Search

Since 1980, the Canadian women's movement has been an active participant in consitutional politics and Charter litigation. This book, through its focus on the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), presents a compelling examination of how Canadian feminists became key actors in developing the constitutional doctrine of equality, and how they mobilized that doctrine to support the movement's policy agenda. The case of LEAF, an organization that has as its goal the use of Charter litigation to influence legal rules and public policy, provides rich ground for Christopher Manfredi's keen analysis of legal mobilization. In a multitude of areas such as abortion, pornography, sexual assault, family law, and gay and lesbian rights, LEAF has intervened before the Supreme Court to bring its understanding of equality to bear on legal policy development. This study offers a deft examination of LEAF's arguments and seeks to understand how they affected the Court's consideration of the issues. Perhaps most important, it also contemplates the long-term effects of the mobilization, and considers the social impact of the legal doctrine that has emerged from LEAF cases. A major contribution to law and society studies, Feminist Activism in the Supreme Court is unparalleled in its analysis of legal mobilization as an effective strategy for social movements. It will be widely read and welcomed by legal scholars, political scientists, lawyers, feminists, and activists.

This book examines the paradox at the heart of the relationship between judicial power and liberal constitutionalism in Canada, the use of judicial power to review and nullify or modify policies enacted by democratically accountable decision-makers. In this new edition, Manfredi refines his original argument and brings the content completely up to date.

Since the introduction of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, individuals and organizations have increasingly turned to the courts to try to bring about policy change in areas such as health care. Health Care and the Charter explores the systematic use of Charter litigation in the area of health care and the ultimate policy impact of the resulting judicial decisions. Christopher P. Manfredi and Antonia Maioni examine three of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions in recent years. Eldridge (1997) and Auton (2004) invited the Court to extend the scope of publicly funded services, while Chaouilli (2005) asked the Court to allow private health services. This book explores the paths that brought litigants to the Court, the arguments and evidence they mustered to support their positions, and the substance of the victory or defeat the Court provided them. The volume then assesses the ultimate impact of these cases in both policy and political terms.

The 2000 case of Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Customs Canada provided Canada’s highest court with its first opportunity to consider whether the analysis set out in R. v. Butler - in which the Supreme Court identified pornography as an issue of sex discrimination - applies to pornography intended for a lesbian or gay male audience. The Court held that it did, finding that, like heterosexual pornography, same-sex pornography also violates the sex equality interests of all Canadians. Christopher Kendall supports this finding, arguing that gay male pornography reinforces those social attitudes that create systemic inequality on the basis of sex and sexual orientation - misogyny and homophobia alike - by sexually conditioning gay men to those attitudes and practices. The author contends that as a result of litigation efforts like those brought by lesbian and gay activists in the Little Sisters case, the notion of empowerment and the rejection of those values that daily result in all that is anti-gay have been replaced with a misguided community ethic and identity politic that encourages inequality. This is best exemplified in the gay male pornography defended in Little Sisters as "liberation" and "central to sexual freedom." Gay Male Pornography rejects the equality claims of gay male pro-pornography advocates and argues that there is little to be gained from sexualized conformity. To date, no one has taken the position that gay male pornography violates the legal right to sex equality. This book does that and, as such, it will be of value to scholars of law, sociology, and gender studies, as well as to all who have an interest in equality and justice.

Since 1980, the Canadian women's movement has been an active participant in consitutional politics and Charter litigation. This book, through its focus on the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), presents a compelling examination of how Canadian feminists became key actors in developing the constitutional doctrine of equality, and how they mobilized that doctrine to support the movement's policy agenda. The case of LEAF, an organization that has as its goal the use of Charter litigation to influence legal rules and public policy, provides rich ground for Christopher Manfredi's keen analysis of legal mobilization. In a multitude of areas such as abortion, pornography, sexual assault, family law, and gay and lesbian rights, LEAF has intervened before the Supreme Court to bring its understanding of equality to bear on legal policy development. This study offers a deft examination of LEAF's arguments and seeks to understand how they affected the Court's consideration of the issues. Perhaps most important, it also contemplates the long-term effects of the mobilization, and considers the social impact of the legal doctrine that has emerged from LEAF cases. A major contribution to law and society studies, Feminist Activism in the Supreme Court is unparalleled in its analysis of legal mobilization as an effective strategy for social movements. It will be widely read and welcomed by legal scholars, political scientists, lawyers, feminists, and activists.

"This is an important, concise, and well-written book that provides readers with bold insights into the converging patterns of jurisprudence in the field of election law in Canada and the United States." - Cynthia Ostberg, University of the Pacific

"This is an important, concise, and well-written book that provides readers with bold insights into the converging patterns of jurisprudence in the field of election law in Canada and the United States." - Cynthia Ostberg, University of the Pacific

The first English language book to cover the full scope of modern Italy, from its official birth to today, "The Force of Destiny" is a brilliant and comprehensive study and a frightening example of how easily nation-building and nationalism can slip toward authoritarianism and war.

Taking in a century of change, this work focuses on how the Supreme Court brought the juvenile court system under constitutional control. It describes the case of Gerald Gault, an Arizona teenager who was sent to reform school for making an obscene phone call.