Prof. Simon Stern cited in SCC decision on copying in trial judgements

It its decision on the case Cojocaru v. British Columbia Women’s Hospital and Health Centre, the Supreme Court of Canada cites work by Prof. Simon Stern about the degree to which a judge's copying from other sources in a trial decision, with or without attribution, should affect the validity of the decision. The decision quotes at length from Prof. Stern's forthcoming article "Copyright Originality and Judicial Originality," which will appear in the University of Toronto Law Journal. The SCC agrees with Prof. Stern's conclusions, stating "To set aside a judgment for failure to attribute sources or for lack of originality alone would be to misunderstand the nature of the judge’s task and the time-honoured traditions of judgment-writing."

Read the SCC decision (May 24, 2013)

Read the pre-publication version of Prof. Stern's article, on SSRN.