Judicial and Legal Education
CURA Researchers have been actively engaged in judicial and legal education in Canada and internationally. Further details about these activities are included below. The Publications and Resources and Presentations sections also provide a comprehensive listing of each CURA Researcher's work since the project began in 2004.
Economic and Social Rights Case Law Databases
ESCR-Net Caselaw Database is a collaborative project designed to make ESCR-related pleadings, commentary and decisions available to a wide audience of ESCR activists and defenders from a range of countries, legal traditions and languages. The database features cases that have been supported by CURA research including Victoria (City) v Adams. New cases are added to the database on a continuing basis.
The Canadian ESC Rights Case Index was prepared in 2006 and features a comprehensive listing of Canadian ESC cases.
Ontario Judicial Education Seminar
The Academic and Community Co-directors of the CURA prepared materials for and conducted a judicial education seminar on social context and the Charter.
Bruce Porter, "Poverty and the Courts" (Keynote address delivered at the National Judicial Institute to Judges of the Ontario Superior Court, Spring Education Seminar, Niagara Falls, 7 May 2004).
Martha Jackman, "Challenge and Promise: Poverty Issues and the Court" (National Judicial Institute to Judges of the Ontario Superior Court, Spring Education Seminar, Niagara Falls, May 2004).
Courses Taught by CURA Researchers
Poverty: Rights, Social Citizenship & Legal Activism – Course taught by Margot Young at University of British Columbia
Théorie et pratique en droit et justice sociale – French Common Law course taught by Martha Jackman at the University of Ottawa
Human Rights Law, Atkitsiraq Law School – Course taught by Gwen Brodsky, Jennifer Koshan and Susan Hardy in 2005
Public Legal Education Materials
Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation & Social Rights Advocacy Centre – Claiming Economic and Social Rights Booklet Series
- Standing up for your social and economic rights
- The right to adequate housing
- The right to an adequate standard of living
Quebec Popular Education Sessions
Listed below are popular education sessions, which were developed and delivered throughout Quebec. Each session includes supporting documents and activities.
L'Industrie de la pauvreté (2008). This session presents an analysis of the impact of five years of Québec's anti-poverty inititiative. It was given in the Outaouais (4 times), Montérégie, Mauricie, Centre du Québec (twice), Lanaudière et on the North Shore.
Serpents et échelles: Vers un bilan de la Loi 112 (2006-07), this session, built around a huge Snakes and Ladders game, allowed participants to arrive at their own conclusions concerning the impact of Québec's «anti-poverty» law. It was given at the MÉPACQ (provinicial movement), in the Outaouais (3 times), Lanaudière, Montérégie, Montréal et Mauricie
.
Presentations & Conferences Involving CURA Researchers
Martha Jackman, "La pauvreté : droits et recours à l'échèle internationale / Poverty: Rights and Remedies Under International Law" (3e Sommet sur la pauvreté du Front commun pour la justice sociale du Nouveau-Brunswick, Moncton, New Brunswick, Octobre 2010).
Martha Jackman, "La Charte et la pauvreté: une maison de carton?" (University of Ottawa Institute of Women's Studies, Ottawa, Ontario, Novembre 2010).
Martha Jackman, "Remedial challenges in socio-economic rights litigation" (Lecture delivered at the Canadian Institute for Advancement of Justice Annual Conference, Ottawa, Ontario, September 2009).
Martha Jackman, "Social Rights After 25 Years Under the Charter" (Lecture delivered at the Association of Canadian Studies National Conference on Canadian Rights and Freedoms: 25 Years Under the Charter, Ottawa, Ontario, April 2007).
Martha Jackman, "Poverty and Economic Rights Under the Charter" (Lecture delivered at Ontario Bar Association Fifth Annual Charter Conference, Toronto, Ontario, September 2006).
Martha Jackman, "New Frontier or Falling Of the Edge: Social and Economic Rights After Chaoulli?" (Lecture delivered at the National Summit on Chaoulli and the Restructuring of Health Care in Canada, Osgoode Hall Law School Professional Development Program, Toronto, Ontario, October 2005).
Bruce Porter, "In Defense of "Soft" Remedies (Sometimes): Enforcing Principled Remedies to Systemic Social Rights Claims in Canada" (Paper delivered at the International Symposium on Enforcement of ESCR Judgments, Bogota, Columbia, 6-7 May 2010).
Bruce Porter, The Right to an Effective Remedy in International Law (Turku, Finland, 2006)
Bruce Porter, Claiming Social and Economic Rights in Canada (Turku, Finland, 2006)
Bruce Porter, "Social and Economic Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms" (Paper delivered to the International Conference on Social and Economic Rights: Models of Enforcement, Dublin, Ireland, 10-11 December 2005).
Bruce Porter, Aofie Nolan & Malcolm Langford, "The Justiciability of Social and Economic Rights: an Updated Appraisal" (Paper delivered to the Human Rights Consortium of Northern Ireland, Belfast, Ireland, 20 November 2005).
Bruce Porter, "The Right to be Heard: What's at Stake?" (Paper delivered at the High Level Expert Seminar on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to the French Department of Foreign Affairs, Nantes, France, 5-7 September 2005).
Bruce Porter, "The Right to Adequate Housing in Canada" (Paper delivered at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission Special Hearings on the Right to Housing, Washington, DC, 4 March 2005).
Bruce Porter, "The Domestic Implementation of the ICESCR: The Right to Effective Remedies, the Role of Courts and the Place of the Claimants of ESC Rights" (Lecture delivered at the Workshop for Judges and Lawyers in North East Asia on the Justiciability of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights hosted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Commission of Jurists, Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia, 26-28 January 2004).
Gwen Brodsky, "PD v. AG BC and the Constitutional Right to Legal Aid in Family Law Matters" (Lecture delivered at the Ottawa Law Review Symposium, University of Ottawa, 24 February 2011).
Gwen Brodsky, "Using Constitutional and International Human Rights to Advance Women's Social Economic Rights," and various other addresses on aspects of the Constitutional Reform Process in Nepal. Lectures delivered to National Conference on Women in Law; Kathmandu School of Law; UNDP Centre for Constitutional Dialogue (inaugural address in CCD Speaker Series) and the Committee on Fundamental Rights and Directives of the Nepal Constituent Assembly (February 2009).
Gwen Brodsky, "Social and Economic Rights in Canada" (Lecture delivered at the International Symposium on Food and Human Rights: Hunger, Health and Social Well-Being, University of British Columbia, 28-29 September 2006).
Barbara Cameron & Shelagh Day, presenters, Imagining Public Policy to Meet Women's Economic Security Needs (Vancouver, BC, 13-14 October 2005).
Vincent Greason, L'ONU condamne nos gouvernements pour leur politiques sociales (sur les Observations finales du Comité du PIDESC), Quebec, Ligue des droits et libertés du Québec, 2006.
Vincent Greason, Le pouvoir citoyen, la municipalisation et la lutte contre la pauvreté: une hypothèse à vérifier, article produit dans le cadre du Colloque du MÉPACQ, 2003.
Lucie Lamarche, "Economic and Social Rights and the Era of Governance and Governance Arrangements in Canada: the Need to Re-visit the Issue of the Implementation of International Law of Human Rights" (Paper delivered at the Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario, 7 September 2007).