New undergraduate course ‘lifts the hood’ on constitutional law For anyone interested in their rights, obligations, and relationship to government, a new online course is opening up new opportunities. Canadians interested in the foundational documents of their nation can now get an in-depth look into public law like never before. “Public law has to do with the exercise of government power,” says course developer and instructor Jonathan Shanks, Law’07, counsel with Justice Canada’s Constitutional, Administrative & International Law Section. “When the government requires you to have a driver’s license to drive a car, or a fishing license, that’s public law – the relationship between government and individuals. And constitutional law takes it one step further. It’s the basic framework for our democracy in Canada, and the framework for our laws.”
As part of the Queen’s Certificate in Law, it is a wholly online undergraduate-level course. Students can take it for course credit (with a letter of permission for non-Queen’s degree program students), but the course is also open for lifelong learners and professionals seeking a greater understanding of public law. “Anyone who wants to be a productive, engaged, civic-minded member of society will get a lot out of this course,” Shanks says. “Births have to be registered – so the moment you come into life in this province, you’re being affected by public law! Think of your day, from the moment you get up to when you go to sleep at night … there’s almost no part of your day that isn’t regulated in some way by the government.”
Understanding government – whether you’re a believer in the system or an activist seeking to change it – is The course, LAWThe Canadian Constitution is unpacked and demystified in a new Queen’s Law course. core to being a part 205/705: Public of society, Shanks and Constitutional says. “Every day half of the people who go to court Law, began classes in May. While the subject matter lose,” Shanks says. “The rights in the Charter are is broad, Shanks uses case law to give students a constantly being interpreted and reinterpreted by specific lens on how the Constitution applies directly the courts. For example, in the 1990s the Supreme to our lives. Court found that a ban on assisting someone to commit suicide was constitutional. In 2015, the “We read a lot of cases, which brings the subject Supreme Court decided that such a ban violated the from a high level of abstraction down into concrete Charter. Examples like this show that the law isn’t scenarios,” Shanks says. “We examine the broad static, it is infused with values and principles that rights guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights can evolve to take into account changes in society.” and Freedoms, such as freedom of expression, and look at specific cases where the courts have Following this summer semester, Public and struggled with particular types of expression, like Constitutional Law will be offered periodically whether hate speech or false news are protected online. More details about this course, and other forms of expression. Examining broad constitutional Certificate courses, can be found at takelaw.ca. principles in particular factual situations lets us understand how rights are interpreted in context.” JULY 2018 - 21
