(2015) 1 CJCCL

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Preface by the Editors-in-Chief

W

e are delighted to launch the Canadian Journal of Comparative
and Contemporary Law with this inaugural issue focused on the
theme of health law and human rights.
When the three of us came together last year to discuss the possibility
of founding a new law journal, we looked for a way to strike common
ground as emerging scholars with seemingly different preoccupations,
from public to private law. We wondered how we might make a
meaningful contribution to a larger scholarly conversation in law, given
the wide range of existing law journals in Canada and abroad.
Part of the answer was found in the common value we place on
taking a comparative approach to legal scholarship and a shared desire
to gain a global perspective on the legal issues that we study. Although
Canadian law schools already host a number of high quality journals,
none are focused primarily on fostering comparative legal scholarship, and
journals abroad that do so are few in number. Yet, across the many fields
and subfields of our discipline, comparative scholarship is undergoing a
kind of renaissance. Scholars are increasingly framing their inquiries by
crossing jurisdictions, theoretical boundaries, and disciplinary borders.
While comparative legal scholarship can trace its roots to figures such as
Aristotle, Montesquieu, and Maine, it has become critically relevant to
the global age in which we live, an age in which laws and ideas about law
are constantly crossing borders and forging broader, more intricate links.
Within this global horizon, the idea of a law journal with a domestic focus
is beginning to seem anachronistic. We therefore encourage contributors
to take a comparative approach, understanding this in a broad sense of
drawing upon different jurisdictions, methods, theories, or disciplines.
Another part of the answer was found in the experience of conducting
our own past research initiatives, in which we valued high quality
publications that offered an in-depth examination of a particular legal
issue or area of law. Although there are already a number of established
specialist journals in Canada and abroad, our idea to select a new theme
for each issue uniquely enables us to respond to contemporary legal
problems and debates as they arise.

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Preface

In this inaugural issue, we have selected the theme of health law and
human rights given a host of recent developments in the field that stand
to benefit from a comparative approach, and for reasons that Dean Lorne
Sossin has aptly identified in his foreword to this issue. Our second issue,
to be published in the fall of 2015, explores equity in the 21st century,
which will be a valuable addition to the literature by taking a comparative
perspective on new challenges and persistent problems in the field.
Contributors to the second issue include nationally and internationally
renowned scholars, with further details to be posted shortly on our
website.
The final part of the answer was grounded in our shared approach to
embracing new technological possibilities as part of a newly established
and innovative law school at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops,
British Columbia, Canada. We have been inspired by the growing number
of scholars seeking to make their research more accessible through open
access and online journals. We have therefore adopted an open access
model to provide the widest possible dissemination of scholarship that we
publish. In addition to its availability through the usual legal databases,
all of our published content will be available for free online.
We hope that you find this issue on health law and human rights to
be both engaging and informative. We invite you to explore the themes
of future issues of the Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary
Law as we aspire to provide a dynamic forum for quality scholarship,
making an important contribution to debates on contemporary legal
issues.
Robert Diab
Chris DL Hunt
Lorne Neudorf
Editors-in-Chief
January 2015
Thompson Rivers University
Faculty of Law
Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada