Autonomous Vehicles and Anti-discrimination Law added to online collection

The latest additions from Irwin Law are now available behind the member’s portal on vLex.

Autonomous Vehicles. Self-Driving Cars and the Law of Canada  By Nathan Baker Irwin Law Inc., 2021

“Over the coming decades, the law surrounding motor vehicles is going to go through profound changes as autonomous vehicles become common and issues of law deriving from advances in technology inevitably arise. The definition of autonomy will be debated as we move to find new solutions to age-old problems, ranging from gridlock to human error. With the transition to, and ongoing evolution of, autonomous vehicles, the law will have to be modified accordingly. A new area of law will be needed, and with it, an assessment of how the current law can be adapted. Autonomous Vehicles: Self-Driving Cars and the Law of Canada will serve as a ready resource as courts and litigants begin the journey down this new road.”

Discrimination Stories. Exclusion, Law, and Everyday Life  By Colleen Sheppard Irwin Law Inc., 2021

“Despite growing societal and media attention to problems of discrimination in Canadian society, legal concepts in equality and anti-discrimination law are not widely understood. Discrimination Stories: Exclusion, Law, and Everyday Life explores diverse legal cases brought before courts and human rights tribunals to help us understand the development of anti-discrimination law in Canada. The cases take us into — and teach us about — the concrete realities of inequality in everyday life. They portray the struggles of individuals, families, and communities seeking justice and legal remedies for the harms of discrimination. The cases also reveal both the strengths and limits of anti-discrimination law. They show that equality in our human relations cannot be crafted exclusively by courts or tribunals, despite their significance and importance. Drawing on the complexity and power of discrimination stories, this book is designed to expand our collective knowledge of the evolving legal concepts at the heart of equality law.”

Jessop Competition Call for Volunteer Judges

Volunteers are needed to serve as judges for the oral rounds at the 2022 Jessup Canadian Qualifying Tournament in Winnipeg, Manitoba from February 10-12, 2022. This is a great opportunity to interact with current law students and colleagues from across Canada. All volunteers are welcome to attend the Judges’ Reception as well as the Gala Award Dinner.

In many jurisdictions, serving as a moot court judge counts towards Continuing Legal Education / Continued Professional Development credit.

Pre-Competition
Judges will receive background materials including:

  • The legal problem;
  • A comprehensive Bench Memo that details the problem and provides a general overview of the public international law principles teams are expected to address;
  • Copies of the teams’ written arguments are also available for judges to review prior to adjudication of the round.

Competition
Oral round judges will sit in panels of three and score the performance of competing schools.

Judges have the opportunity and are encouraged to provide feedback to students following the round.

Organizers attempt to balance the panel based on the judges’ practice area and experience in international law; familiarity in public international law is an asset but not a requirement to judge.

Rounds typically last 2.5 hours, and depending on one’s familiarity with the legal issues, can require the same amount of time for preparation.

Please click here to sign up to serve as an Oral Round Judge or contact Dana Hagg at dhagg@hmclawyers.com

Deadline for judge sign-up: Friday, December 10, 2021

Supreme Court Adds Plain Language Summaries

New to me (but not that new) – Cases in Brief:

Cases in Brief are short summaries of the Court’s written decisions drafted in reader-friendly language, so that anyone interested can learn about the decisions that affect their lives. They are prepared by communications staff of the Supreme Court of Canada. They do not form part of the Court’s reasons for judgment and are not for use in legal proceedings.

Supreme Court of Canada website

These summaries cover decisions from 2018 on. This looks like a handy resource to refer to clients or self represented litigants who need to understand a decision but are struggling to read the legalese. Or lawyers who want to be up on the law and it’s not in their area of practice.

Build Better Arguments with Cross-Jurisdictional Research

In this largest study of its kind, Mishcon de Reya joined forces with vLex Justis,
to investigate the cross-border flow of judicial thinking

Vlex has updated its search capabilities with the latest update to Vincent, its A.I. research assistant, with cross-jurisdictional recommendations.

“As of November 2021, vLex users can discover recommendations from multiple jurisdictions that differ from that of the document they are looking at. For example, a lawyer using Vincent to analyse a document from the Caribbean or Canada will now see recommendations of textually similar and relevant authorities from the UK, and many other jurisdictions. Importantly, this will enable lawyers to build better arguments using on-point cases and persuasive authorities from jurisdictions that are most relevant to them.”

– from the vLex Blog

For more details, this post from Mishcon de Reya lays out the recent trends and advantages of searching other jurisdictions, and also explains why there is still some hesitancy and why judges typically prefer to cite jurisdictions that are geographically nearby.

For your next time researching, visit the Member’s Portal and see what vLex can do for you.

Legislative Update

Latest News Releases

Manitoba Government is Modernizing the Family Maintenance Act November 3, 2021 – ” …changes to the Family Maintenance Act to include parentage legislation for children conceived through assisted reproduction with or without surrogacy.”

Manitoba Proclaims Legislation to Promote Timely Resolution of Human Rights Complaints November 2, 2021 – “The legislative changes set out in the Human Rights Code Amendment Act will take effect on Jan. 1, 2022”

Province Proclaims New Legislation to Repeal and Replace the Limitations Act November 2, 2021 – “Statutory limitations ensure that a person can no longer seek the assistance of the court to enforce a legal right after a certain period. This legislation will clarify statutory limitations for the various causes of action in Manitoba.”

Recent Proclamations

ChapterTitle     (provisions)Date in forceDate signedProclamation
SM 2021, c. 27The Human Rights Code Amendment Act (whole Act)1 Jan 202227 Oct 2021Proclamation
SM 2021, c. 28The Administrative Tribunal Jurisdiction Act (whole Act)1 Jan 202227 Oct 2021Proclamation
SM 2021, c. 36The Planning Amendment and City of Winnipeg Charter Amendment Act (various sections)29 Oct 202127 Oct 2021Proclamation
SM 2021, c. 44The Limitations Act (whole Act)30 Sep 202227 Oct 2021Proclamation

Please note: The library will be closing early on Friday, December 13th at 11:00AM for a special event.  Regular library service will resume Monday, December 16th at 8:30AM.

Scheduled Maintenance Notice: Please note there will be a brief disruption in accessing the Library website, including catalog and online resources, on the morning of Friday, December 13, 2024.