, we pulled pieces together… first you wrote down all the concepts and topics you could remember:

Then assessed what you would take, leave or add in your own theoretical justice system:

Then, you did a quick 5 minute write: Is the Canadian justice system just?  We used that quick write as a baseline for talking about what is central to your argument, and what an effective thesis statement would look like.

Resources: Law 12 Unit 1 Wrap Up


Prep: Complete the google form about your composed thesis statement.

Friday February 27

Wednesday February 25

Monday February 23- What is negligence and why is this concept significant in civil law?
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  1. Whistler Release of Liability
  2. St George’s Informed Consent and Acknowledgement of Risk
  3. Cornell University Definition of Negligence
  4. Duhaime- Canadian Negligence Definition
  5. Washington Times- NFL Concussions Lawsuit…

What are situations where this issue of negligence could be or is occurring?  How do the five parts of negligence apply?

Prep: one pager #5 due Friday- How does your definition of justice hold up to civil law?

Thursday February 19

Tuesday February 17

Friday February 12
A self-directed introduction to Civil Law.  We will, over the next 4 classes, have a look at major areas of this important part of law.  These 11 questions will establish a solid foundation to build that exploration upon.
Resources: Law 12 Civil Law IntroPrep: Complete Civil Law Intro questions for Tuesday.

Tuesday February 10
1) Last people going- in 2 groups (using Norris and Breakout room).
2) Review the video of your presentation.  Using the checklist from the original project document while you watch, check off what you did/did not include.  Record a 4minute > “redo” of one of the things you missed.  Post a link (not a file, too big) back in that same folder on the hub (you can upload to youtube and make the link unlisted- this means that only those with the link can access it. We can delete once I’ve seen them all).

and/or

3) Finish your one pager #4.  See details below.

Resources: Law 12 What justice is Issues Presentations
Prep: 1) One Pager #4 due today (feb 10) 2) video “redo” by Friday Feb 13.

Monday February 2 and Wednesday February 4
Presentations.

Notes on OP #4

Notes on OP #4

Prep: Post slides, and One Pager #4 due for Feb 10.  See notes above.

Thursday January 29
See email to your school emails re: today.

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Prep: as in email.

Tuesday January 27
Class Notes

Part 1 – Visuals– creating slide decks (Workshop Effective Presentation Media)

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Part 2- Critical Friends

Resources: Above and Law 12 What justice is Issues Presentations; Mock Trial invitation 2015
Prep: Respond to feedback, finish presentations, look at rubric.

Friday January 23, 2015
Class Notes: project work, outlines should be posted by end of class.  Negotiated that Tuesday Jan 27 would be critical friends check in and presentations will run Thursday Jan 29 and Monday Feb 2.
Resources: Law 12 What justice is Issues Presentations

Wednesday January 21, 2015
Work period on your project
Resources: Law 12 What justice is Issues Presentations
Prep: Outline due by next class.  Post to your folder.  Presentations next Tuesday/Thursday.

Monday January 19, 2015
Work period on your project.

Thursday January 15, 2015
Class Notes: Looking at the 50% of the aim of this project cycle- giving effective presentations.

Part 1- Speaking– speaking in front of a live audience (Workshop Effective Presentations)

   

Part 2- Visuals– creating slide decks (Workshop Effective Presentation Media)

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Resources– Law 12 What justice is Issues Presentations
Prep– decide topic, preliminary research (1-2 hours before next class).

Tuesday January 13, 2015
Welcome back!

1) Serial Catch Up

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2)Reflective Writing

3) The Road Ahead

Resources: see above
Prep: 1) Catch up on OP #3/Court Reflection- last chance due Friday. 2) decide on topic for presentation

Friday December 12- Serial episode 4

Discussion questions:

  1. In what ways is there the presence or absence of reasonable doubt re: the actus reus and/or mens rea of the alleged crime and the prime suspect, Adnan Syed?
  2. Why has Serial become “the most popular podcast in the world” (Wall Street Journal)?

Resources: Law 12 Serial Follow Up, Article; The Marshall Project “Our jury is in on Serial”, Serial homepage
Prep: 1)  Continue work on one pager #3 , “Without _____________, justice is meaningless.”  Due anytime before winter break.  2) complete the “your verdict”… at this point- guilty or not guilty?

Wednesday December 10- Serial episodes 2 and 3
Serial continues…

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Discussion questions:

  • In what ways is there the presence or absence of reasonable doubt re: the actus reus and/or mens rea of the alleged crime and the prime suspect, Adnan Syed?
  • Why has Serial become “the most popular podcast in the world” (Wall Street Journal)?

Prep: Continue work on one pager #3 , “Without _____________, justice is meaningless.”  Due anytime before winter break.

Monday December 8-
Class Notes- we are going to start listening to the podcast, Serial, which is a production of WBEZ Chicago and weekly radio show, This American Life.

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Resources– see links above
Prep– Start thinking about the last one pager of 2014 “Without _____________, justice is meaningless.”  Due anytime before winter break.

Thursday December 4- What happened during our mock trials?
Class Notes; How and why do we reflect deeply?

David Kolb's experiential learning model

David Kolb’s experiential learning model

Resources: SS Reflective Writing Rubric ; SS Reflective Writing Guide, Reflection Example #3 ; Reflection Example 2 ; Reflection Example 1 ; Law 12 Class Notes on Reflection
Prep: Complete the reflective response for next class and post on the hub: What happened during the court watching and mock trial?

Wednesday November 26, Friday November 28 and Tuesday December 2
Court Watching….

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R v. Girard

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R v. Mitchell

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Prosecutor v Karadzic

We will spend time debriefing these experiences on Thursday.
Prep: Ensure list of 30 observations is done, come to class on Thursday ready to think and write.

 Friday November 14- Mock Trial Prep
See Mock Trial page for timeline and deliverables.
See your mock trial page for the specific resources.
Prep: Complete Progress Report #2 and post to the appropriate HUB folder before start of next class.  1 per “team” is acceptable for most , so long as it is truly done together.  Witnesses will have to complete their own, but of course should do so in consultation with the lawyers.

Wednesday November 12- Mock Trial Prep
See Mock Trial page for timeline and deliverables.
See your mock trial page for the specific resources.
Prep: Complete Progress Report #1 and post to the appropriate HUB folder before start of next class.  1 per “team” is acceptable, so long as it is truly done together.

Wednesday November 5 + Friday November 7- Who should judge? Judges + Juries

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Resources: Law 12 Juries (ppt), Law 12 Jury Alex de Tocqueville (article, extension)
Prep: Complete the “follow up task” on last slide.  Do this either for judges or juries based on what you feel is the best decision making agent.  Make these both substantive and attractive!

Monday November 3rd- Who should judge? Judges + Juries
Class Notes: Today we will explore judges in the Canadian justice system.

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1 on 1 meeting schedule

1 on 1 meeting schedule

Resources: Law 12 Judges (ppt) Ethical Principles CJC (pdf), Justice Education Society: Judicial Appointments (article),
Prep: Re-read your ethical principle, preview the rest of the slides and be sure to note your 1:1 this/next week.

Thursday October 30th- Guest Speaker, Mr. Russ Chamberlain

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Mr. Russ Chamberlain

Prep: Finish one pagers, due tomorrow. Incorporate some of what Mr. Chamberlain shared.

Tuesday October 28th- What is the nature of consent in statute and in case law in Canada?
Class Notes:

An update on our progress so far through Unit 1: What does justice look like?

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An exploration of consent, thrust into the spotlight due to current events

Conceptual Questions

  1. What is the relationship between statutes (laws) and case law with respect to consent? With respect to the law in Canada in general?
  2. Why does the state retain the power to revoke consent?
  3. What other values (democratic, social) or principles (legal, moral) is the notion of consent consistent with?

Resources: See throughout
Prep: One Pager #2, prep for guest speaker on Thursday, Mr. Russ Chamberlain

Thursday October 23-
Class Notes:

First part of class, discussion of the events in Ottawa the day before.  What could/would/should change because of these events?

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Second part of class, an overview of courtroom procedure.

Resources: Law 12 Trial Process
Prep: Finish trial prep questions (Sunday) and One Pager #2 (Friday Oct 31)

Tuesday October 21- Preliminary research for mock trials
Class Notes; I want to respect your preference of doing work on mock trials together when I’m back.  I think this preliminary research task will provide a starting foundation for us to work forward from. I would anticipate that this should take you somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half to finish.
Resources: Law 12 Mock Trials Prelim Research ; Law 12 Mock Trial Roles 2014, mock trial pages (Karadžić, R v. Girard, R v. Mitchell)
Prep: 1) continue work on One Pager #2, due Friday October 31. 2) Finish Preliminary Research, due Sunday October 26.

**

Friday October 17- “How is the power imbalance between the state and the individual best mediated in the criminal justice system?”

Class Notes: A writing (discussion if you want) day on One Pager #2.

Resources: Law 12 OP 2 Prompt Questions
Prep: Continue to work on your One Pager #2.  Due next Friday to the hub.

***

Wednesday October 15- “How do we establish reasonable doubt? : Criminal Defenses”
Class Notes: Today you will explore defenses available in the Canadian criminal  justice system using the word doc as your guide and the posted powerpoint as your primary resource.

You will also connect practical knowledge of the defenses to deeper questions about the professional perspective of criminal defense attorneys and the role they play in mediating the relationship between the state and the individual.

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Resources: Law 12 Criminal Law Defenses (ppt) ;  Law 12 Defenses Activities
Prep: See the prompt for One Pager #2 within the document.  You will have Friday’s class to discuss/work on this work.

**

Thursday October 9- “The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.”

In the News:

  • R v. Blackmore – if the above quote from Trudeau is agreed-to, how do we approach polygamy laws?

Class Notes:
We introduced the three mock trials today: R v Girard, R v. Mitchell, R v. Karadzic.  Please have a look at the cases and roles, and complete this google sheet indicating your top 3 choices.   Please do this by Wednesday next week so I can assign roles.
Resources: Law 12 Mock Trial Karadzic Overview R v Mitchell Overview R v Girard, Mock Trial Page
Prep: Please complete the google sheet.

Tuesday October 7
Class Notes:

In the News:

Part 1- Your responses to “What is the best kind of evidence?”
Part 2- Evidence laws.
Resources: Law 12 Criminal Law Evidence ArticlesPrep: TBD

Friday October 2- What is the best kind of evidence?
Class Notes:
Part 1- Mr Sayers Causes a Scene.  (see part 3).
Part 2- Every contact leaves a trace.  We previewed the different kinds of evidence and the different reasons you would collect evidence.  We also discussed Robert’s fascinating question, “Is dna more important in jurisdictions with the death penalty?”.  This led to discussions of wrongful convictions, and a music interlude provided by the Tragically Hip and their song Wheat Kings, about David Milgaard.  Check out this link for an explanation of the lyrics.

Part 3- What happened at the start of class? “The scene” becomes fodder for a discussion on eyewitness testimony.
Part 4- Brian Riback of our Amnesty International club brought the club’s first letter writing campaign to us; No More Stolen Sisters

Resources: Law 12 Evidence
Prep: Please review the slides above.  Come to class with a claim and justification as to what the best kind of evidence is.  Think of it from the perspective of a lawyer (crown, defense), a police officer, a journalist, etc.

Wednesday October 1
Guest Speaker: Const. John McCormack (’99) of West Vancouver Police Department.

Monday September 29- What is the role of police in society? Where do we draw the line between freedom and protection?

In the news:

Today we finished off our discussion of legal arrest, Miranda rights/Hebert decision, and entered into the difficult territory of where to draw the line between freedom and protection.

We listened to a ten minute clip (September 24, begins at 1:20:48) on the CBC Vancouver program Early Edition with Wally Oppal.  He was specifically referencing the recent case in Surrey where a high-risk offender has been arrested on charges of murder.  I asked you to think about one of the following questions and jot some thoughts down on your hub page:

  • Are there enough tools to monitor high risk offenders once they have served their full sentences?
  • What permits the government the right to monitor people after they have served a full sentence?
  • “When we put someone away for 22 years, they are not going to be ‘normal’ at the end of it…”

Resources:Law 12 Police Role Processes
Prep: The above question; next class we will move on to evidence handling, legitimacy and duties of proof.

***

Thursday September 25, 2014- What is the role of police in society?
Part 1- we discussed your findings from your situations.  As a note: work on noting your sources.  This is crucial for the strength of your argumentation moving forward.

Part 2- a guided discussion about the role of police in society, conflicting images of police and some technical details about legal arrest.  We will continue this next day.
Resources: Law 12 Police Role Processes
Prep: Do we have Miranda rights in Canada?

Tuesday September 23, 2014– What happens next? What are your rights and responsibilities?
Class Notes:

Part 1 of Class- One Pagers….

…language choice:

The power of precise language

The power of precise language

…active experimentation phase of experiential learning

David Kolb's experiential learning model

David Kolb’s experiential learning model

Look at what you wrote (abstract conceptualisation), which is informed by our activities in class and your life experience to date (experience) and our class discussions so far (reflective observation).  Consider one of the “ripped from the headlines” cases.  What does your model of justice have to say about it? Note, it is totally fair game if your model of justice doesn’t (yet) account for this situation.

Part 2- What happens next? What are your rights and responsibilities?

Using the situation cards provided, you will have the rest of this class to investigate:

  1. what rights and responsibilities are present for the identified parties;
  2. identification of legal and moral issues present;
  3. identification of a precedent-setting case that is relevant to the situation.

Our themes for the next couple classes: evidence, arrest procedures, the role of police.

Suggestions to check out (because I want your responses to the questions to be evidence-based!)

  • Youth Criminal Justice Act
  • Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • BC Civil Liberties Association
  • Arrest/Detention procedures
  • Alcohol related laws
  • Driving related laws (if applicable)
  • Police responsibilities (West Van, VPD, Transit, RCMP)

Resources: See hyperlinks above, Law 12 Arrest Detention Police Situations, Canadian Legal Information Institute, Supreme Court of Canada, BC Supreme Court
Prep: TBD

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September 19, 2014- What is your conception of justice?
Class Notes: So that you don’t end up like this kid…

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Today we’re going to start at the hardest part of a writing assignment, getting started.  Review the prompt questions in the document below.  We will finish class with an option: either keep writing or join us for a discussion on current events (you chose writing!).
Resources: Law 12 OP 1 Prompt Questions ; Law 12 One Pager Rubric
Prep: Work on One Pager, post to hub by Monday.

September 17, 2014– What are the goals of a justice system?
Class Notes: Today we broke into small groups to discuss the questions at the end of the Elements of  a Crime ppt from last day.  I then explained to you what a one pager is, and set the first topic

What is your personal conception of justice?  Think about:

  • What you wrote in your Shipwrecked’ reflection.
  • Branches of government, levels of government, levels of court.
  • Elements of a crime (criminality according to the law commission, mens rea, actus reus)
  • Approaches to justice (retribution, rehabilitative, restorative)
  • How you have been reacting to your case study.
  • Your existing personal, religious, cultural, political, philosophical, etc. beliefs.

Resources: Law 12 Approaches to Justice ; Small Group Discussion Role Cards ; Law 12 One Pager Rubric, Criminal Code of Canada

Prep: Work on one pager, due Monday Sept 22 (before Tuesday’s class)

September 15, 2015- What makes an action criminal?
Class Notes: Today we will explore how actions are determined to be criminal, in other words, the elements of a crime.

Links- take the provided 10 minutes to read or scan one or more of these links:

When prompted, Head to our class “back channel” discussion box on todaysmeet to discuss today’s question: What makes an action criminal?

Resources: Law 12 Elements of a Crime, Law 12 One Pager Rubric, Criminal Code of Canada
Prep: Using the link to the Criminal Code of Canada, determine at least one section that is relevant to the case you have selected.
Not Discussed In Class Monday, But We Will Wednesday Prep: One Pager #1 assigned.  Due: Sunday September 21.  Question: What is your personal conception of justice?

**

September 11, 2014
Class Notes: We started off looking back on the standards of justice system that we discussed the previous day, and had everybody rank the six principles.  Of note from that excercise:

  • there is no right, wrong, accepted or dismissed hierarchy of these principles
  • everyone one of us had a different ranking list
  • innocent until proven guilty was in 5/6 shared lists’ top 3 positions
  • it was noted that the principles seemed either to do with protecting an individual’s rights or protecting a social norm
  • it was noted that the ranking of each individual would depend on something.  Absolutely.  It will be our job going forward to identify what exactly we are basing our judgements, opinions and decisions on. This is the work of a legal mind.

I then asked you to draw the justice system.  Click here to see your drawings.  We’ll return to these later in the year.

We then discussed the branches of government and the flow of a case through the layers of courts.  Lots of questions about judges and juries, which we will pick up in a few classes.

Resources: Law 12 Canadian Justice System Overview , Law 12 Principles of Canadian Justice System
Prep: Please select a case of substantial merit (my preference is that it is a Canadian criminal matter, and it should have gone through at least one court level).  This will be an ongoing case study for you to use as an example for the different topics we will explore.  Select the case and be able to discuss “who, what, when and where”.  The case can be historical.  Suggestions for major cases include Bernardo, Pickton, Williams, Milgaard, Sophonow, Latimer.

September 9, 2014
Class Notes: First, I want to share with you a very influential paradigm of educational theory that I rely on very much in my teaching.  If you’re interested in learning more, John Dewey and David Kolb are highly influential in laying out the foundation of this approach, while about.com has written on the topic in quite accessible language.

David Kolb's experiential learning cycle

David Kolb’s experiential learning cycle

Moving on to our own studies, I’d like us to tackle both the Principles of the Canadian Justice System as well as the Structure of the Canadian Justice System. We’ll take a quick poll to see which the class would rather begin with (survey says: principles)
Resources: Ministry of Justice (BC), Department of Justice (Canada), Department of Intergovernmental Affairs (Canada), Law 12 Canadian Justice System Overview , Law 12 Principles of Canadian Justice System
Prep: Please think about how you would rank, in hierarchical order, the 6 principles we discussed today.  (Catch Up: if you haven’t posted a response to shipwrecked please do so into your hub folder).

September 6, 2014
Class Notes: You have landed in an isolated geographic area.  It’s up to you and your group to make the laws that will organise your society and ensure it’s survival. What do you do? Screen Shot 2014-09-05 at 9.12.48 AM
Resources: Law 12 Shipwrecked, Direct Hub Link
Prep: Review your groups laws that should be posted on the Shipwrecked Group Laws folder on the hub.  Then:

Craft a well-structured and thoughtful response that reflects upon both the process of your group’s work and the end product, and addresses some of the following questions as fits your society’s laws:

  • Did the rights of the individual, minority or majority become the focus? How did this happen and what does indicate about the society?
  • How were rights protected and maintained?
  • Was there discrimination in your society? If so, against whom? Was it justified?
  • What was missing from the system?
  • What was the overall approach of your group?
  • Can you identify a dominant value or belief evident in the final product?

As part of your piece, describe what are, in your opinion, the purposes and functions of law and a legal system.  (That will be our focus for next class).  Post this piece in your folder on the hub.

September 4, 2014
Class Notes: Welcome to Law 12!

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Prep: Please complete the Law 12 Learner Profile and email it to me before Friday’s class. See you then.

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