The mission of the MLJ, as succinctly explained by Dr. Schwartz, is to bring “world-class scholarship to interests in our community.” This world-class scholarship is evident in the MLJ’s placement among top-ranked journals in Canada, according to Google Scholar citation metrics, and consistent winning of awards in the highly competitive SSHRC program for scholarly journals.

Volume 46 contains the inaugural issue of The Review of Enterprise and Trade Law dimension: “To get TRETL where it is was a massive undertaking,” explained Dr. Schwartz. “It is the culmination of work going back almost twenty-five years. It began with the creation of the Asper Review of International Business and Trade Law, which on its own became one of the top-ranked journals in Canada. Over the years, the Asper Chair collaborated with the Desautels Chair on projects such as our franchise law conference and book, which had a significant impact on the legislation here in Manitoba. With TRETL, we now have a combined effort of the two chairs to produce a regular publication reflecting the mandate of both. A further synergy has been achieved by fully integrating this journal into our thriving MLJ program.”

Readers of Volume 46 will find several issues forming part of the journal’s Underneath the Golden Boy dimension, which is concerned with legislation and public policy. Issues 1 and 3 are the first two of a trilogy focussing on our legal system in times of crisis: Issue 1, Canada’s Emergencies Act: Beyond the Rouleau Report, deals with the Emergencies Act and the controversy surrounding its use while Issue 3, Online Dispute Resolution: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, looks at the recent health crisis through both academic articles and oral-history interviews with local lawyers. The third and final issue of this trilogy, yet to be released, will focus on the perspectives of leading lawmakers and political figures in Manitoba in relation to the COVID crisis. Issue 2 steps away from the crisis lens and broadly reviews general developments in public policy and administration.

The three criminal law issues edited by Dr. Richard Jochelson and Assistant Professor Brandon Trask – 4, 5, and 6 – published under the Robson Crim dimension of MLJ, are wide-ranging. They include articles on wrongful convictions, legislative measures targeting proceeds of crime (even maple syrup), and incarcerees’ access to healthcare. These contributions, as with all of MLJ’s dimensions, are authored by students, faculty, and practicing professionals, and undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process.

This dimensions-based approach allows the MLJ to focus on local issues through clear and specific lenses, while leaving the door open to national or international discussion of important fields more inherently (inter)national in scope.

The Executive Editors-in-Chief would like to thank the student-editorial teams at the MLJ and its Robson Crim dimension for their hard work in bringing this volume to fruition. As put by Professor MacPherson, “We congratulate and thank all the students for the time that went into getting this entire issue out the door. We really believe our readers will find something within its pages that is both academically rigorous and useful.”

Thank you to:

MLJ Student Editors

Selene Sharp

Vicky Liu

Apara Grace

AubrieAnn Schettler

Avery Alexiuk

Brayden Juras

Brent Tichon

Diana Gutierrez

Heather Peterson

Joshua Dondo

Steven Csincsa

Vilciya Rajput

All of the editors – both faculty and students – would like to thank Lily Deardorff, MLJs Digital Editor, for her co-ordinating efforts, guidance, and persistent positivity.

With Volume 47 already beginning pre-print, the MLJ is poised to continue delivering cutting-edge, readable, and independent legal commentary.

“The Desautels Centre is growing and it will take a village to ensure its success,” said Dr. Richard Jochelson, Dean of Law. “Congratulations to all our new appointments in these important roles. We look forward to a bright new future at the Desautels Centre.”

Since its inception in 2007, the Desautels Centre has undergone a number of stages of growth in its progress towards finding a balance between providing effective experiential learning opportunities for students and serving Manitobans needing help with business law matters. Partly through the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Centre for-credit clinical course, the Desautels Centre provides future lawyers and their clients with a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing privately held businesses. The Centre’s areas of strength include Law and Technology, Business Organizations, Business Transactions and Obligations, Financing and Insolvency, and Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Darcy MacPherson, Professor, Faculty of Law

As the Desautels Centre’s Research Director, Professor MacPherson will serve as Faculty editor of the Desautels Review of Private Enterprise & Law, including its paper competitions and social media activities. He will run the Desautels Research Seed Funds competition, organize regular meetings of the Desautels Research Cluster and develop new initiatives to promote and celebrate private enterprise research. This will include developing and organizing a Desautels Conference, forming strategic partnerships with publishers, publications and scholarly associations to advance the mandate of the Desautels Centre, and building a broad network of Affiliated Researchers.

“To me, the Desautels Centre provides the Faculty of Law with a unique opportunity to do research and other programming that will be of relevance, not only to Manitoba, but also to private enterprises across the country as they develop, grow and prosper,” said MacPherson.  “Private enterprise and the law that surrounds it are key economic drivers in Manitoba and in all of Canada.

My goal is that the Centre and its Associates will provide top-flight research for entrepreneurs and others, including our students, who will have a front-row seat and immediate opportunities to learn while they are at Robson Hall, and the ability to use that knowledge for the benefit of their business clients when they leave us.”

Dr. Rebecca Jaremko-Bromwich

As Academic Co-Directors, Professor Trask and Dr. Jaremko-Bromwich will run the Desautels Centre Blog, Case Reporter and social media, plan and organize several Desautels lectures per year, and develop and administer new student prizes and awards related to private enterprise. They will also oversee curriculum development including a forthcoming Private Enterprise Concentration and the development of new courses related to private enterprise. Finally, the newest and most exciting development for which they will be responsible, will be bringing to fruition a new joint JD/MBA program in collaboration with the Asper Chair in International Business and Trade Law.

“I am tremendously excited about what we can build together here with the Desautels Centre and L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic, collaboratively providing a hub for business excellence in Manitoba by serving access to Justice, and leading research and education,” said Jaremko-Bromwich.

Brandon Trask, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law. Photo Credit: Dr. Amar Khoday.

“I’m honoured to have the opportunity to help the Desautels Centre at this exciting stage in its development, said Trask. “In addition to assisting with the growth of the academic program, I look forward to helping to foster partnerships and build important connections across disciplines, institutions, and organizations. It’s vital to recognize that it is possible—and indeed essential—to have success in private enterprise connected to prosperity for society as a whole.”

MacPherson has numerous private law publications and practice expertise having been an associate lawyer at what was then known as Tory, Tory, DesLauriers and Binnington (now Torys LLP). A Cambridge graduate, he has expertise in Corporate Law, Agency and Partnerships, Commercial Law, Contracts, Advanced Corporations, and has, over a number of years, been instrumental in coaching the Corporate/Securities Law Moot. He has also become an expert on corporate criminal liability and brings experience as a co-managing editor of the Manitoba Law Journal to the portfolio.

Trask completed graduate work at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor Michael Trebilcock, specializing in the area of law and economics. He also has research expertise in political economy, economic regulation, hydro-electric regulation and labour negotiations. Trask also dealt with white collar crime files during his extensive practice career with the Crown.

In addition to her doctoral studies, Jaremko-Bromwich has an MBA and mediation training from Harvard. She has years of experience with Gowling WLG and was involved in ensuring big firm corporate and commercial practice was apprised of EDI fundamentals. She has taught at the Sprott School of Business and has also been a successful business person, running a multi-million dollar business.  YWCA Woman of Distinction Award Winner.  Both of the Academic Co-Directors have extensive publication output.

Dr. Laura Reimer, who currently serves as Master of Human Rights Practicum Program Coordinator, will assist the Desautels Centre with program development in the JD/MBA and related areas and provide program development support for the Directors in running the blogs, case reporter, guest speaker events, conferences and the Desautels Review.   Reimer, in addition to her doctoral training, has multiple credentials in mediation, extensive experience in program development and also brings business expertise from time working in Human Resources with The Bay, Steinbach Credit Union, Mordyck Auctions, Momentum Software, Online Business Systems and in providing training in workplace conflict. She has an extensive publication record and related expertise in Indigenous education policy, and is currently involved in other program development responsibilities at the Faculty of Law.

“It’s typical of the kind of synergies we’re always trying to achieve among the teaching, research and service we provide to our communities,” he said. “As international business is increasingly e-commerce, we added a course in that area to our regular Asper Chair rotation of courses at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law. We can now use the new book as a tool to help teach it.”

Several years ago at the Asper Chair’s annual IntLaw Conference, Schwartz gave a talk on the topic of cybersecurity in the aftermath of an incident where large Toronto firms had been subject to offshore cyber-attacks. Subsequently, with the help of three law students, he set about producing this guidebook.

“One of my inspirations was the American Bar Association’s Cybsecurity Handbook,” Schwartz explained.  “I thought something comparable would be useful to our practising legal community here in Canada.” 

The guidebook has been released as a special issue of the Asper Review (Volume 21) and will be available in e-book and print format in a variety of open-access or print-on-demand forums, including Amazon.ca.

Volume 20 of the Asper Review was also released last week, and includes an in-depth study on the drivers of secession movements in modern times titled “Revolt of the Rich: How Economic Considerations Influence Separatism in the Age of the Supranational Union.” Co-authored by Schwartz with Éamonn Carroll and Kulvinder Samrai, the article proposes some high-level ideas and tries to prove them through a detailed study of dozens of secession movements. “One idea is that separatist movements have to be viewed in the context of the whole hierarchy of organizations from local government to states within a union to countries to regional organization and global organizations,” Schwartz explained. “Another might be surprising – that separatist movements are largely driven by business and trade factors, not only ethnic tension.”

They are often “revolts of the rich,” he said, “efforts by relatively more prosperous parts of a country to escape what they see as heavy-handed measures by a central government to redistribute their wealth to other parts of the country or otherwise overregulate.”

Schwartz hopes the ideas presented in the piece will have global application. “In some interviews, I have used these ideas to discuss events in Canada, like the re-emergence of a separatism movement in Alberta,” he said.

Both these new volumes of the Asper Review come as Schwartz wraps up co-teaching the annual Asper International Program on Israeli Law and Society, which normally provides Canadian students with the opportunity to visit Israel and attend classes at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  “Our focus had been on the legal and  business dimensions of the emergence of Israel as the Start-Up Nation – a hub of high-tech start up enterprises,” said Schwartz. “The last two years, due to COVID, we shifted the emphasis to “Decision Making in Times of Crisis.”

Despite the necessary changes to the program, almost two dozen law school students from Robson Hall participated.