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Discuss: Stay and Appeal Issues in the Alberta Arbitration Act

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On September 6, 2012

In Arbitration

PDF version: Discuss: Stay and Appeal Issues in the Alberta Arbitration Act

Report commented on: Arbitration Act: Stay and Appeal Issues (Report for Discussion 24)

The Alberta Law Reform Institute (ALRI) has just published Arbitration Act: Stay and Appeal Issues (Report for Discussion 24). In this 44-page Report, ALRI explores procedural issues arising out of the Arbitration Act, RSA 2000, c A-43, concerning partial stays of court proceedings under section 7(5) and appeals to the Queen’s Bench under section 44, and very important questions about the role of arbitral appeals more generally. The Report explains the issues, describes their context and asks for input about how best to fix the difficulties identified.

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In Memoriam: The Law Society of Alberta Code of Professional Conduct, 1995-2011 (1995 Code)

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On September 4, 2012

In Ethics and the Legal Profession, Legal Education

PDF version: In Memoriam: The Law Society of Alberta Code of Professional Conduct, 1995-2011 (1995 Code)

Comment on: The new Law Society of Alberta Code of Conduct.

In the fall of 2011 the Law Society of Alberta implemented a new Code of Professional Conduct.  The new Code is based on the Model Code of the Canadian Federation of Law Societies.  Its implementation resulted in the repeal of the prior Law Society of Alberta Code of Conduct (“1995 Code”), the implementation of which in 1995 may be the most innovative step ever taken by a Canadian law society.  The 1995 Code rejected the Canadian Bar Association Model Code, which all Canadian law societies had to that point followed, more or less, with its narrow scope and tendency towards the aspirational.  Instead the 1995 Code set out clear and comprehensive guidelines establishing the essential obligations of lawyers working across practice contexts, and covering the spectrum of the tasks that lawyers do.

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Nova Scotia exploration well approval case

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On August 30, 2012

In Administrative Law, Environmental, Oil & Gas

PDF version:   Nova Scotia exploration well approval case

Decision commented on: Margaree Environmental Association v Nova Scotia (Environment), 2012 NSSC 296.

In this case Justice MacAdam of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court denied a statutory appeal from a decision of the Nova Scotia Department of the Environment to grant an approval to drill an exploration well on a 383,000 acre block in the area around Lake Ainslie.  There is nothing particularly remarkable about the case but I blog it here for these reasons: (1) it’s an oil and gas case and there are surprisingly few oil and gas cases involving judicial review or statutory appeals from decisions to issue (or not issue) a well licence or equivalent; (2) it’s a decision from a non-traditional oil and gas jurisdiction, Nova Scotia.

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The Pleasures and Perils of Holograph Wills

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On August 28, 2012

In Family, Property, Wills and Estates

PDF version: The Pleasures and Perils of Holograph Wills

Case Considered: Lubberts Estate, 2012 ABQB 506

 This Court of Queen’s Bench decision interprets a provision in a holograph will.  The case is an example of the not-uncommon human tendency to try to use property to control family members’ behaviour, both before death by way of gift and after death by way of inheritance.  Like many such efforts, this deceased’s handwritten codicils to her lawyer-drawn will and her subsequent holograph will did not do what she wanted them to do.  Instead of the deceased determining who would inherit her property and on what conditions, her family members inherited under generic, unconditional intestate laws.  It is ironic; the more control the deceased tried to exert over what happened to her property on her death, the less say she had in the disposition of her property in the end.

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Access to Justice: University of Calgary Environmental Law Clinic in 2011/2012 – “What’s legal is not always what is just” – Rick Collier

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On August 20, 2012

In Administrative Law, Environmental, Intervenors and Standing, Water Law

PDF version: Access to Justice: University of Calgary Environmental Law Clinic in 2011/2012 – “What’s legal is not always what is just” – Rick Collier

Case and Decision considered: Kelly v Alberta (Energy Resources Conservation Board), 2012 ABCA 19,

Hohloch v Director, Southern Region, Environmental Management, Alberta Environment and Water, re: Eastern Irrigation District (29 March 2012), (AEAB), Appeal No 10-043-ID2

 As the Fall 2012 term approaches we here at the law school have started to prepare for the return of students and the resumption of lectures.  In my case, this includes getting ready for another year of supervising our environmental law clinic.  Before the new term arrives for the clinic, however, I want to look back on some highlights from 2011/2012.  The clinic allows one to step out of the law school and into the field of environmental disputes in Alberta.  If there was a common theme to all of our files last year, it was access to justice.  I’ve chosen to end this recap with a tribute to Rick Collier who stood up for wilderness in an act of civil disobedience to protest the lack of public input into resource and environmental decision-making in Alberta.

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