The University of Alberta Faculty of Law's Professor Barbara Billingsley recently returned from presenting at the Annual Conference of the Socio-Legal Studies Association (U.K.), in Aberdeen (Scotland), from April 9-11, 2014.
The Socio-Legal Studies Association 2014 conference followed a "streams and themes" format. This year's conference offered up 27 streams; 4 themes; and a panel session. The plenary session took the form of a panel session on Scottish Independence. Professor Billingsley's presentation was part of the Civil Procedure / ADR stream and was titled "Recent Reforms in Canadian Civil Procedure".
The Robert Gordon University Law School hosted the 2014 SLSA conference at the Aberdeen Business School. The conference attracted around 350 delegates from 25 different countries. Delegates came from a variety of backgrounds and at different stages in their professional career, from early career researchers through to the most eminent scholars in their field. The 2014 SLSA conference continues the tradition of previous years in helping to establish many enduring scholarly connections.
"I'm grateful to the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice and to the UAlberta Faculty of Law for providing financial support enabling me to attend this conference," Professor Barbara Billingsley said. "My presentation on "Recent Developments In Canadian Civil Procedure" was based on research provided by Joel Franz (3L) through a Roger S Smith Research Award. My experience at this conference has absolutely convinced me that the problems of delay, cost and access to justice, in an environment of decreasing government funding, is not unique to the Canadian civil justice system. These are widespread problems and we can learn much from other jurisdictions in trying to find solutions."