Course Descriptions

This course examines the law applicable to a range of relationships that arise in a variety of commercial transactions: sale of goods, leasing, and suretyship. While the course occasionally focuses on consumer issues, its primary focus is commercial transactions and the relationships established thereunder.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Canvasses secured financing practices in Canada involving collateral in the form of personal property, with the primary focus on commercial secured transactions. The course examines the policy and economic implications of secured financing law, including the history, doctrinal basis and specific provisions of the primary sources of secured financing law in Canada- provincial Personal Property Security Acts and the secured financing regime of the Bank Act. The study of case law will provide the contextual framework to interpret and apply this legislation to factual scenarios. These subjects are examined in the context of the two primary themes of the course, inter parties creation and enforcement of security agreements and third party priority issues.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Examines the policies, laws, regulations, guidelines, procedures, and cases that illustrate how Canada defines membership in the Canadian community.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

A full-year course designed to provide students with practical, real-life legal experience and the tools to reflect critically upon this experience. Students enrolled in the course take on client files at Community Legal Assistance Services for Saskatoon Inner City Inc. CLASSIC is a not-for-profit community legal clinic located at 123 20th Street East. Students provide front-line legal services in many areas of law, including criminal law, social assistance law, immigration and refugee law, residential tenancies law, human rights law, prison law and more. Students will gain skills and understanding in the areas of client interviewing and counseling, legal writing and research, file management, professional responsibility and advocacy before courts and administrative tribunals. Students are exposed to the complexities and demands of real-life legal clinic and engage with the legal system on the level at which it actually operates. Students will also be exposed to issues and critical literature pertaining to poverty law, access to justice and the lawyering process.

Weekly hours: 2 Seminar/Discussion hours and 4 Clinical Service hours

The Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Chair Seminar will be offered once a year in those years where there is a visiting Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Chair. It will have a varied content, depending upon the incumbent's experience and interest. The seminar may be interdisciplinary.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): None. Offered as upper-year class so normally requires completion of first year of JD studies.
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the college to ensure that the topics covered are different.

In this course, students examine the history and structure of a complex area of law which contains features developed by the Courts of Equity hundreds of years ago and modified by ad hoc statutory provisions designed to address severe economic conditions that existed in prairie Canada in the past. The course will focus on the conceptual structure of mortgage law and the public policies that are embodied in it. Students are given the opportunity to consider not only the operation of a central feature of modern society but, in addition, will be asked to consider whether important aspects of mortgage law require re-examination in the light of changes in the social and economic structure of Western Canada over the last few decades.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Examination of global law of Indigenous rights, with specific application to bearing of this area of law on resource development. Specific topics will be adapted annually in light of emerging issues and scholarly work but will include UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) provisions on land rights, resource rights, and consultation/FPIC; other selected international law materials on Indigenous rights at a global level, comparative legal approaches to doctrine of Aboriginal title; legal status and content of ‘duty to consult’/consultation with Indigenous peoples and ‘free,prior, and informed consent’, implications for selected resource sectors or resource-related infrastructure projects.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

The Estey Chair in Business Law Seminar will be offered once a year in those years where there is a visiting Estey Chair. It will have a varied content within the broad scope of business law, depending upon the incumbent's experience and interest. The seminar may be interdisciplinary.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): None. Offered as upper-year class so normally requires completion of first year of JD studies. A particular Estey Chair might require some specific preparation.
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the college to ensure that the topics covered are different.

This course examines the law relating to collection, use, and disclosure of information in the public and private sectors in Canada.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

This course is intended to provide students with a general introduction to construction law in Canada. Building on basic concepts learned in contract and tort law, students will gain an understanding as to how contracts for work are awarded; what construction contracts look like, including which clauses are typically the source of litigation; how performance of the work is secured by owners; what rights, obligations and remedies parties can access through The Builder’s Lien Act and how to use arbitration effectively to resolve construction disputes.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): LAW 202 (Contract Law) and LAW 211 (Tort Law)

The course explores the law governing a variety of payment and transfer systems. The relationship between a depository bank and its customer is the initial focus, including a bank’s right of set-off against its customer’s deposit account (a key form of payment mechanism). Significant attention is devoted to the legal and regulatory infrastructure underlying Canada’s two principal monetary payment systems, the Automated Clearing & Settlement System (ACSS) and the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS), as well as the statutory regimes of the federal Bills of Exchange Act (BEA) (which pertains to the transfer of payment rights in bills of exchange, promissory notes and cheques), the provincial Securities Transfer Act (STA) (which pertains to the transfer of rights in financial assets including share certificates, bearer bonds, and electronically held securities) and the provincial Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) (which pertains to transfers of accounts). Finally, students will learn about other modern payment systems and mechanisms (e.g. PayPal, Bitcoin, Interac, Credit Card), gaining familiarity with the general infrastructure and processes underlying such systems and mechanisms (e.g. PayPal, Bitcoin, Interac, Credit Card), gaining familiarity with the general infrastructure and processes underlying such systems and mechanisms.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

This course will be offered when an opportunity arises for an instructor to offer an additional course in the area of Indigenous Studies that upper year JD students may take to fulfill their program requirement of successfully completing 3 credit units in senior-level Indigenous Studies courses. The course will have varied content, depending upon the instructor's experience and interest. The course may be interdisciplinary.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Restriction(s): Restricted to students in the J.D. program.
Prerequisite(s): LAW 232.

Introduces students to the basic principles of medical law and their application to common issues in health care. It also explores the legal framework for the health professions and the health care system.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

This course provides an overview of the key areas relevant to entertainment law, including: artist rights, copyright infringement, fair dealing, negotiation, trade-marks in entertainment, talent and guild agreements, collective bargaining, publicity rights, defamation, entertainment contracts, and emerging entertainment law issues in the digital age. The course will provide examples from film, television, music, visual art, live performance and other areas. Some classes may involve guest speakers. Students will have an opportunity to consider and discuss both practical and theoretical issues regarding entertainment law.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

This course will provide in-depth coverage of legal issues that arise in context to professional regulation in Canada. Topics will include unauthorized practice, registration, investigation, quality assurance, marketing, mobility, and discipline. The course will address how professional regulation intersects with other areas of the law, including administrative law, human rights, and the Charter.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

This course examines fundamental transformations in lawyering, considering matters that include future needs for flexibility and innovation, changes in business models in the context of various changes, regulatory change, and technological change. The course introduces students to some key literature on these topics and uses a variety of pedagogical methods, including exercises oriented to the use of design thinking principles. The course also includes personal skills development and seeks to facilitate students taking on a mindset of agility and change in the context of ongoing transformational change in the delivery of legal services.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Restriction(s): Restricted to students in Years 2 and 3 of the Juris Doctor (J.D.) program in the College of Law.

Child Protection Law and Practice focuses on child protection law, policy and procedure, with the aim of helping students to develop a legal framework consistent with the theory, values, and skills of practice in this area of law. The course will critically examine a range of contemporary legal, social policy and practice issues that impact the lives of children, caregivers, and their communities. The course examines the quasi-criminal and quasi-family law nature of child protection law in Canada. The main goal of the course is to provide a foundation for child protection law and practice within a social justice framework, by examining a range of issues pertinent to the practice of child protection law. The course format will be interactive and success for all (including the instructor) will depend on the full participation of each person in critically examining issues and challenges pertinent to child protection law in Canada.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Restriction(s): This is a upper year course and only offered to students in years 2 and 3 of the Juris Doctor (J.D.) program (students in year 1 of the J.D. program may not register in this course).

This internship will give students an opportunity to learn about the process of law reform and to develop their research and writing skills by working with the Commission and its Director on law reform projects in which the Commission is engaged.

Weekly hours: 3 Practicum/Lab hours
Restriction(s): This course is open to students in Years 2 and 3 of the Juris Doctor (J.D.) program.

Developments in Saskatchewan suggest that we ought to be expanding our study of Family Dispute Resolution beyond ‘negotiation’. In 2019, Dispute Resolution will become mandatory in (all) family law disputes in Saskatchewan, including a spectrum of DR processes. Family lawyers will need to be better equipped than in the past, to advise their clients on the range of process options in these often complex matters. They will also need greater capacity to work in interdisciplinary and cross-cultural settings, to help resolve family conflict. Finally, new models for the delivery of legal services are emerging more quickly in this field than in any other area of legal practice—raising considerations around professional responsibility, regulation and even professional identity.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): Negotiation, and one of the Family Law courses [Family Law I, Family Law II, or the advanced Family Law seminar].
Restriction(s): Restricted to students in the College of Law.

Covers the creation, administration, variation and breach of express trust. Resulting and constructive trusts are also examined.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

A survey of the role of administrative agencies within the Anglo-Canadian legal system focusing primarily on consideration of the extent to which agency and executive action is subject to judicial review and control.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

The seminar examines the evolution of First Nations’ economic development. There will be a brief overview of historical economic activities by First Nations, a review of government legislation and policy that impacted First Nations’ economies and a review of legal developments including First Nations-led legislative initiatives that have created the environment for renewed economic development activities by First Nations.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

This seminar is a theory and practice course, combining the study of legal principles unique to appellate litigation practice with practical written exercises, and a mock appeal in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeals. The objective of this seminar is to increase a student's understanding of the appellate process in both civil and criminal matters, and to provide practical exposure to the practice of litigation.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

The environmental moot course will be offered either as an internal moot, or when feasible as part of an inter-law school or national environmental moot. The course will provide students with instruction in areas of environmental law relevant to the moot case, advanced legal research and writing, and appellate advocacy.

Weekly hours: 3 Practicum/Lab hours
Restriction(s): Students must have completed first-year of the J.D. program.
Note: LAW 444 Environmental Law is a recommended prerequisite.

Up to five students will be selected annually to participate in the Donald G. H. Bowman National Tax Moot, typically held in Toronto. The moot will involve research and advocacy, both oral and written, and will allow students from Canadian law schools to debate current legal issues in taxation law with senior tax practitioners and with justices of the Tax Court and Federal Court of Appeal. This moot is recommended to those with an interest in advocacy, exacting research and taxation issues. Upper year students are invited to apply. Students receive a 3-hour course credit which they can designate for either first or second term. Two students are paired together as the appellant team and two students are paired together as the respondent team. A fifth participant may be selected as an additional participant, who may perform certain activities including research, peer coaching, and/or factum writing.

Weekly hours: 3 Practicum/Lab hours
Note: LAW 477 Taxation I is a recommended prerequisite.

Legal research is fundamental to providing legal analysis and advice. This advanced legal research course goes beyond what students have learned in their introductory legal research and writing course, thus allowing for the exploration of more advanced legal research skills. While it maintains the focus on practical legal research skills for purposes of providing professional support for client decision-making, it adds new approaches and skills. Thus, there may be a selected focus on such matters as development of research plans for more complex problems, engagement with interpretation statutes, comparative/foreign legal research, international law research, artificial intelligence and legal research, communication to clients, formulation of predictions with an awareness of effects of potential cognitive biases, ethical issues in research, and other advanced legal research matters.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): LAW 245.2 Legal Research and Writing.

This 3-credit seminar critically examines issues relating to housing, homelessness, and the law. Housing is a fundamental human need, but affordable, secure housing remains elusive for many. International, federal, provincial, and municipal laws and policies shape housing realities and experiences, and housing also engages multiple substantive areas of law including contract, property, criminal, administrative, human rights, and family law. The seminar introduces students to the context and policy debates around housing and homelessness in Canada, and examines issues relating to housing and homelessness through multiple legal and interdisciplinary lenses. Seminar topics include Indigenous peoples and housing, the international human right to housing, Canada’s federal housing legislation, approaches to the regulation of homelessness, and litigation about homelessness and the right to housing. We will also study residential tenancies law and procedures, with a special focus on evictions and access to justice in administrative housing law tribunals. Finally, the seminar explores policy and law reform proposals for the future of housing justice in Canada.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): Students must have completed Year 1 of the J.D. program.

Examination of the foundations of the law of evidence in civil and criminal trials in Canada. The principles, rules, statutes and procedures are examined from a critical perspective with emphasis on the history, rationale, and reform of rules and statutes affecting the admissibility of evidence. The topics examined are admissibility, relevance, character evidence, opinion evidence, hearsay evidence, competence, privilege and confessions.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Examination of the basic features of business corporations. Topics include: corporate personality, the process of incorporation, the powers and duties of directors and officers, shareholder rights and remedies.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Agriculture is a highly regulated industry in most jurisdictions; Canada and Saskatchewan are no exception. Historically governments have intervened in agriculture under the pretext of ensuring stability in both the agriculture and consumer communities. It is because of this intervention, Agricultural Law is often considered the law of exceptions. Reviews specific legislation designed to regulate agriculture, such as the Saskatchewan Farm Security Act, as well as agricultural exceptions in general legislation. Case law and other legal analysis will be included when necessary.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of first year law.

Introduction to trends in families and family law, the constitutional and statutory framework for the regulation of families and the role of process issues in family law practice. The course also provides a detailed examination of maintenance and property rights as between spouses, both married and common law.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

A chronological study of the procedural steps, rules and related substantive law in a civil action from the moment of the decision to sue to the trial of the matter. The context of the adversarial process in an action is examined by reference to the policies underlying civil procedure, the role and authority of the lawyer, the organization and jurisdiction of the courts, limitations of actions and costs. The civil action is examined through a focus on principles of jurisdiction and venue, type and manner of commencement of proceedings, pleadings, multiple claims and parties, and discovery. The course will involve the drafting of documents. The ethical conduct of a civil action is taught at each stage of the class.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Examines the nature and function of the law, focusing particularly on the relationships between the law and society, law and morality, and law and political theory.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours