LAWS Topics Courses
Below are the topic names and descriptions for our undergraduate and graduate topics courses being offered this upcoming academic year. Each semester the instructors and topics can change, review the Course Outlines for complete course information. Date and times of course offerings can be confirmed in Carleton Central or in the Public Class Schedule.
Undergraduate Selected Topics Courses
Fall 2026
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More details coming soon
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More details coming soon
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Unlock the future of Business Law: Join our seminar on Corporate Law and Artificial Intelligence! Delve into the exciting realm of Canadian and comparative corporate law, exploring the transformative impact of the new technology. Discover how algorithms, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, automation, smart contracts, and platform corporations are reshaping the business landscape and traditional business law. Our course covers a wide range of topics, including the legal implications of financial technology (e.g. investment platforms, cryptocurrency), the changing landscape of fiduciary duties of corporate directors (e.g. AI directors, liability for privacy breaches, algorithmic management, consumer’s rights), the transformation of work (e.g. AI-driven unemployment, workplace algorithms, gig workers), antitrust (e.g. regulation of big tech companies and platform corporations), and corporate social responsibility (e.g. AI’s environmental impact). Don’t miss out on this opportunity to explore the future of business law in the digital age!
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This interdisciplinary seminar examines key theories of the role and limits of international law in international politics; relevant legal rules shaping this relationship; and how these theories and rules apply to important historical and contemporary case studies. It assesses how law and politics interact in areas such as the use of military force by states; international criminal law; the law of the sea and outer space; and international protection of the environment. The seminar is aimed at fourth-year students who have pre-existing knowledge of international law. Active participation in the discussions is expected. Practice problems and current events will be employed to help students apply the theories and rules that are explored to the real world of foreign affairs. Exciting guest speakers will also provide insights on cutting-edge issues such as Indigenous trade relations.
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This is a course about how law works (or doesn’t work) in real time.
Since 1999 Canadian courts sentencing an Indigenous person have been required to consider their ‘unique background and circumstances’ and any ‘alternatives to incarceration that are reasonable in the circumstances’ of the offence and the offender. Since that time, these ‘Gladue requirements’ have been expanded to apply across the criminal process, from bail through to parole applications.
Despite working with the requirements for 25 years, Gladue’s goal of reducing Indigenous incarceration rates remains beyond our reach and Indigenous people remain disproportionately represented at virtually every level of the system from police contacts to incarceration. So what’s the problem? Is it Gladue? Is it courts, lawyers, cops, corrections? Is it that we failed to understand the complexity of the factors that bring people into conflict with the law? Or was Gladue based on flawed assumptions about the system and the society that supports it, and thus the failure is no real surprise? Is this yet another example of how bad policy can thwart law’s best intentions?
This course will immerse you in the research and evaluations around Indigenous criminal justice system involvement, Gladue and critical discussions of the nature of culpability, accountability and ‘what works’. You will then have the opportunity to engage with those on the front lines of the criminal justice system – police, judges, defense and Crown counsel, Gladue writers and workers – to discuss their understanding of, and role in, decarceration.
You will have the opportunity to ask some hard questions and get honest answers from the people doing the actual work and to query connections between theory and practice and between research and the real world.
Because the real-world matters and ready or not, it’s on your doorstep.
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This course examines some of the socio-legal issues related to the recent expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The course will be organized as a seminar and each week we will discuss foundational topics in the growing field of AI studies. The readings will be multidisciplinary, with an emphasis on questions about the social impact of AI technologies ranging from practical issues regarding copyright and training models, to larger more existential questions about the future of work and human interaction in the AI era. The course will consider many perspectives and voices that are currently impacting debates about AI, including academic, industry, media, and activist perspectives. The goal of the course is to provide a platform for understanding the latest developments in AI products and technologies from a socio-legal academic perspective.
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More details coming soon
Winter 2027
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Citizenship and immigration continue to be important legal issues, particularly in Canada where the welcoming and subsequent accommodation of immigrants and refugees is a longstanding part of the national imaginary. Debates on admission criteria, migrant rights, and the legal limits of integration/accommodation dominate academic and non-academic circles alike. Moreover, the question of “who belongs,” continues to underpin political and popular opinion, drawing attention to the complexity of narratives of membership and belonging. The Canadian story of multiculturalism, while no doubt pleasant, often glosses over the inequalities that immigrants and refugees experience both in seeking access to Canadian borders and integrating into Canadian society. This course will introduce students to a theoretical and empirical examination of these questions, while considering the lived experiences of immigrants and refugees. In our examination of topics including, but not limited to, citizenship/non-citizenship, statelessness, temporary foreign labour, family reunification, refugee determination, and migrant policing/criminalization, this course will address the gap between immigration and refugee law and the implications of these laws in practice.
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Instructor TBD
More details coming soon.
Graduate Topics Courses
Fall 2026
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Exploration of psychological phenomena in the legal system. Discussion of theory and method, level of analysis, and limits to understanding. Application of psychological principles to multiple stages/actors within the legal process, with particular focus on the criminal legal system. Students will engage with psycholegal scholarship from Canadian, U.S., and global contexts.
Winter 2027
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Description coming soon