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Working Group Call for Proposals

The Asper Centre working groups aim to provide U of T students with an opportunity to conduct legal research and assist in advocacy on Canadian constitutional rights issues (often in partnership with an external organization). The Asper Centre requires all potential working groups (including existing working groups) to submit a written proposal for consideration by ... Read More

Judging Social Rights

CONSTITUTIONAL ROUNDTABLE and the International Human Rights Program present Jeff King, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University College, London Thursday, January 10, 2013 12:30 – 2:00 Room FLC, Flavelle House, Faculty of Law 78 Queen’s Park Jeff King is a distinguished visitor this year at the Faculty of Law, teaching an intensive course on social ... Read More

Common Good, Public Reason and Constitutional Law

Wojciech Sadurski, University of Sydney The most feasible conception of the common good is one that refers to the legitimate motives for proposing and enacting collective authoritative decisions, which can be applied to, and complied with by, those who do not necessarily agree with the substantive merits of those decisions. Concretization of such a conception ... Read More

R v Morgentaler: Reflections After 25 Years

Panel Discussion On January 28, 1988, 25 years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada’s abortion law using the still new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The legal battle was long, dramatic and groundbreaking – including a police raid on a clinic, novel constitutional evidence and arguments, an extraordinary criminal jury trial, ... Read More

Social and Economic Rights – A South African Perspective

Zak Yacoob Former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa Event date: Thursday, February 14, 2013, from 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM Location: Room B, Flavelle House, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto Judge Yacoob has been a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He is married to Anu. The couple have ... Read More

2013 Morris A Gross Memorial Lecture

The Honourable Lynn Smith The Quest for a Charter Equality Test: Has the Longest Way Round Been the Shortest Way Home? Watch the webcast here. Event date: Wednesday, February 27, 2013, from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM Location: Rowell Room, Flavelle House, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto Lynn Smith, B.A. (University of Calgary), LL.B. ... Read More

Respecting Democratic Constitutional Change

Craig Scott Member of Parliament for Toronto-Danforth This lecture will discuss the structure and philosophy of the Supreme Court of Canada's approach to the dynamics of constitutional change, including the stages necessary to move from the democratic expression of a desire for change to lawful amendment of the Constitution. Scott will discuss his legislative proposal, ... Read More

Exit, Voice, and Disloyalty

Constitutional Roundtable Professor Heather Gerkin Yale Law School Abstract: Much of constitutional theory is preoccupied with a single question: what does a democracy owe its minorities? And most of the answers to this question fit naturally into the two categories Hirschman made famous: voice and exit. On both the rights side and structural side of ... Read More

Clinic Application Deadline

CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION: DAVID ASPER CENTRE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS (LAW391H1F) FALL 2013 CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION: HALF TERM CLINIC - WINTER 2014 University of Toronto, Faculty of Law students wishing to apply for these courses must email a 1-2 page statement of interest to Cheryl Milne, cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca by July 3, 2013. Please indicate the following:   ... Read More

Deadline: Working Group Proposals

UofT law students who wish to submit proposals to lead voluntary Working Groups for the 2013-2014 year, must complete the proposals and submit them by 5:00 p.m. on July 31, 2013.  

Deadline: Call for Papers – September 30, 2013

Constitutional Remedies: Are They Effective and Meaningful? Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, St. George Campus – February 28, 2014 The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights invites papers for its upcoming conference examining in detail the remedies available in constitutional litigation. The Centre invites papers that stimulate and develop an ongoing dialogue on the ... Read More

The Indigenous as Alien

Constitutional Roundtable Harney Program in Ethnic, Immigration and Pluralism Studies & Canada Research Chair in Citizenship and Multiculturalism  present Leti Volpp UC Berkeley School of Law The Indigenous as Alien Immigration law, as it is taught, studied, and researched in the United States, imagines away the fact of preexisting indigenous populations.  To show how this ... Read More

Asper Centre’s Fifth Anniversary Symposium

Event date: Friday, November 08, 2013, from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM Location: Victoria Chapel, Victoria College, University of Toronto The Asper Centre will celebrate 5 years of accomplishments with 2 panel discussions that explore the significance of the cases in which the Centre has intervened, followed by a reception. PROGRAM 1:00 - 1:15 p.m. ... Read More

Ethical Basis for Excluding Unauthorized Immigrants from the Affordable Care Act

Health Law, Ethics & Policy Workshop Series David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights & International Human Rights Program present SPEAKER:  Norman Daniels, Harvard School of Public Health Ethical Basis for Excluding Unauthorized Immigrants from the Affordable Care Act COMMENTATOR:  Audrey Macklin, University of Toronto Faculty of Law The Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) is intended to ... Read More