CLN4U
Unit I Culminating Assignment
Current Trends Case Brief Presentations
Writing legal case briefs is a useful way to consolidate your own understanding of
a court's decision and the legal concepts involved. It is also a helpful form of
communication, as readers will appreciate the ability to 'get to the point' quicker
than if they had to read the full text of the court report. In this course, you will
produce a few different types of case briefs, including informal briefs for discussion,
formal briefs in specific areas of law, and visual briefs for current trends
presentations.
The following instructions will explain the procedure and expectations for our
current trends case brief presentations. Please read the contents carefully.
You will be responsible for three components in this assignment:
1.
2.
3.
Write a formal case brief of a recent court decision of your choosing.
Create a PowerPoint presentation of your brief that includes summarized
text and more detailed audio recordings.
View classmate presentations and peer evaluate their work.
Use one of the legal databases in the resources provided to locate a report of
a Canadian (or international) case that was decided within the last 12 months. Case
reports generally include a "headnote" at the beginning, which contains key words,
as well as a summary of the facts and the court's decision. Read the headnote
carefully to ensure that the case is understandable and somewhat interesting before
you choose it.
1.
Prepare a Formal Case Brief
Write a formal case brief according to the instructions that follow. At this point, you
may find it helpful to look at this sample Case Brief R. v. Malmo-Levine, Marijuana
Harm Principle provided. Your Current Events Case Briefs must include the
following sections:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
Citations
Facts
Issues
Decision
Rationale
Analysis
Survey Question
I.
Citations
Traditional Case Citations:
A case citation is a simple but standardized form for naming a judicial decision. It
provides information to allow the reader to look up the full text of the case
themselves and also indicates the importance of the decision. Here are a few colour
coded examples:
Gauthier v. Naneff (1970), 14 DLR (3d) 513 (Ont. HC)
Re Manitoba Language Rights, [1985] 1 SCR 721
R. v. Williams, [1998] 1 SCR 1128
1) Style of Cause:
This includes the names of the parties. "Re" is read as "in the matter of", and "v." is
read as "and" in a civil matter and "versus" in a criminal matter.
2) Date: Round brackets indicate the year that the case was decided, and square
brackets indicate the year of the volume in which it was reported.
3) Volume, Reporter, Series: Abbreviations are used for the different case
reporters. For example, DLR refers to Dominion Law Reports, and SCR refers to
Supreme Court Reports.
4) Page: The page number follows the volume reference.
5) Court: The court will be indicated in round brackets unless it is obvious from the
case reporter.
Neutral Case Citations:
If a case citation does not seem to fit the structure just described, it may be a
"neutral citation". This is a relatively new form of citation that does not identify a
law report where the case can be found. Neutral citations make sense since printed
case reporters may change over time or even become obsolete due to the Internet.
Neutral citations are a permanent reference that will never need to change. They
contain three main elements; the traditional style of cause, the core of the
citation including the year and court, and the ordinal number attributed to the
decision. Ordinal numbers restart with the calendar year on January 1.
Example) R. v. Morelli, 2010 SCC 8
TIP: BE CAREFUL! DON'T INCLUDE ANY EXTRA PUNCTUATION/REFERENCES.
II.
Facts
Here you should summarize the relevant facts of the case. They should be presented
in a logical and chronological sequence that includes the important events that
transpired among the parties and culminates with a brief description of the legal
action taken. A case report might include the different statements or interpretations
of the facts that are presented by the opposing parties. Facts that are in dispute and
never accepted by the court should not be included in your brief; you should only
summarize the facts that are agreed upon or proven. The summary of facts should
lead smoothly into the statement of the issues that follows. A good summary of facts
should include the following:
•
•
•
•
III.
A one-sentence description of the nature of the case, to serve as an
introduction.
A statement of the relevant law, with quotation marks or underlining to draw
attention to the key words or phrases that are in dispute.
A summary of the complaint (in a civil case) or the indictment (in a criminal
case) plus relevant evidence and arguments presented in court to explain
who did what to whom and why the case was thought to involve illegal
conduct.
If the case is an appeal, include a summary of actions taken by the lower
courts; for example: defendant convicted; conviction upheld by appellate
court; Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Issues
The issues are the legal questions that must be determined by the court in order to
resolve the dispute. An issue may be one of the following types:
Question of Fact: For example, "Did the defendant meet the legal conditions for
commission of the crime?"
Question of Law: For example, "Can the defendant use a certain legal or commonlaw defence to excuse his actions?"
Question of both Law and Fact: For example, "Did the police conduct a valid search
of the defendant's premises?"
You should also include a brief statement of each party's argument on either side of
each issue:
Example: "Counsel for the defendant argued that mens rea was not proven because
the defendant was not aware of the drugs hidden in his George Bush bobble-head
doll."
IV.
Decision
This is a brief, possibly single-sentence statement of the result of the legal action. In
a civil case, the court finds in favour of one of the parties, and in a criminal case, the
defendant is either convicted or acquitted.
V.
Rationale
The rationale or ratio decidendi of a court's decision is an explanation of the
reasoning behind its decisions on the issues; it is often the lengthiest part of a case
report. Your job is to summarize this reasoning. Start by focusing on the basis for
the decisions; was it stare decisis (in other words based on legal precedent from
previous decisions) or was it based on considerations of economics, politics,
sociology, fairness, etc..? The reasoning, or rationale, is the chain of argument that
led the judges in either a majority or a dissenting opinion to rule as they did. This
should be outlined point by point in numbered sentences or paragraphs.
TIP: MAKE SURE THAT EACH OF THE STATED ISSUES ARE ADDRESSED HERE.
VI.
Analysis
This is your chance to give your opinions. Evaluate the significance of the case, its
relationship to other cases, its place in history, and what it shows about the Court,
its members, its decision-making processes, or the impact it has on litigants,
government, or society. It is here that the implicit assumptions and values of the
judges or justices should be probed, the “rightness” of the decision debated, and the
logic of the reasoning considered.
VII.
Survey Question
Conclude your brief with a simple 'yes'/'no' question for the audience at your
presentation to answer. This will help your classmates to engage in the material
and to think about the significance of the issues involved.
2.
Create a PowerPoint Presentation of the Case Brief
Transform your written case brief into a PowerPoint presentation that includes a
summary of the text and more detailed audio recordings. You don't need to worry
about rehearsing! Use these samples as a guide:
Video available online at http://youtu.be/tBNwfR6EyqI; PowerPoint: Current
Trends Case Brief Presentation - Sample 1.pptx
Video available online at http://youtu.be/AD8eC3759GU; PowerPoint: Current
Trends Case Brief Presentation - Sample 2.pptx
Video available online at http://youtu.be/Lu4c5-JwZ9A; PowerPoint: Current
Trends Case Brief Presentation - Sample 3.pptx
Video available online at http://youtu.be/Zp6AaxaVpy4
Video available online at http://youtu.be/-bI_rUVUuXY
Video available online at http://youtu.be/yKd-WR1VPHo;
For more detailed instructions on how to create a PowerPoint presentation that
plays automatically, ask for the guide, Tips for Current Trends Case Brief
Presentations.
Resources
Access to Justice Network
This site contains easy-to-understand information about Canadian law:
http://www.acjnet.org/nahome/
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
This site contains detailed video and audio reports on a wide variety of topics:
http://archives.cbc.ca/
Canadian Law Site
This is a general resource for Canadian law: http://www.canadianlawsite.ca/
Canadian Legal FAQ's
This site answers frequently asked legal questions in plain language: http://www.lawfaqs.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Canadian Legal Information Institute
This site contains Canadian legal decisions as well as federal and provincial statutes and
regulations: http://www.canlii.org/en/
Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association (CSCJA)
This site contains information about the judicial system in Canada: http://www.cscjaacjcs.ca/about_cscja-en.asp?l=1
Charter Digest
This section of the CANLII website offers a very user-friendly digest of case law related
to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is broken down section by section.
Just keep in mind that it is not completely current; you will see the date of the last update
on the opening page at; http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/charter_digest/index.html
Department of Justice Canada
This site provides news, laws, and links to many other legal resources:
http://www.canada.justice.gc.ca/eng/index.html
Department of Justice Canada - Consolidated Acts and Regulations
This source contains the complete text of all federal Acts and regulations:
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/index.html
Duhaime.org
This site includes a wealth of information and interesting commentary on Canadian law:
http://duhaime.org/
Guide To Ontario Courts
This site includes reports of Ontario court decisions, searchable by title:
http://www.ontariocourts.on.ca/en/
Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario - Decisions
This searchable database at CanLII contains the full text of the decisions of the Human
Rights Tribunal of Ontario: http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onhrt/
JURIST Canada
This University of Toronto site includes an abundance of information on Canadian and
international law: http://jurist.law.utoronto.ca/
LawyerShop
This is a commercial site that includes information about issues and developments in
different areas of law: http://info.lawyershop.ca/
Library and Archives Canada
a variety of legal topics, organized alphabetically:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/caninfo/ep034.htm
Ontario e-Laws
This site contains the complete text of Ontario statutes and regulations: http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/navigation?file=home&lang=en
SCC.Lexum
This site contains the complete text of all judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada:
http://scc.lexum.org/en/index.html
The Court.ca
This website is an initiative of Osgoode Hall Law School and includes discussion of
Supreme Court of Canada decisions: http://www.thecourt.ca/
Wikipedia - Law of Canada
This is a good source for the basics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Canada