Tag Archives: common law

An inside look at the Canadian Supreme Court

Posted in Articles, Resources, What exactly is... by

The bench of the Supreme Court of Canada – the only bilingual (English and French) and bijural (common law and civil law) supreme court in the world – currently includes three justices who were law graduates of McGill Law School, and the university’s Alumni blog recently published an interview with the three judges, Sheilah Martin, Mahmud Jamal and Nicholas Kasirer.

The Court works and decides cases in English and French, in all areas of law (such as family, criminal, and tax law).

The judges each give their own perspective on the job, and in particular how life at the Canadian Supreme Court differs from its American counterpart. Continue reading →

Training – American Contract Law

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Yale Law School, through the lifelong learning platform Coursera, offers a comprehensive overview of contract law in the United States. Each lecture is based on one or more common law cases, integrating legal doctrines with policy discussions. The course also covers key sections from the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), which governs the sale of goods. Continue reading →

MOOC – Law for Non-Lawyers

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Monash University in Melbourne, which houses “one of the largest and most prestigious law schools in Australia”, is offering a free MOOC entitled “Law for Non-Lawyers: Introduction to Law”. It provides insights into the common law system, and introduces key legal doctrines and principles in readily accessible formats and language.

“Case studies will illuminate common applications of the law in real life scenarios, enabling you to explore the relevance of specific subjects to your own professional and personal circumstances, and legal jurisdiction.”

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Post-conference event #W2D2017 – Bijuralism and Bilingualism à la canadienne!

Posted in Conferences, News, Training by

canada_flag_map-svgInspired by a suggestion from one of the first participants to register, who explained that conference participants from outside the UK might like to extend their visit to London and maximise the use of their travel costs, we are now able to announce that #W2D2017 will be preceded and followed by two/three standalone legal translation events.

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Bijural terminology records

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This is a great resource for translators working with French and English – the Canadian Department of Justice has published individual factsheets or “records” for terms that have been the subject of legislative harmonization between the common law and civil law systems. The records include many legal concepts (one of the trickiest things to translate 😉 ) so I think it’s really useful.

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UK legislation 1267-present, online

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To add to recent posts on access to national legislation, here is the UK: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/. Do click to enlarge the picture on the right – a beautiful depiction of Common Law (in my opinion) from the Law Library of Congress archives.

Most types of primary legislation (e.g. Acts, Measures, N.I. Orders in Council) are held in ‘revised’ form:

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Britain’s ancient statute book

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This week a report produced jointly by the Law Commission for England & Wales (LCEW) and the Scottish Law Commission recommends repealing more than 800 pieces of legislation dating from the 14th century onwards in order, according to LCEW chairman Sir James Munby,  “to simplify and modernise our law, making it more intelligible. It saves time and costs for lawyers and others who need to know what the law actually is, and makes it easier for citizens to access justice. We are committed to ridding the statute book of meaningless provisions from days gone by and making sure our laws are relevant to the modern world.”

Here’s where the fun starts, though – some of those laws include:

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