Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Philosophy, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

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Canada is one of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced countries in the world. Yet, it fails to maintain an effective and comprehensive system for responding to weather-related hazards. The adverse socio-economic impacts of extreme weather are sufficiently serious to make climate change a threat to humanity. Weather events have lingering effects on peoples’ financial stability, particularly in low-income households. The goal of this thesis is to illuminate the nature of the legal, economic and social challenges posed by extreme weather. Thus, I present a comprehensive study of the Canadian institutional responses to these disasters. / Graduate

The ecological composition of plaintiff entities may vary in size and sociographics in toxic tort litigation. The amount of awards and the justifications for those awards in the various plaintiff situations are unknown. Consolidation which is procedurally distinct from class consolidation procedurally distinct from class action is an alternative litigation strategy for mass torts. While it is well-grounded in English common law, jury decision making in consolidated actions has not been extensively examined by social scientific, legal, or communication researchers. In light of the limited research in this area, awards and decision justifications were gathered from two populations of surrogate jurors. Subjects were asked to decide on the amount of money to award a single plaintiff or a small aggregate, small group, large aggregate or large group of plaintiffs in a written summary of a hypothetical toxic substance case. In addition, respondents were asked to explain the reason(s) for their award decisions. The average award in each situation was in the mid-point area of a range from zero to one million dollars. The amount implies that on average respondents were inclined to give all plaintiff entities approximately $500,000. The justifications for the awards were organized into the following nine categories determined by the application of Toulmin's model of argument: (1)~Company Attribution - CA; (2)~Employee Attribution - EA; (3)~Attribution to Both Employee and Company - BA; (4)~Evaluation Pro-Plaintiff - EPP; (5)~Evaluation Pro-Defendant - EPD; (6)~Sufficient Compensation - SC; (7)~Company Attribution/Sufficient Compensation - CASC; (8)~Employee Attribution/Sufficient Compensation - EASC; and (9)~Both Attribution/Sufficient Compensation - BASC. The underlying warrants(s) in the responses served as the label for each category. The classifications revealed a categorical advantage for the plaintiff(s). Respondents provided justifications beyond strict attributions of responsibility to the parties involved. Need for compensation and a positive regard for plaintiffs, for example, were issues which emerged in the justifications Attribution of responsibility to the employee was a consistent basis for monetary decisions for subjects who decided not to award any compensation. Respondents who were maximum award givers, however, deviated from attributions in the small aggregate, small group, and large aggregate situations.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Philosophy, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Bern, 2008, / Includes bibliographical references (p. xxii-xlvii).

Thesis (D. Jur.)--York University, 2000. Graduate Programme in Law. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ67940.