Professional LLM Specializing in Labour Relations and Employment Law

Course Descriptions*

Perspectives on Labour and Employment Law: From Theory to Practice
[6 credits]
This course examines theoretical approaches that have played a significant role in the development of Canadian labour and employment law, and also looks at the contribution that empirical and comparative research methodologies have made to the study of this area of law. Selected writings by labour law scholars, in Canada and elsewhere, will be reviewed from both a theoretical and a methodological perspective.

The Individual Contract of Employment [6 credits]*
This course is a study of the individual contract of employment and the law bearing upon that relationship. The focus will be on Canadian common law and statutes, with some comparison with other jurisdictions. The course will canvas the legal history of the employment relationship along with contemporary issues -- political, practical, and theoretical -- in the law of employment. In addition to an overview of the law of wrongful dismissal, the course will offer the opportunity to study in more depth three timely topics in this area of the law: Bullying and Harassment, Work and Family, and Privacy & Drug Testing. Through oral presentations and group discussion, students will be exposed to further specific topics and issues in employment law. Throughout the course, we will consider the unique features of the contract of employment and competing legal conceptualizations of the employment relationship.

The Charter and Human Rights in Labour Law [6 credits]*
The workplace has been a significant source of legal developments in respect of both statutory human rights legislation and the constitutionally entrenched Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This course will examine, in the employment context, the nature of prohibited discrimination and statutory defences, the duty to accommodate, and remedies under human rights statutes, as well as the processes for dealing with such issues. In particular, the respective roles of the human rights administrative process and collective agreement arbitration will be assessed. In respect of the Charter, the role of administrative tribunals as well as courts in dealing with Charter claims will be considered. The substantive focus will be the impact of s. 15 (equality), s. 2(d) freedom of association, and s. 2(b) (freedom of expression) on labour law.

Labour and Employment Law in the New Economy [6 credits]*
The ‘new economy’ is defined by globalization, by technological change and by neoliberal policies which envisage a more limited role for the state in the labour market and elsewhere. These forces - individually and in combination - challenge many of the assumptions on which collective bargaining and protective labour legislation have traditionally been grounded. This course explores both the resulting stresses in existing regimes of labour law and attempts to create new regimes, especially those with international and transnational dimensions.

Industrial Conflict: Common Law and Labour Board Remedies
[3 credits]*
In the regulation of strikes, lockouts and picketing, the common law often comes to the surface and fits uneasily with the statutory labour relations regime, both substantively and in terms of remedies. The following are among the topics that may be dealt with in this course: the common law industrial torts and their new life after Pepsi-Cola; the right to strike at common law and its continued relevance to workers not covered by labour relations legislation; issues arising from the growing use of partial strike tactics; the impact (if any) of the Charter rights of freedom of association and expression on strikes and picketing, including political strikes; the interface between court and labour board jurisdiction, substantively and in terms of available remedies, and the appropriate extent of court deference to legislative and board regulation in the Charter era; recent jurisprudence on the legal capacity of unions and its implications for the regulation of industrial conflict; the extent of the employer's right to use replacement workers; and the extent of the job rights of returning strikers. High union density in the public and parapublic sectors, and growing governmental concern for fiscal restraint, make it necessary to consider the treatment of strikes and lockouts in essential services and the justification for imposing dispute resolution procedures that do not involve work stoppages.

Labour and Pension Law in Restructuring the Insolvent Enterprise

[3 credits]*
Labour and pension law are remedial regulatory regimes designed to protect employees in their relations with their employers. Once it becomes insolvent however, that employer loses much of its control over the enterprise to creditors. This course addresses the consequences of an employer’s insolvency for the labour and pension rights of employees. In particular, the course will concentrate on the effects on these rights of the choice of restructuring, rather than liquidation, as
the means to deal with insolvency.

Comparative Labour Law: The Wagner Model [3 credits]*
The Canadian labour law model has long been linked legislatively and philosophically wit the American Wagner Act model. Yet, for all the similarities between the two models, there are significant differences too. Some of these differences flow directly from variations in statutory language and constitutional divisions of power, while others are the result of different trajectories in the case law of the National Labor Relations Board and the American courts. In debates about labour law reform
in both countries over the years, reference has often been made to the perceived benefits and flaws of the other system. This course will introduce the student to the key aspects of the American labor law model, including its historical development and key moments in case law and legislative reform, as well as the theoretical and philosophical debates that have shaped the model over time and at present.

Major Research Paper [6 credits]
A Major Research Paper (MRP) of approximately 70 pages may be completed on an approved topic in Labour Relations and Employment law, provided appropriate supervision is available.

The MRP should go beyond merely describing legal developments to include independent critical analysis of its subject matter. It should be work of publishable
quality. You will be required, at a minimum, to submit to your supervisor an outline and bibliography for approval before writing your paper. The final paper is marked on a pass/fail basis.

Note: Curriculum and course descriptions are subject to change.

*New courses and course changes are subject to Senate approval.