Another Author & Editor citation for the Manitoba Law Journal by the Supreme Court of Canada: Fl

A note from Dr. Bryan Schwartz,

Asper Professor of International Business and Trade Law, Robson Hall, University of Manitoba,

Co-Editor in Chief, Manitoba Law Journal

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For the second time this year, the Supreme Court of Canada has cited an article from the Manitoba Law Journal (the Criminal Law Special Edition and Underneath the Golden Boy); see Fleming v Ontario, 2019 SCC 45, referring to Burchill, John. “A Horse Gallops Down a Street . . . Policing and the Resilience of the Common Law” (2018), 41 Man L.J. 161 and R v. Goldfinch 2019 SCC 38, referring to, Lisa A Silver. “The WD Revolution” (2018), 41 Man. L.J. 307.

Our colleague, Professor Richard Jochelson is a founding and senior editor of the criminal law series that was initiated in 2017 as an integral part of the Manitoba Law Journal.

We are pleased to note that his own earlier work was also cited in the Fleming case; see Richard Jochelson, “Ancillary Issues with Oakes: The Development of the Waterfield Test and the Problem of Fundamental Constitutional Theory” (2012-13), 43 Ottawa L. Rev. 355.

Since Professor Darcy MacPherson and I assumed leadership of the Manitoba Law Journal in 2010, we have been pleased to welcome many contributions from faculty members from our own school as authors and as editors of special issues, as well as contributions from distinguished jurists and social scientists from all over Canada and beyond.We are an open-access journal, as we are also, in addition to being open-access, carried on the leading academic legal databases (Westlaw, LexisAdvanceQuicklaw, HeinOnline).

We invite everyone to visit our website at the manitobalawjournal.com to learn more about the five dimensions of our publishing program and about our overall mission of producing high-caliber and engaging scholarship on matters that are of relevance to our own community here in Manitoba.

Our collegial efforts as a faculty have helped the law journal recently secure a three-year renewal of its first-ever SSHRC grant in aid of scholarly publications in 2014. The SSHRC award is the outcome of a highly competitive juried process. The grade received by the MLJ for overall excellence placed it second in Canada among all qualified applicants in the envelope of Economics, Law, Political Science, Industrial Relations, Administration and Management Studies. We were very likely the top ranked law journal. We consider this shared achievement to be among the most significant in the long scholarly history of this law school.

Among the hallmarks of the MLJ’s success has been the extent to which the peer-reviewed work in our journal has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, in scholarly journals (we rate highly in Google Scholar rankings for Canadian law journals) and in social media. The SSHRC jury gave the MLJ excellent scores for “quality and impact” and “dissemination strategies” as well as editorial direction.

Later this month Robson Hall will host a conference organized by Professors Jochelson and Ireland on criminal law issues; the results, after peer review, will contribute to the 2020 criminal law special issues. The 2019 instalments will be released just in time for the conference.

The other dimensions of our publishing program are the current legal landscape (focusing on developments in courts and tribunals), the Underneath the Golden Boy series (on legislation and public policy), Indigenous legal issues (our inaugural issue was launched earlier this year, on the Oral History of Indigenous Jurists and Policy Makers from Manitoba) and the past, present and future of the legal profession.

In the 2019-2020 volume, the MLJ will be commemorating the 50th anniversary of the law school by releasing special issues on the life and work of Chief Justice Hugh Robson, the law school’s namesake, and on a revised edition of the history of the General Strike by the late Jack Walker (with a new introduction and bibliography).

We are grateful to Professor Jochelson, Ireland and Khoday for imagining and carrying out the criminal law series, which has assumed a preeminent place in criminal law scholarship in Canada, and we extend an invitation to all of our colleagues to continue to approach us with both individual submissions and ideas for specially focused issues. We would also like to thank all of the dedicated student editors who have helped us along the way, and the support of the SSHRC, the Legal Research Institute and the Faculty of Law Endowment Fund, and the ongoing support and encouragement of Dean Jonathan Black-Branch.