For this assignment I want you observe both court and legislative proceedings, and
compare the two processes. This should be a reasonably brief paper (between 1000-1200
words). It is not a traditional research paper, so I do not expect you to do research or cite
sources (because you aren’t doing research) apart from perhaps making reference to
relevant laws that are the subject of the court or legislative proceedings (e.g. the Criminal
Code, or the Family Law Act). You should plan to spend a morning or an afternoon (2-3
hours) attending and observing court, and perhaps 1-2 hours observing legislative
proceedings. For further clarity, I am going to briefly outline here what I want you to do
for each part (court proceeding observation and legislative proceeding observation) and
some of the key points you should touch upon in your paper.
- Court Process Observation
You view a court proceeding. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic I do not want you to
attend a court proceeding in person. Instead, you will observe a Supreme Court of
Canada hearing online. Archived webcasts of Supreme Court of Canada hearings can
be found at the following link: https://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/info/webcastswebdiffusions-eng.aspx?ya=2020&mo=3&submit=Search
You should plan to spend 2-3 hours watching these court proceedings.
You should write about your experience and observations of the court proceedings, and
this should include the following information: - Name of the case
- Name of the judge(s)
- Name of the court and type of court (trial or appeal).
- The statute(s) (and any relevant sections of the statute you can identify) that is
the subject of the court proceedings. - Description of what you observed (cross-examination of a witness; direct
examination of a witness; opening arguments; closing arguments; legal
arguments; etc.) - Your observations about the culture of the courtroom and the court process.
- Any opinions you have about what you observed.
- Legislative Process Observation
Sample Solution