Note: You may select the clinic on the on-line course system but will be waitlisted until the clinic has provided approval of your participation to the Assistant Registrar Records, Celia Genua at celia.genua.utoronto.ca. This approval should be provided by no later than the course selection deadline of July 6, 2012
Pre-requisite: While there is not a pre-requisite for this course other than first year Introduction to Constitutional Law or its equivalent, prior completion of an upper-year course in Constitutional Law or Human Rights Law is very strongly preferred. Candidates may be considered if they can demonstrate equivalent experience and familiarity with human rights issues.
To register for this course, you must email a 1-2 page statement of interest to Cheryl Milne, cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca by June 20, 2012. Please indicate the following:
(a) previous upper-year courses in constitutional law or human rights law or experience that you consider to be equivalent;
(b) indicators of academic, analytical and research and writing ability, which may include grades in related classes;
(c) any experience in human rights or constitutional issues;
(d) any experience with lawyering or advocacy;
(e) why you wish to enroll in the Clinic.
Students participating in clinical programs are encouraged to take opportunities to integrate their clinical work into an upper year paper course. Students must obtain approval from the Clinical Director, the paper course instructor, and Assistant Dean, Students.
This course offers students the opportunity to engage in Charter rights advocacy, including but not limited to litigation, under the supervision of experienced lawyers.
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is devoted to advocacy, research and education in the area of constitutional rights in Canada. Its cornerstone is a legal clinic bringing together students, faculty and members of the bar to work on significant constitutional cases. Appellate level cases that invoke the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in innovative ways to promote social justice will be selected. It is expected that students will have the opportunity to work alongside practitioners and faculty in developing written and oral arguments, for academic credit. Daily casework could include case theory formulation, constitutional legal research, appellate brief and factum writing and attendance at oral argument. Projects may also include policy advocacy and research along with public legal education.
Substantive and procedural issues arising in advocating for constitutional rights will be explored through seminars and experiential learning. You will be exposed to skills-building seminars and case work and explore some of the legal, procedural, strategic, ethical and theoretical dimensions of issues that arise in cases and other forms of legal advocacy.
The clinic will meet once a week for 3 hours except for the month of September when it will meet twice a week for 2 hours each class when the course will be co-taught with a constitutional litigator in residence. Part of each session will be organized as a seminar, which will focus on substantive issues in constitutional advocacy (eg. constitutional jurisdiction of various courts and tribunals; substantive basis for claims; roles of the various parties in Charter litigation; effective advocacy strategies) or on skills building (eg. research, drafting of pleadings, effective brief writing, analysis of legislation). Part of each session will be organized as discussions of the issues raised by the students’ casework and the issues involved in constitutional advocacy. Casework may include formulating case theories and advocacy strategies, legal research, drafting of briefs, facta or reports, or attending hearings. Examples of past projects include:
• Research and meetings with an advocacy organization on an election rights test case;
• Litigation support (research and legal drafting) for the Centre's Supreme Court interventions;
• Policy paper on labour & constitutional law issue for Law Commission of Ontario.
Commitment
Attendance at clinic meetings is mandatory. Students are routinely expected to provide oral briefings and analyses and to participate in discussions. While we will strive to make the overall workload of the clinic comparable to a course of similar weight, the clinic will at times involve obligations to clients and external deadlines which must be met. In this sense, the clinic requires a commitment beyond what is normally expected in an academic seminar. The credit weighting of this course is designed to reflect this additional commitment.
Practicum
Subject to approval of the instructor, in second term a one credit pass/fail practicum will be available for students who have previously completed the Asper Centre clinic. Where students so request and workload warrants, the instructor may approve of a practicum for two credits.
