Thesis survey/recension des theses.

1. Doctoral Theses / Theses de doctorat

   Adila Abusharaf, Transnational Litigation of Local Oil Pollution Damages: A Study of Environmental Tort Claims by Ecuadorian, Nigerian and Sudanese Oil Communities against Multinational Oil Companies before the Courts of the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, University of Toronto.

   No Abstract Available / Resume non disponible

   Ellen Anderson, Bertha Wilson: Postmodern Judge in a Postmodern Time, University of Toronto. No Abstract Available / Resume non disponible

   Vera Arcangeli, Les notions d'arbitrabilite d'ordre public et de public policy comme moyens de controle de l'arbitrage commercial international au Canada, Universite de Montreal.

   No Abstract Available / Resume non disponible

   Joseph Logan Atkinson, The Upper Canadian Legal Response to the Cholera Epidemics of 1832 and 1834, University of Ottawa.

   Much of the recent legal historiography of Upper Canada dwells on the motivations of the governing class in implementing statute law and operating legal institutions. Some authors employ a relatively radical interpretation of elite motivation, insisting on a self-interest manifested through the manipulation, and occasionally the outright disregard, of law, institutions, and legal ideology. For others, a fair interpretation of the behaviour of historical actors attempts to understand those actors on terms consistent with contemporary ideals. The result is a more conservative functionalism that interprets the role of law in history relative to the accomplishment of those ideological imperatives to which decision makers were committed.

   However, the tendency in both approaches is to the subordination of law in legal history. The consequence is a reductionism in Upper Canada's legal history, by which the law is rendered epiphenomenal, secondary to politics, economics, or perhaps, self-interest. The overarching theme of this thesis is that very little legal-historical activity can he clearly characterized as purely self-interested, or purely idealistic. Rather, much of what occurs in the legislative chamber and in the minds of decision makers is concerned with the mundane events of ordinary life, and not with the political intrigue and idealism that arguably emerges from consideration of events of particularly high political drama.

   To illustrate, this thesis will consider the Upper Canadian legal response to the cholera epidemics of 1832 and 1834. First, an attempt will be made to analyze the reluctance of the executive government to employ initiatives (both executive action and legislation) to combat the disease similar to initiatives in neighbouring jurisdictions. The executive and legislative responses will be seen to have been motivated in large part by commitment to a widely shared vision of the public good inconsistent with many ordinary public health measures, including quarantine, reflecting some of the idealism one might predict through the conservative functionalism that characterizes much of Upper Canada's recent legal historiography.

   Second, the municipal legal response to the disease will be considered to illustrate the way in which a great deal of law develops not out of self-interest or idealism, but rather out of environmental pressure. The history of the legal response to the cholera epidemics is incomplete unless proper account is taken of the more mundane response of municipal authorities to the disease. It is in this arena that the legal historian can overcome the subordination of law to politics, and instead consider law as a mechanism to defend a relatively pristine legal community from environmental threat. The conclusion is that, to be more complete, Upper Canada's legal history must privilege environmental pressures as well as elite motivation in the design and implementation of law and legal institutions.

   Christian Brunelle, Diversite de la main-d'oeuvre et discrimination: du devoir de juste representation it l'obligation d'accommodement syndicale, Universite d'Ottawa.

   La diversite, qu'elle soit raciale, religieuse, sexuelle ou physique (age, handicap), est une nouvelle donne dans les rapports collectifs de travail. Elle interpelle les syndicats en les incitant a revoir des methodes parfois empreintes du seul souci d'assurer la protection des interets majoritaires, au detriment des femmes, des jeunes et des minorites dont la presence sur les lieux de travail se fait grandissante.

   Au devoir syndical dejuste representation des codes du travail, pense voila plus de cinquante ans dans une perspective de defense des interets collectifs d'une main-d'oeuvre pour ainsi dire homogene--salarie heterosexuel, de race blanche, de sexe masculin, de religion catholique, travaillant a temps plein, principalement dans le secteur manufacturier--est venu s'ajouter, dans la foulee des chartes et lois sur les droits de la personne, un devoir d'accommodement qui oblige les syndicats a faire primer les interets individuels des salaries jusqu'a la limite ultime de la >.

   Une analyse critique des precedents revele que la notion de > au coeur de ces devoirs syndicaux n'est manifestement pas identique. Produit d'une conception oh l'egalite est synonyme de traitement identique (egalite formelle), le devoir de juste representation vise la discrimination en general mais s'interesse essentiellement aux motivations syndicales. Ce sont les distinctions > ou, autrement dit, depourvues de > qui sont seules mises en echec par les tribunaux.

   Concu a notre epoque ou l'egalite est de plus en plus synonyme de traitement distinct et adapte (egalite reelle), le devoir d'accommodement vise la discrimination fondee sur une enumeration, tantot limitative, tantot indicative, de caracteristiques personnelles mais s'interesse a la lois a l'objet et aux effets de l'action syndicale. Darts cette perspective, ce sont toutes les distinctions > qui peuvent etre entachees d'illegalite.

   Ce devoir d'accommodement, nettement plus exigeant pour le syndicat, pose au mouvement syndical un defi sans precedent dont il neglige actuellement l'importance: repenser, a son tour, sa notion d'egalite pour repondre plus adequatement aux besoins d'une main-d'oeuvre a l'heterogeneite croissante.

   Lucile Cipriani, Quantifier l'inqualifiable: La judiciarisation de la violence conjugale, Universite Laval.

   Analyse critique feministe des normes, discours, postulats et pratiques de judiciarisation de la violence conjugale au Quebec. Le droit peut-il et veut-il ecouter les victimes? Expose des regles du processus judiciaire, de l'etat de stress post-traumatique, de l'inadaptation des regles aux sequelles psychologiques des victimes.

   Etude de la judiciarisation de la violence conjugale en janvier 1996 dans le district judiciaire de Quebec. Les agents de l'Etat evacuent la totalite des agressions intimes anterieures a l'agression judiciarisee. Quarante-six pour cent des victimes ne sont entendues a aucune etape du processus judiciaire.

   Ecouter veritablement les femmes victimes de violence conjugale impose de tenir compte de la constriction des victimes, de leur porter secours, d'aider a rompre le cercle vicieux.

   Israel Doron, From Guardianship to Long-Term Legal Care: Law and Caring for the Elderly, Osgoode Hall Law School.

   In 1992, after long years of study and research, Ontario reformed its adult guardianship laws. The new legislation created a novel legal regime that provided legal substitute decision-making mechanisms for people who have lost their mental capacity. Ontario's guardianship law reform was triggered by various factors, including the aging of the Ontario population, changes in the political climate, and the awareness of the potential harm and mismanagement that were embedded in its previous guardianship regime. Now that several years have passed and Ontario's law reform has been fully implemented, an evaluation is required. Has the legal reform made a difference in the lives of the elderly? Did it achieve the goals that were originally set forth? Are more steps or other changes still needed? In order to answer these questions, Ontario's law reform was examined in this study from different angles: political, historical, empirical, legal, and international.

   The findings of this study point to a mixed result. In some respects, Ontario has made significant progress in safeguarding the values of personal autonomy and enabling the elderly to avoid guardianship by using advance directives. In other respects, Ontario has failed to address the need for broader long-term social, familial, and legal support for the elderly. This study argues that Ontario's substitute decision-making model is inadequate and ought to be replaced by a long-term legal care model. The latter integrates guardianship with the long-term care system, transforming legal care into a social service provided to all elderly.

   Peter Ateh Afac Fossungu, Understanding Confusion: A Historical and Critical Essay on the Constitution of Cameroon, Universite de Montreal.

   No Abstract Available / Resume non disponible

   Michal Gal, Competition Policy for Small Market Economies: Market Conditions under the Magnifying Glass, University of Toronto.

   No Abstract Available / Resume non disponible

   Marie-Laure Gely, Le role de la Cour supreme dans la repartition des competences au Canada, Universite Laval.

   Conformement a la theorie classique de la justice constitutionnelle dans un Etat federal developpe par Hans Kelsen, le role de la Cour supreme dans la repartition des competences au Canada est un role d'arbitre puisque les juges doivent regler les conflits issus de la distribution des competences entre le pouvoir federal et le pouvoir provincial inscrite, principalement, aux articles 91 et 92 de la Loi constitutionnelle de 1867.

   Toutefois, cette image theorique du juge-arbitre est insuffisante pour prendre compte de la complexite du role de la justice constitutionnelle au Canada meme si les juges ont tendance a presenter leur travail dans la logique...