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This article draws upon social interaction theory (the work of Irwin Altman) to develop a theory of the right to privacy, which reflects the way that privacy is experienced. This theory states that the right to privacy is a right to respect for barriers, and that an invasion of privacy occurs when a privacy barrier is penetrated. The first part of the paper establishes the position of the author's theory in the existing scholarship. The second part of the paper expands upon the theory to explain the nature of privacy barriers and the way that the author's theory manages a number of specific privacy issues, including threats to privacy, attempted invasions of privacy, unforeseeable interferences with privacy and waiving the right to privacy. The final part of the paper demonstrates the impact that this approach to privacy could have upon judicial reasoning, in particular Article 8 European Convention on Human Rights.

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The Court of Quebec today is an impressive institution in terms of the range and variety of its areas of responsibility in both civil and criminal matters, and also in administrative law and related matters. What is the true vocation of this Court ? Recently an Administrative and Appellate Division was created. The significance of appeals to the Court of Québec is a controversial topic, since it is not a superior court. There have been several decisive turning-points in the contemporary history of the Court. In 1965, the Supreme Court allowed a significant expansion of its civil jurisdiction to include, for example, administrative contracts and the civil liability of the Public Administration. On the other hand, in 1972 the Supreme Court deprived the Court of one of its traditional responsibilities in the field of municipal law, namely challenges to municipal by-laws on grounds of illegality. The specific role of the Court as the court of appeal for administrative law was studied in the Dussault Report in 1970, the White Paper of 1975, the Ouellette Report of 1987 and the Garant Report in 1994. During the 1970s, the Legislature continued to multiply rights of appeal to the Court, while setting up several key administrative appeal tribunals such as the Labour Court, the Transport Tribunal and the Professions Tribunal, to which it appointed judges of the Court. The Court has become the largest judicial institution in Quebec, with 270 regular judges and 33 justices of the peace. Since the 1960s, the Court has enjoyed the favour of the Quebec Legislature. However in 1996-97, the Court lost certain appeal responsibilities to the Administrative Tribunal of Québec, but remained an important appeal tribunal in a variety of fields, including expropriation, income tax, municipal taxation, electoral disputes, agricultural land protection, police ethics, housing, and access to information. The Court also hears appeals from several administrative tribunals. However, the key question here is to clarify the scope of the judicial review exercised by the Quebec Court as compared to that exercised by the Superior Court…

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Punitive damages have always attracted a lukewarm reception in Quebec law. This article analyses the recent de Montigny and Ward judgments of the Supreme Court, which resolve some important issues about which Quebec doctrine and case law were divided. First, the Supreme Court stated that punitive damages constitute an autonomous remedy that may be sought independently of a condemnation in compensatory damages. It also held that punitive damages may pursue the goals of punishment, deterrence and denunciation. Lastly, the Court sends a message of moderation as regards the quantum of punitive damages.

Under the common law, it is widely accepted that punitive damages may be awarded in situations where a defendant’s conduct has been malicious, oppressive or abusive. An award of exemplary damages seeks to punish the defendant, acts as a deterrent to the defendant and to others from acting in this manner and expresses the outrage of the court regarding the defendant’s behavior. On the contrary, under Quebec law, the awarding of punitive damages remains exceptional in nature.

Over the last century, all common law countries have experienced a movement away from a highly discretionary sentencing environment to one in which judicial discretion is more constrained. (For general discussion of structured sentencing, see chapter 6 of A. von Hirsch, A. Ashworth and J. V. Roberts (eds), Principled Sentencing: Readings on Theory and Policy (3rd edn, Oxford: Hart, 2009).) Some jurisdictions have transformed their sentencing environments by introducing relatively inflexible and tightly binding guideline schemes. Others have taken a middle ground – creating advisory guidance schemes – while a third category has resisted all attempts to structure judicial discretion. This essay describes and compares the divergent histories of two jurisdictions – Canada, and England and Wales – as they have confronted the challenge of structuring sentencing. Despite similarities in the way that sentencing is approached in the two countries they have taken remarkably divergent paths over the past 25 years – and not in the directions that might have been anticipated back in the mid 1980s. After a promising start in that decade, Canada has rejected the adoption of sentencing guidelines, and elected to retain its traditional, highly discretionary approach to sentencing. In contrast, England and Wales has slowly, but surely, adopted a comprehensive and relatively binding set of guidelines, although this outcome also seemed unlikely in 1988.

Police officers often leave the scene of many domestic dispute calls, unable to collect evidence needed to lay charges against the accused. They may find the residence in order, no visible signs of injury, and denial/refusal of all parties to provide statements to the police. Police officers may be called to respond to couples with repeated calls to emergency response, leaving without evidence on numerous occasions. As a result, many police officers may go to calls with preconceived notions about the risks and dynamics in intimate partner relationships, potentially impacting the kind of intervention used. Based on analysis of 1,032 domestic dispute files in Fredericton, NB, this paper explores police officer intervention before and after training on responding to intimate partner violence. It compares formal intervention, such as charges and arrests; collection of evidence, including written and oral statements from victim(s) and witness(es); and informal strategies used by police officers who respond to the scene of a domestic dispute, such as temporary separation of victim and accused, providing transportation to another residence, and contacting a shelter on behalf of the victim or accused.

The use of criminal-law powers to respond to people with HIV who place others at risk of HIV infection has emerged as a focal point of AIDS advocacy at global, national, and local levels. In the Canadian context, reform efforts that address the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure have been hampered by the absence of data on the contours, scale, and outcomes of criminalization. This article responds to that gap in knowledge with the first comprehensive analysis of the temporal trends, demographic patterns, and aggregate outcomes of Canadian criminal cases of HIV non-disclosure. The authors draw on insights into the role that rendering social phenomena in numerical terms plays for the governance of social life in order to make criminalization “visible” in ways that might contribute to activist responses. The article examines temporal trends, demographic patterns, and outcomes separately. In each instance, the pattern or trend identified is described, potential explanations for findings are offered, and an account is given of how the data have informed efforts to reform criminal law. Particular attention is paid to the following key findings: a sharp increase in criminal cases that began in 2004; the large proportion of recent criminal cases involving defendants who are heterosexual Black, African, and Caribbean men; and the high proportion of criminal cases resulting in conviction. The article closes with suggestions for future research., Le recours aux pouvoirs du droit pénal en vue de prendre des mesures à l'égard des personnes qui ont contracté le VIH et qui présentent un risque de transmission de ce virus à d'autres est devenu un élément central de l'activisme en ce qui a trait au sida, tant aux niveaux international, national que local. Dans le contexte canadien, les efforts de réforme visant à traiter la criminalisation de la non-divulgation de la séropositivité au VIH ont été ralentis par l'absence de données sur les profils, l'échelle et les effets de la criminalisation. Cet article vise à corriger une telle lacune en matière de connaissances grâce à la toute première analyse exhaustive des tendances temporelles, des modèles démographiques et de l'ensemble des résultats d'affaires criminelles canadiennes en matière de non-divulgation de la séropositivité au VIH. Cet article s'inspire de points de vue à propos du rôle que joue la représentation d'un phénomène social en termes numériques pour la gouvernance de la vie sociale, afin de rendre «visible» la criminalisation par des moyens qui pourraient contribuer aux mesures activistes. Cet article examine les tendances temporelles, les modèles démographiques et les résultats séparément. Pour chaque cas, nous décrivons la tendance ou le modèle que nous avons identifié, nous proposons d'éventuelles explications par rapport aux conclusions, et donnons un compte rendu de la façon dont les données ont servi de base aux efforts de réforme en matière de droit pénal. Une attention toute particulière est accordée aux principales conclusions suivantes: augmentation considérable des affaires criminelles depuis 2004; grande proportion d'affaires criminelles récentes incluant des défendeurs qui sont des hétérosexuels de race noire, des Africains et des hommes des Caraïbes; et importante proportion d'affaires criminelles aboutissant à une condamnation. L'article se termine par des suggestions en vue de recherches à venir.