R. v. Carter, [2015] 1 S.C.R. 331 (SCC): the right to physician-assisted death

TITLE :R. v. Carter, [2015] 1 S.C.R. 331 (SCC): the right to physician-assisted death

Purpose of the Paper
The assignment will consist of analyzing a Supreme Court of Canada decision to identify and understand the legal issue and principles, and discuss the law in terms of the relevant common law and statutes, and the social justice issue(s) involved.

Content of the Paper
You must do research for this paper, in additional to analyzing the Supreme Court decision. Present your research and analysis in formal academic style.

The thesis of the paper should be well developed. What is the purpose of the paper? What approaches to your analysis are used? Describe and define concepts.

Your arguments should be succinct and well thought-out.

Please ensure that the paper is a critical analysis of the theoretical and legal issues of the case and not merely a descriptive account of the facts of the case.
Clearly identify the legal issue of the case and critically assess the legal arguments found in the case, in terms of the legal position taken by the Court and the social justice issue analyzed therein.

Organize the paper in a logical way, using the required headings.

Remember that justice studies use 3 methods to analyze a justice issue: objective, subjective and ethical practice. These should be reflected in your paper.

Our focus in Justice Studies is on the 3 pillars of justice analysis: formal, substantive justice and ethical practice: please analyze your topic by this required framework.

The paper must use at least five (5) academic references, (aside from the text), plus other relevant information from sources such as statistical databases, legal cases, statutes, media articles, personal interviews, etc., in addition to the Supreme Court decision.

Please note: when doing legal research on CanLII, be careful to recognize the jurisdiction of the statute. For example, Saskatchewan statutes are described as R.S.S. or S.S. (Revised Statutes of Saskatchewan) or (Statutes of Saskatchewan) behind the title and year. Ontario statutes are S.O. (Statutes of Ontario) or R.S.O. (Revised Statutes of Ontario), Alberta would be S.A. or R.S.A., etc. This is very important because the content of a statute varies by jurisdiction, even in a statute of the same title.

It is very important to note the jurisdiction and level of court when using a case. A case of the Court of Queens Bench of Saskatchewan is cited as (SK).Q.B., a case of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal is cited as (SK). C.A. and a Supreme Court of Canada decision is cited as S.C.C., and so on, for each province. Federal cases, with respect to immigration, taxation and other federal subject matters, are cited as Federal Court T.D. (Trial Division) or Federal C.A. (Court of Appeal).

Remember the Doctrine of Precedence in your research and analysis. The higher the court, the stronger the authority and the more binding is the decision. Follow the Supreme Courts analysis carefully.

Format of the Paper
Please use headings to identify specific parts of your paper. This is not optional. Begin with an Introduction, and end with a Conclusion.

The paper should be 9-10 pages, double spaced, in Times New Roman, 12 point font. (Do not use alternate fonts or font size).

The paper must contain a separate Title page and List of Authorities (references) and, if required, Appendices to annex relevant case or statute excerpts, or relevant research data (labeled Appendix A, B, etc.). Do not number them: begin numbering with the first page of text.

Your writing must be properly sourced in text, using ONLY APA format. Please do not use footnotes or endnotes.

Please note that legal cases and statutes must have appropriate legal citations, which we will cover in class. Proper legal citations are required in the paper and the List of Authorities.

When citing online sources, describe the source by the organization name and year of the report or data, and then provide the site URL.

It is essential that you proofread your paper to eliminate grammatical errors, colloquialisms, spelling and punctuation errors, run-on sentences and awkward construction. Ensure concise writing and logical flow.

Formal academic assignments do not use the first person, unless specifically approved. Therefore, do not write the assignment using I think, or I believe, or I will analyze this paper doing Instead, use, The purpose of this paper is to, or, This paper will identify and analyze etc.

You must use page numbers (bottom centre).

Please review and use the course notes on briefing a case and a statute as part of your analysis. You dont have to include your case brief in the paper: it is a tool for you to summarize a lengthy case.

Please ensure that there is appropriate concordance between the internal citations of the works cited and the List of Authorities. That is, do not refer to a source in the body of the paper and fail to list it in your references.

Sourcing and plagiarism: Be very careful when you summarize or paraphrase the work of an author or the decision of the court so that you are not repeating their text verbatim. If you want to use the specific words of an author or judge of the court you MUST use quotation marks for short quotes (fewer than 3 sentences) or block indent format for more than 4 sentences, and source the author, year and page number of the quote.

If you dont know how to use block-indent quotations, please look it up! It is very important in accurate academic writing to know this technique, and it is especially important in legal writing.

You must accurately cite legal cases and statutes. There is a required format for citing legal cases and statutes. We will discuss legal writing in class but you can also refer to the dozens of cases and statutes cited in our text. Notice the consistent format for them, such as italics (always!!) for case and statute titles.