See official Call for Papers here.

The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is a centre within the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law devoted to advocacy, research and education in the area of constitutional rights in Canada. Since its inception in 2008, the Centre has intervened in several significant Charter litigation cases and has keenly observed the successes and challenges of public interest litigation.

Interventions in Charter litigation and public interest litigation brought by lawyers and legal advocacy organizations play a role, not only in the courts in which the matters take place, but also within the public discourse surrounding the Charter and human rights issues raised. Public interest litigation may also cause burdens on courts and have unintended negative consequences if they are not well planned, coordinated or brought prematurely.

The Asper Centre is convening a one-day Conference in March 2018 focused on legal strategies for successful public interest litigation in Canada as a means to bring together relevant stakeholders to share their challenges, successes and strategies in this field. The Conference is aimed at both practitioners (lawyers and NGOs) who are engaged in public interest litigation and scholars who study and analyze the impact of these cases, all of whom seek to ensure that public interest litigation has the maximum social impact possible.

• At this time, the Asper Centre is seeking submissions of abstracts covering the following broad areas for consideration:
• Development of meaningful strategies for public interest litigation and the coordination of strategic litigation between intervening organizations and stakeholders
• Reviewing the role of interveners in public interest litigation: Do their arguments really matter?
• Developing effective policy and legal advocacy strategies in addition to public interest litigation
• Case analyses to extract lessons from successful as well as unsuccessful public interest litigation across various substantive areas

The Conference is scheduled for March 2, 2018 and authors of papers chosen for presentation will be notified by December 15, 2017. Draft papers must be submitted by February 9, 2018. Papers will be in one of the two following formats:

Stream A: Longer paper covering an issue or related issues in public interest litigation with expected length of approximately 8,000 words.

Stream B: Shorter case analysis focusing on lessons learned from a specific public interest case with expected length of up to 1500 words.

Abstracts for papers should be maximum 250 words in length and sent with a 1-2 paragraph biographical statement to: Tal Schreier, Asper Centre Program Coordinator at tal.schreier@utoronto.ca

Deadline for Submissions: November 30, 2017

See official Call for Papers here.

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2017 ACCLE conference, co-sponsored with the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT). Please stay tuned for an announcement regarding next year’s conference.

ACCLE wishes to extend its sincere thanks to Signa Daum Shanks and Brian Eyolfson for their deeply informative and helpful remarks at our recent AGM.  Their discussion offers a helpful framework and some practical advice as we begin to consider the implications of the TRC’s Calls to Action for our clinical programs.  For our members who missed this important session, we hope to have the recording available on our website shortly.  In the interim, Professor Shanks has shared an important new article – Dr. Shauneen Pete’s 100 Ways: Indigenizing & Decolonizing Academic Programs – to assist us in our thinking on these issues.

Congratulations to ACCLE Board Member Martha Simmons on the publication of her new text Mediation: A Comprehensive Guide to Effective Client Advocacy.  Described as a “must-read” for lawyers and law students, the book offers step-by-step guidance in navigating the mediation process, including case and client assessment, how to choose an effective mediator, mediation preparation, ethical considerations, how to overcome barriers to settlement, and when to end mediation.  Professor Martha Simmons is a visiting professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and the Director of the Mediation Intensive Program and Clinic.

With over 220 attendees from more than 50 law faculties and organisations around the world, The Risks and Rewards of Clinical Legal Education Programs, our 2016 Joint Conference with the IJCLE, was our biggest and most successful conference to date.

ACCLE Treasurer Michelle Christopher, Q.C. was recently honoured by the Law Society of Alberta and the Canadian Bar Association – Alberta Beach with a Distinguished Service Award for her exemplary service to the community. Michelle is the Executive Director of Student Legal Assistance, the pro bono legal clinic located at the University of Calgary. Congratulations Michelle on this tremendous achievement!

Clinical Law: Practice, Theory, and Social Justice Advocacy (Sarah Buhler, Sarah Marsden, Gemma Smyth) is now available from Emond Publishing. Clinical Law focuses on the different contexts in which clinical law is practised, discusses approaches to building relationships with clients and communities, and explores the future of clinical legal practice. It also provides instructional guidance for lawyers on how to effectively strategize, negotiate, and verbally advocate for their clients.