The overall approach for this year has been, in addition to publishing the Table of Statutory Limitations and two issues of the UBC Law Review, to work on creating a solid foundation that will enable the Law Review to continue to sustain itself long into the future. This plan has two key components. One part has entailed cementing our journal’s long and significant history, to foster a sense of pride amongst members, ensuring they understand the importance of their continuing the tradition of excellence that our alumni members began. The other part has involved striving to be a better-functioning Society, generally.
To protect our journal’s and Society’s future, we have undertaken a variety of projects. The Society has added two Special Project Coordinators, whose work will ensure that all of our projects are completed. Some of the projects include:
- Researching and creating a historical archive collection, in preparation for the Law Review’s 50th anniversary (2009), to be donated to the UBC library once complete.
- Researching and analyzing what other journals are doing, in terms of funding, board positions, substantive journal and copyright issues, and many other areas.
- Creating an on-line index of past Law Review articles, which should be available by the end of this school year.
Changes have been made to the board’s positions in recent years. This year, the Society added a new position: the Recent Legislation & Law Reform Editor. This Editor’s new section features comments on both law reform issues and recent legislation. This will give our journal an edge over other journals by bridging the gap between the academic world and the practice of law. We hope that papers in this section will assist and encourage lawyers by instructing them on how to use and even promote development of the current legal system. By adding a new section instead of changing the types of articles we currently publish, we will still maintain the Law Review’s traditional academic focus. Also this year, the editorial board members’ titles were changed to bring them in line with other journals, to better reflect the work being done. The Senior Editor title has changed to Editor in Chief, and the various Associate Editors’ titles have changed to Editors. The new Special Project Coordinator positions will only be filled when a board feels that there is a sufficient amount of work to be done to justify having one or two people hold this title. Also, in 2005/06, two new positions were added to the board: the Referee Coordinator and the Production Editor.
We are dedicating volume 40:2 to Dugald Christie, a lawyer-advocate who dedicated his life to promoting access to justice for everyone. He founded the Western Canada Society to Access Justice, which has opened and currently operates dozens of pro bono clinics in British Columbia and across Western Canada. His tax challenge will be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in late March 2007. Mr. Christie died tragically on July 31, 2006 while bicycling to Ottawa to petition the government for legal reform. This special access to justice issue will feature articles on a variety of topics that were important to Mr. Christie.
We will also be publishing our annual Table of Statutory Limitations (TSL). The TSL is a compendium of the legal limitation periods of various statutes. The TSL features the following: Limitation Act, Small Claims Court Rules, Supreme Court of British Columbia Rules, and British Columbia Court of Appeal Rules. Another decision made this year has been to add a new section to the TSL in 2008, which will contain the limitation acts’ limitation periods for all of the provinces and territories in Canada. It is hoped this will lead to an increase in subscribers.
The U.B.C. Faculty of Law Development Office has also been a great help to the Law Review this year and we would like to thank them for their generous support.
