Legal Studies Undergraduate Journal
https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/LSUJ
<p>The Legal Studies Undergraduate Journal (LSUJ) is a peer-reviewed undergraduate project hosted by the University of Waterloo Legal Studies Society. LSUJ is created and managed by undergraduate students, with assistance from graduate students and faculty, and is published annually. It is intended to showcase exemplary works completed by undergraduate students. We aim to promote the field of Critical Legal Studies while celebrating undergraduate work. The essays that have been selected highlight the vast areas of study within the Legal Studies realm with a variety of topics being covered.</p>University of Waterloo Legal Studies Societyen-USLegal Studies Undergraduate Journal2371-5731<p>All authors have referenced and footnoted all ideas, words, and/or other intellectual property from other sources used in the completion of the essays. All authors have included a proper reference list, which includes acknowledgement of all sources used to complete the paper. The essays within this journal shall not be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher or the author, and shall also not be resubmitted in any way for use in any academic setting. </p>An Infection of Noble Causes: An Examination of the Effects of Noble-Cause Corruption on the Canadian Justice System
https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/LSUJ/article/view/4373
<p>Influenza does not usually pose a significant threat to one’s overall health. Most people who contract the seasonal illness can easily overcome their flu-like symptoms with over-the-counter medication. In some cases, however, influenza can expose a person to more serious bacterial infections like pneumonia. Pre-existing conditions, respiratory illness for example, increase the likelihood that infections like pneumonia will enter the body successfully, spread through the bloodstream, and trigger a multi-system infection (Ducharme, 2018). While such instances are rare, the results can be deadly.</p> <p>Noble-cause corruption is a form of corruption that occurs when individuals adhere to the problematic reasoning system of ‘the ends justify the means’ (Grometstein, 2005). Noble-cause corruption can be likened to influenza in the way that it affects the criminal justice system. We can think of it as an infection that causes the justice system to develop seemingly harmless ‘symptoms’ (or signs) of impaired function in the form of <em>unit failures </em>(Thompson, 2008). Pre-existing institutional conditions (Joy, 2006), like the tight coupling of crime-fighting <em>units </em>(Thompson, 2008), significantly increase the likelihood that more severe infections, such as socio-legal pressures, will successfully infiltrate the justice system and distort the conduct of individual agents. These factors work individually and together to produce consequences that are potentially lethal for due process and may result in wrongful convictions.</p>Ciara Burrows
Copyright (c) 2021 Ciara Burrows
2021-09-142021-09-144624Beyond Conventional "Womanhood": Feminist Legal Scholarship and Gender Identities
https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/LSUJ/article/view/4374
<p>Feminism is a diverse discipline with political, legal, philosophical, sociological, and economic roots. In recent years, some of the conversations within this vast realm of discourse have extended beyond the binary categories of “male” and “female” which marked first- and second-wave feminist discourse. In addition to controversies within Canadian case law and legislation, feminists have been concerned with the following debate: Is there room for various forms of gender expression and identity within feminist legal scholarship beyond conventional conceptions of womanhood? The enactment of <em>Bill C-16 </em>(enacted in June 2017) and the federal decision to amend the <em>Canada Human Rights Act </em>and <em>Criminal Code </em>so that these guiding legal principles will include gender identity and expression as a protected group has gained considerable media attention. Reactions have ranged from enthusiastic acceptance to intense disapproval. For instance, the viral denouncement from former University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson , who refused to use gender-neutral pronouns and claimed <em>Bill C-16</em> would “criminalize pronoun misuse,” an unfounded but popularized argument against the Bill (Cossman, 2018, 43-45).</p>Oriana Confente
Copyright (c) 2021 Oriana Confente
2021-09-142021-09-1442542Where Autonomy Belongs: The History of Abortion Laws in the Canadian Context
https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/LSUJ/article/view/4375
<p>From the time of approximately 3000 B.C., abortion, in some form has been a necessary tool of society, and used by many women within it for both personal and medical reasons (Lader, 1966). Despite this fact, after five millennia, abortion continues to be a much-debated issue in the modern era. This paper will use historical sources to sketch a timeline of Canada’s history of abortion practices, which will focus on the rapidly shifting legal status of abortion in Canada, and how it has come to be recognized the way it is today. The first era will be one that predates Dr. Henry Morgentaler and his efforts in abortions and abortion rights. The second era will surround his work, and what was accomplished during his time battling for abortion rights. The final era will be one of a modern Canada, and where abortion stands in the eyes of the law after the era of Morgentaler has passed. The goal of each section will be to identify where the law originally stood, how society, government, or the law may have influenced it, and finally, where abortion laws were at the end of the era, transitioning into the next. This paper will ideally function as a period at the end of the sentence that is the abortion debate, stating that restrictions to autonomy should cease, and encourage others to push for the same. Ultimately, this paper will argue that men have no place determining whether or not women are allowed access to an abortion, as it is ultimately a women’s issue. Even other women should have no say in what others do with their own body and life – the debate on abortion is essentially questioning just how autonomously people can act regarding their own bodies.</p>Ace Milner
Copyright (c) 2021 Ace Milner
2021-09-142021-09-1444365Considering Domestic Violence in the Context of Refugee Claimants in Canada
https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/LSUJ/article/view/4376
<p>In <em>Liberalism and the Limits of Inclusion: Race and Immigration Law in the Americas</em>, Cook-Martin, and FitzGerald (2010) acknowledge and refute the dominant perspective that the adoption of international human rights-based immigration law has eradicated exclusionary immigration policies in liberal states such as Canada (9). In fact, Cook-Martin and FitzGerald (2010) establish that exclusionary immigration policies are proposed and implemented more in liberal states than in illiberal states (7). In considering this discussion of immigration policies in liberal states, it can be asserted that despite the purported attempts of liberal states to eradicate exclusion in immigration policies, liberal states continue to participate in forms of positive discrimination which occur during the processes of evaluating the claims of individuals who are pursuing refugee status (Cook-Martin & FitzGerald 2010, 14). In the process of evaluating refugee claims, Sherene Razack (1998) further advances this discussion of liberal immigration policies through arguing that adjudicators on immigration boards categorize individuals seeking asylum on the grounds of domestic violence in diametric positions (88-89). Razack (1998) thus purports that adjudicators categorize claimants as either disreputable claimants or those in essential need of emancipation from the violence endured on valid grounds of persecution (88-89). Drawing on the perspectives of Cook-Martin and FitzGerald (2010) and Razack (1998), this article will demonstrate that immigration rights in liberal states are not granted equally .</p>Kaleigh Campbell
Copyright (c) 2021 Kaleigh Campbell
2021-09-142021-09-1446679