Study Paths
Curated routes through the Canadian library. Pick a path matching your goal and follow it end-to-end. Each path links every recommended case, note, guide, and tool in order.
The Charter, end to end (a 1L primer)
A two-evening pass through the Charter — the constitutional framework, the s.1 proportionality test, the major rights, and the remedies. Designed to make your first Constitutional Law midterm feel boring.
- One pass through the architecture before going deep on individual rights.
- Skim the canon — Oakes, Hunter v Southam, Big M Drug Mart, Andrews, Vriend.
- Internalise the four-step Oakes proportionality test.
- Arbitrariness, overbreadth, gross disproportionality.
- Substantive equality + analogous grounds.
- Master the structure of every s.1 analysis you will write.
- Bedford / Carter framework on arbitrariness, overbreadth, gross disproportionality.
- Apply what you read against marker-style fact patterns.
Foundations of Canadian Law — NCA prep starter
A focused warm-up for the NCA Foundations of Canadian Law challenge exam. Hits the institutional architecture, the constitutional framework, and the major SCC decisions you must be able to discuss.
- Know the institutional landscape before walking into any Canadian law exam.
- Anchor your dates and events. NCA examiners reward clean institutional context.
- Foundational reading. NCA Foundations covers the Charter substantively.
- Section 91/92, POGG, paramountcy, IJI. Heavily tested.
- Vavilov is on every NCA Foundations sitting.
- Know who wrote the leading reasons. Examiners notice.
- Final review of the cases most likely to appear in any answer.
Indigenous law deep dive
From Calder to Tsilhqot'in to UNDRIP. The constitutional architecture of Aboriginal title, rights, treaty interpretation, and the Crown's duty to consult.
- End-to-end overview of the field.
- Calder → Delgamuukw → Tsilhqot'in.
- Sparrow + Haida + Daniels.
- Internalise the infringement-and-justification structure.
- Modern Haida-Mikisew-Clyde River framework.
- Read the cases themselves — Sparrow, Delgamuukw, Tsilhqot'in, Haida, Marshall.
Private law fundamentals — tort + contract
The doctrinal scaffolding for first-year tort and contract. Anns/Cooper, Bhasin, Sattva, Tercon, Hadley v Baxendale.
- End-to-end pass through the five elements.
- The framework for novel duty cases.
- But-for, Snell common-sense inference, Resurfice/Clements material contribution.
- Bhasin organising principle + duty of honest performance.
- How the duty has evolved through three SCC decisions.
- Sattva on interpretation, Tercon on exclusion.
- Donoghue, Cooper, Hill v HW, Childs, Mustapha.
Quebec civil law — a one-evening orientation
If you have never read the Civil Code of Quebec, this path gives you the working vocabulary and method to engage with QC private law on appeal.
- Sources, structure, vocabulary, method.
- Quick orientation hub with case anchor.
- Currently anchored by Quebec v A; more shipping in Q3.
Criminal procedure bootcamp
Stinchcombe, Jordan, Mann, Grant — the four cornerstones of pre-trial criminal procedure, plus the modern refinements.
- Unified view of disclosure, delay, detention, and exclusion.
- The Crown duty + the trial-delay ceilings.
- Hunter v Southam + Mann + Grant.
- Lifchus + W(D).