For anyone interested in their rights, obligations, and relationship to government, a new online course is opening up new opportunities. Canadians interested in the foundational documents of their nation can now get an in-depth look into public law like never before.

“Public law has to do with the exercise of government power,” says course developer and instructor Jonathan Shanks, Law'07. “When the government requires you to have a driver’s license, to drive a car, or a fishing license, that’s public law – the relationship between government and individuals. And constitutional law takes it one step further. It’s the basic framework for our democracy in Canada, and the framework for our laws.”

The course, Law 205/705, Public and Constitutional Law, begins classes in May. While the subject matter is broad, Shanks uses case law to give students a specific lens on how the Constitution applies directly to our lives.

“We read a lot of cases, which brings the subject from a high level of abstraction down into concrete scenarios,” Shanks says. “We examine the broad rights guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, such as freedom of expression, and look at specific cases where the courts have struggled with particular types of expression, like whether hate speech or false news are protected forms of expression. Examining broad constitutional principles in particular factual situations lets us understand how rights are interpreted in context.”

As part of the Queen’s Certificate in Law, it is a wholly online undergraduate-level course. Students can take it for course credit (with a letter of permission for non-Queen’s degree program students), but the course is also open for lifelong learners and professionals seeking a greater understanding of public law.

“Anyone who wants to be a productive, engaged, civic-minded member of society will get a lot out of this course,” Shanks says. “Births have to be registered – so the moment you come into life in this province, you’re being affected by public law! Think of your day, from the moment you get up to when you go to sleep at night… there’s almost no part of your day that isn’t regulated in some way by the government.”

Understanding government – whether you’re a believer in the system or an activist seeking to change it – is core to being a part of society, Shanks says. “Every day half of the people who go to court lose,” Shanks says. “The rights in the Charter are constantly being interpreted and reinterpreted by the courts. For example, in the 1990s the Supreme Court found that a ban on assisting someone to commit suicide was constitutional. In 2015, the Supreme Court decided that such a ban violated the Charter. … examples like this show that the law isn’t static, it is infused with values and principles that can evolve to take into account changes in society.”

Public and Constitutional Law classes begin in May, and the course will be offered periodically online in subsequent semesters. More details about this course, and other Certificate courses, can be found at http://takelaw.ca.