This article considers the problems associated with the international regime addressing the transfrontier movement of hazardous waste. Significant gaps exist within the current regime, it is argued, because historically, policy-making has been predominated by the concerns of developed nations, to the detriment of the developing countries most likely to be the recipients of the waste. To better understand why and how this is the case, the regime is examined through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT), a theory advocating, among other things, the need to recognize the context in which the problem is set, outside of the confines of a legal structure defined and changed only incrementally by the enfranchised. The paper begins with an overview of why the problem is of concern, as well as sets out the tenets of CRT to be used as tools of analysis throughout the paper. The paper then highlights the international, regional and bilateral measures that exist, attempting to identify some of the gaps in the regime via application of the tenets of CRT. The final section of the paper offers three suggestions as topics to consider in future negotiations: a call for an ameliorated Prior Informed Consent regime, the establishment of an international fund mechanism and potential options for remedial tribunals.

A central feature of Canadian history since the mid-twentieth century has been ‘the rights revolution,’ the quest to articulate and give legal protection to human rights and fundamental freedoms. In many ways, as with other Western nations, this struggle has become the country's defining metanarrative, giving identity, normative ideals and purpose to Canadian nationhood and jurisprudence, especially with the entrenchment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Canadian Constitution of 1982. It is the intention of this article to study historically the complex role of religion in an early phase of the human rights narrative in Canada. The focus is on the religious dimension of the passage in 1960 by the Progressive Conservative Government of John Diefenbaker of Canada's first national human rights instrument, the Canadian Bill of Rights. It will be argued that the churches played an important but ambiguous role in relation to the human rights movement which, in some ways, presented perceived challenges to their own religiously-grounded metanarratives of Canadian history, identity, and destiny. A central thesis advanced is that the 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights reflected and legislated a pluralism which was religiously-positive in integrating the nation's principal religious and political values under the formula affirmed in the bill's Preamble: “that the Canadian Nation is founded upon principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God, the dignity and worth of the human person and the position of the family in a society of free men and free institutions (…).”

India's Constitution of 1950 was, on the whole, a creation of the Western spirit, superimposed on a society and a culture with a complex traditional legal system. But constitutions are more than simply legal texts which can be adopted at will; they are also means of cultural self-portrayal and mirrors of cultural heritage. This is illustrated here by an analysis of the tortuous history of the Basic Structure Doctrine in India's constitutional discussions. Although this doctrine, developed by Carl Schmitt during the time of the Weimar Republic in Germany, was introduced to India by the Supreme Court in order to reduce the flood of constitutional amendments, it soon underwent major reinterpretations and later referred to overarching principles of the Constitution. In this way the Constitution became permeable to some of the surviving traditional legal concepts of India. An appendix provides a comparison with the unwritten principles of the Canadian Constitution. In contrast to the Indian situation, the Canadian unwritten principles have no superlegal status and the written constitutional rules take precedence over them. Any constitutional amendment realized according to the prescribed procedure is legal, and no higher principle would provide legal continuity.

Memory is primarily valued in Canadian and American legal systems as an evidentiary tool and object. Remembering, however, is seen as a moral and cultural act among anthropologists. This article examines historical and contemporary cases and statutes involving the treatment of dead bodies in search of legal recognition of memory as “moral practice”. The contemporary cases analyzed construct indignities offered to human bodies as affronts to memory. The United States' Native American Graves and Repatriation Act has been interpreted so as to recognize connections between the worlds of the living and the dead. Ontario's Cemeteries Act, however, which sets procedures for managing all unmarked graves, has been interpreted so as to exclude aboriginal views of connections between the living and the dead. Legal recognition of memory of the dead in these cases does open an avenue for justice claims, but it is a narrow one.

The literature is replete with numerous examples of attempts to either abolish or reform traditional practices that violate the rights of people in different societies around the world. Few success cases have, however, been recorded. The recent anti-trokosi campaign in Ghana against female ritual servitude is one of the few success cases. By August 2000, 59 % of all known trokosis had been liberated. Today, it is estimated that less than a couple of hundred of trokosis are still held in bondage. The campaign, which started as a Christian religious crusade against the Ewe traditional religious practice of trokosi, backfired initially as it met with hostility and little cooperation from the shrine owners and practitioners. However, by 1995, the strategy changed from a religious to an international human rights campaign paving the way for the first mass liberation of trokosis in 1996. The author argues that the peculiar type of human rights approach adopted, which was based on education, dialogue, cultural sensitivity, and mutual respect, accounts largely for the success of this campaign.

This paper analyzes the processing of complaints against lawyers through the Law Society of British Columbia's disciplinary system between 1989 and 2000. It also examines changes to the context within which the disciplinary system operates, between the time period of an earlier study (1978–1988) and this study. Cases processed by the disciplinary system are discussed in light of a model that examines the process from the perspective of how cases are brought into the system (funnel in), and reduced in number by the disciplinary system (funnel out). Finally, the future of self-regulation is assessed in light of some of the renegotiations and readjustments to professional self-regulation that have taken place elsewhere.

In his recent work, Professor Harry Arthurs dismisses the idea of industrial citizenship as being a fundamental paradigm for the study of labour law, although he has supported it convincingly since 1967. Part of this change of mind is based on the legalization process of labour arbitration, which is due, at least to some degree, to the penetration of this field by complex human rights standards. For Arthurs, legal pluralism, characteristic of collective labour relations, is being progressively eroded by the movement of legalization initiated by the Canadian Charter. The author intends to put this thesis to the test, by examining what is going on in Quebec, as regards labour arbitration and human rights. The overall context is not exactly the same, the Quebec Charter being somehow of a specific nature, more open to social rights than it is the case for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But concerning the right to equality, there is enough common ground to allow a comparison. The author then uses the results of an empirical study (content analysis, semi-directed interviews) conducted at the School of Industrial Relations and the Centre de recherche en droit public of the University of Montreal, which considers discrimination cases at work decided by arbitrators and by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal. This empirical study reveals the self-referential nature of this process in both cases: even if the Law is the same, the way of constructing and applying it is quite different in the sphere of labour relations (the arbitrators) and in the sphere of human rights (the Human Rights Tribunal). This may be explained by the diverging interests and values of the actors involved, and by the pressures the industrial relations system imposes on the arbitrators, who may be portrayed as a “coupling mechanism” between this social system and the legal one. This is not to say that Arthurs' legalization thesis is “wrong”, just that for the time being, it cannot be firmly asserted in the Quebec context. That being said, Arhturs' past and present work on industrial citizenship remains of the outmost scientific relevance to grasp the actual stand of industrial relations and labour law.

The author presents the main results of a research project concerning inquiries conducted by the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse du Québec concerning rights violations in youth readaptation centres. She goes on to discuss the efficacy of the inquiry mechanism as guarantor of the rights of youth housed in these facilities. Over the ten year period in question the Commission repeatedly affirmed that the use of solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure violated the fundamental rights of these youth. Nevertheless, an examination of the inquiry files demonstrates that this measure is still employed, despite changes in terminology and overall policy. The analysis also reveals that Commission pronouncements are sometimes contradictory and that their recommendations are often not followed-up on with much diligence.

In the aftermath of violent crime, survivors are confronted by questions of comprehension, healing, normalcy, accountability, and restoration. These same issues are communicated to audiences via mass media coverage of the crime and ensuing legal proceedings that focus upon survivors while they are in the public eye—and while those suspected of the crime are in the defendant's chair. Such stories bring a human face to the innocents most affected by the outcome of the proceedings, relaying their involvement in and response to legal developments from arrest to execution. This paper examines these chronicles through the lens of narrative theory, practices integral to human communication and memory. It discusses how the mass media makes use of narrative practices in covering crises, events that in effect demand narration. This paper then focuses upon the suturing potential of narrative, its ability to knit together understandings of crises into beginnings, endings, and points in between. This discussion is illustrated by a content analysis of stories covering Dennis and Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew was brutally slain in 1998, from the time of the murder to the prosecution of the killers and beyond.

Interpol is the most widely recognised ‘brand name’ in transnational policing, but to whom, or what, is it accountable? In the democratic countries of the West, debates and discussions about accountability frameworks for policing agencies have typically focused on organisations that have a legally defined and narrowly circumscribed jurisdiction, referred to in this paper as the ‘standard paradigm’ for policing accountability. There is a lacuna in this literature which has to do with those few agencies that operate transnationally and which, in important but ill-understood ways, are only partially bound by the jurisdictional purview of sovereign nation-states. This paper examines the accountability framework of Interpol, with particular reference to its historically questionable status as an Intergovernmental Organisation (IGO). It looks at Interpol's modus operandi and explains why its workings can potentially become the subject of hot political contestation. It considers some of the important articles of the organisation's constitution and reflects upon the agency's changing role in policing the globe subsequent to the 9–11 attack. The nature of Interpol's accountability will be analysed by reference to a typology that includes internal, external, formal and informal accountability mechanisms. It is argued that a fundamental challenge for transnational institutions is how to create and maintain the lines of democratic accountability that render them legitimate.

In the spring of 2001, statistics concerning criminality in France, - on the decline over the preceding five years, - showed an increase. The principal measure recommended by a Conference on Interior Security held in January 2001 was the adoption of legislative changes to combat the offences responsible for this increase in criminal activity, which the opposition was using to advantage in anticipation of the coming elections (legislative and presidential elections were slated for the spring of 2002). Thus in March 2001 the French Parliament approved first reading of a new “interior security law.” By the time of second reading in October 2001 the issue had become highly emotionally charged because of the events of September 11 in the United States, which resulted in the bill being “fortified” with a chapter “with a view to strengthening the war against terrorism.” Thus a link was made in the framework of a legislative text between daily security issues and international terrorism, - petty crime irritants to public order and epic conflicts affecting the entire planet. This link persisted, notably in polemics on security issues launched during the election campaigns, and subsequently in the measures instituted by the new government in May 2002. This paper exposes and criticizes this conflation.

This paper examines the Chinese Canadian pursuit for head tax compensation through an exploration of the social and political discourses surrounding redress and through the legal case itself, Mack et al. v. The Attorney General of Canada. Although the case never reached the courts, except to determine whether calls for redress had any basis in Canadian law, the juridical reasoning alongside public and state contestations reveal the complex ways in which these claims may be influenced by dominant Canadian national mythologies. My central argument is that the courts, politicians, and the public have read the Chinese Canadian redress campaign through two liberal national-racial myths that circulate within and sustain Canadian discourses of multiculturalism. Throughout, I show how these mythologies – of immigration as “choice” and Chinese Canadians as “model-minorities” – have both influenced and shaped the juridical, political, and social responses to head tax compensation in ways that have diminished Chinese Canadian struggles for justice. In the conclusion, I consider the valuable lessons that we may learn from the Mack case and from the Chinese Canadian redress movement more generally.

Commenting on a collection of essays published in honour of Claude Masse, a career law teacher at the Université du Québec à Montréal and an engaged advocate, the author examines social justice scholarship as a genre of legal writing in Quebec. Itself subtitled ‘in search of justice and equity’, the Mélanges Claude Masse offers an opportunity to reflect upon the role of legal scholarship as an instrument of social change by comparing it to legal scholarship that is merely speculative in its ambitions. The influences on Quebec private law scholarship over the past thirty years – the relative newness of career law teaching, the impact of the Quiet Revolution on the theory of sources of law, and the massive weight of civil code revision in legal culture – may explain why writing on social justice in this period has been so resolutely fixed on law reform. Yet this book and the career of Claude Masse point to a second face of legal writing on justice and equity. It is argued here that legal scholarship is itself an act of resistance in that it involves, by its very nature, speaking out in a spirit of difference. The balance of these two themes – legal scholarship as an instrument of social change and legal scholarship as an act of social justice in itself – is a central feature of Quebec's university culture in law.

Using two reports about the practice of racial profiling in Toronto, I argue that racial profiling must be understood as a category of governance. My argument for understanding racial profiling as a category of governance is to insist upon a move away from questions or investigations that ask whether racial profiling occurs as a police practice. Instead, by understanding racial profiling as a category of governance, I argue that scholars and practitioners can begin to expose how different racialized practices regulate the boundaries of citizenship and ultimately work to establish how citizen rights are organized, policed and implemented. I conclude by suggesting why it is useful to speak of a “category of governance” as a concept that has wider potential use in the study of racial profiling, particularly as it pertains to the variety of ways in which certain populations are made (or are not made) into subjects/citizens of modern nation states.

The texts discussed illustrate general methodological and pedagogical problems faced by the social sciences. Because of their illustrative nature each of these texts makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how it is that social scientists conceive of and deploy ‘race’ as an analytic category and how this impacts on the production of knowledge about crime control and social justice. In this way, the texts are telling in terms of how analytic categories, more generally, are treated in teaching and research. Through a comparative approach this essay takes three recent texts as a vehicle to argue that the consideration of epistemological issues stemming from the employment of central analytic categories cannot be avoided and that attempts to do so yield a passive rather than active engagement with the object of analysis. Moreover, passive approaches do not serve to represent a critically engaged, social scientific enquiry.