SOCI3085
Lecture #6
1. Course Administration
• in-class presentations!
• essays
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2. Organization of the Legal System
• a coordinated system, or individual ‘silos’?
• judicial, legislative, administrative and
enforcement components
• the growth of the legal system, the
“institutionalization” of dispute resolution
• the specter of administrative law
• the adversarial versus the inquisitorial system
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3. Courts
• principle function - dispute resolution
• types of disputes:
• note: courts process and ‘resolve’ disputes only
in a limited legal sense: they do not
solve, or bring closure to a dispute
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• organization of the courts
- most common-law systems, a series of
superior, lower courts
- local variations at lower court level
- move to more efficient lower court processing
through resort to use of justices of the peace,
Crown Attorneys
- e.g. : Canadian court system
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• participants in court process
(a) litigants: plaintiffs and defendants
- ‘one-shotters’ versus ‘repeat players’
(b) lawyers
- the Crown attorney as ‘representative of the
will of the people’
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- types of lawyers
(1) public interest representatives
(2) corporate/in-house
(3) defense/trial lawyers (note functions
such as intermediary, counsellor, advocate)
(4) ‘hired guns’
(c) judges
- in Canada, judges appointed provincially or
federally, NOT elected positions
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(d) juries
- most common in common-law based systems
- usually 12
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- issue: scientific jury selection
- variants: shadow juries, simulated juries/mock
trials
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- concerns with scientific jury selection:
(1) bias in verdicts
(2) ‘buying’ verdicts
(3) state use of scientific techniques?
(4) public perception of justice system
(5) ‘jury made’ law
- other issues:
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4. Litigation - Processes, Issues
• celerity - swiftness of justice
• bail - and the soaring remand counts
• police investigation and identification of
suspects - science or fiction? –
• plea-bargaining
• sentencing - discretion versus the ‘sentencing
calculus’
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5. Legislatures
• conflict management functions (e.g. Royal
Commissions)
• integrative functions (support for judicial,
executive functions)
• legitimization of laws, judiciary, enforcement
• mechanism for change
• participants
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6. Administrative Agencies
• a key element in social control, in the enactment
and management of legislation
• note the pervasiveness of administrative control
(Vago, p. 144)
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• administrative process:
-investigation
-rulemaking
- adjudication
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7. Law Enforcement Agencies
• in Canada, one Criminal Code
• federal, provincial, municipal, First Nations,
university/college, transportation,
waterways, parks, CSIS, private/corporate, etc.
• about 21,000 sworn police officers in Ontario
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8. Canadian Court System
• a formalized dispute resolution mechanism
• a combination of ‘determination of the facts’ and
‘determination of the law’
• burden of proof different for criminal as opposed
to civil cases - ‘reasonable doubt’ versus
‘balance of probabilities’
• trial courts versus appeal courts
• the structure of the courts:
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• Supreme Court of Canada
- appeals from other federal, provincial courts
- questions of constitutional, federal, provincial law
- ‘leave to appeal’ in civil cases, or importance of
matter in criminal cases
• Provincial Court (Ontario Court, Prov. Division)
- provincially appointed judges
- small claims, family, youth, traffic, etc.
- preliminary step in criminal matters
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• Superior Court (Ontario Court, General Division)
- trial court (may also hear surrogate, probate
matters)
- federally appointed judges
• Appeal Courts (Ontario Court of Appeal)
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• Civil Litigation
- writ of summons
- in Ontario, filing a ‘notice of action’
- response is to file an appearance, otherwise a
default judgment is issued
- plaintiff issues statement of claim as the first
step in the a series of pleadings
- defendant issues statement of defence
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- demand for further information and
interrogatories
- Chambers application
- discovery process
- procedural delays
- pretrial hearing
- payment into court
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- trial
- jury
- judgment
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- damages
(1) special
(2) general
(3) specific
performance
(4) injunction
(5) punitive
damages
(6) declaratory
judgment
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- enforcement
(1) examination in aid of execution
(2) garnishment
(3) costs
(4) bankruptcy
(5) jail
- small claims courts
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2. Police Operations
• policing in Canada
 about 75,000 (3/4 of these are sworn)
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3. Police Organization
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paramilitary, bureaucratic
“professional” model of policing:
patrol function:
 core role in policing
 socialization function (‘street time’)
 generalist role
 high public visibility
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• patrol activities:
• reactive/proactive elements
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4. Patrol Strategies
• incident-driven patrol
 post-1930’s development
 impact of the Kansas City Patrol Experiment
(Kelling et al, 1974)
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• directed patrol
 reliance on ‘crime analysis’
• management of demand patrol
 “differential response” model
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• foot/bike patrol
 effective?
 public relations value?
 fear of crime
• proactive/reactive patrol
 ‘constable generalists’
 combined approach
 ‘empowerment’ of officers
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5. Criminal Investigation
• most crimes solved / suspects apprehended based
on information obtained by officer at the scene
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6. Recent Changes in Policing
• problem-oriented policing
• community policing
• First Nations policing
• ‘intelligence-led’ policing
• education & training
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