Charging for the life cycle cost of waste management is contentious. The recent example of some retailers charging "eco-fees" in Ontario, with respect to sales of household products such as detergent, batteries and fluorescent light bulbs, is a case in point. However, the Ontario program for...

The procyclicality hypothesis predicts that after a stock market downturn, regulatory initiatives and therefore investor protections increase. Unlike the relevant literature which focuses on new legislation, we focus on the enforcement of securities law. Our work is consistent with the idea of...

Progress on environmental issues will require a shift in how individuals view and value their relationship to the environment. This article examines two divergent theories on how individuals' values are formed. One theory stems from the recent work in economics on how identities (including...

International bodies have criticized Canadian financial markets for being lax in the area of enforcement. We examine whether such criticisms are applicable to settlements struck by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). We make a number of important findings. First, the total number of parties...

Export subsidies provide a good example for discussing some interesting questions underlying the debate over reforming the current system of remedies for violations of World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations. If the purpose of trade agreements is to maximize economic welfare, discussion of...

Governments' choice of instrument to address environmental concerns affects not only the relative prices faced by individuals making choices but also their norms or values. This effect on values is important because some argue that traditional instruments (such as taxes and regulations) are...

Climate change has come to be seen as a major global environmental challenge. This paper examines the extent to which WTO rules constrain countries` ability to address climate change through domestic regulatory policies such as standards, labels, voluntary agreements and domestic emissions...

The duty to consult and accommodate has increasingly become front and centre in a wide range of resource and development projects and the related litigation. The Supreme Court of Canada has stated that it seeks to foster negotiation and limit litigation through its approach to the duty. This...

Governments are increasingly using taxes to address a variety of environmental concerns. WTO rules recognize that, like regulatory instruments, governments may use taxes for protectionist purposes. The rules are designed to prevent protectionist behaviour while allowing use of such instruments...