Grade 12: Law Studies

Constitution, Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Assess and compare the significance and impact of legal systems or codes (significance). Sample activities:

Assess the significance of the Constitution Act, 1982, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to human rights in Canada.
Assess the role of the judiciary as a constitutional check on legislative power.
Determine the importance of key legal principles, cases, social forces, and events in the evolution of law.
Assess the impact that a law, court decision, or legal principle has on legal structures and/or the lives of citizens.
Assess the impact of social and/or political forces on the development of law.

Analyze continuities and changes in legal systems or codes across jurisdictions (continuity and change). Sample activities:

Analyze how and why laws, justice system structures and practices, legal precedents, and legislative agendas change over time.
Analyze forces that reinforce continuity and factors that have both short-term and long-term effects on legal systems and the administration of justice.

Collective rights, Individual rights, Women's rights, LGBTQ rights

Explain and infer multiple perspectives on legal systems or codes (perspective). Sample activity: Analyze whether Canadian laws regarding the rights of minority groups evolved because of, or in spite of, popular support for change.

Make reasoned ethical judgments about controversial decisions, legislation, or policy (ethical judgment). Sample activities:

Assess cases in which the legal system has made rulings on human rights, and evaluate the extent to which these decisions advanced or infringed on the rights of those affected.
Consider how laws affect society and how society affects laws.

Indigenous rights, Treaty rights

Canadian legislation concerning First Peoples. Sample topics:

treaty processes
1763 Royal Proclamation
Indian Act
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Constitution Act, 1982
right to self-determination/self-government