Grade 12 - Law Studies

LAW STUDIES 12

Curricular Competency

Content

Big Ideas

Understanding legal rights and responsibilities allows citizens to participate more fully in society.

Laws can maintain the status quo and can also be a force for change.

A society’s laws and legal framework affect many aspects of people’s daily lives.

Laws are interpreted, and these interpretations may evolve over time as a society’s values and worldviews change.

Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze legal concepts, issues, and procedures; and communicate findings and decisions

Assess and compare the significance and impact of legal systems or codes (significance)

Assess the justification for differing legal perspectives after investigating points of contention, reliability of sources, and adequacy of evidence (evidence)

Analyze continuities and changes in legal systems or codes across jurisdictions (continuity and change)

Assess the development and impact of legal systems or codes (cause and consequence)

Explain and infer multiple perspectives on legal systems or codes (perspective)

Make reasoned ethical judgments about legal systems or codes (ethical judgment)

Make reasoned ethical judgments about controversial decisions, legislation, or policy (ethical judgment)

the Constitution of Canada and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

structures and powers of the federal and provincial courts and administrative tribunals

key areas of law such as criminal law, civil law, and family, children’s, and youth law

Canadian legislation concerning First Peoples

indigenous legal orders and traditional laws in Canada and other global jurisdictions

Canada’s correctional system and principles of rehabilitation, punishment, and restoration

structures and roles of global dispute resolution agencies and courts