Description

Assignment/Report - What’s in the News?

DUE AT THE START OF CLASS JUNE 27, 2020

The purpose of this assignment is for you to identify one or more legal issues that arise out of a current event reported in the news. Analyze that issue so that you come to understand the general principle and its application to the facts. Make a connection between the legal principle and a personal experience of your own. This assignment is worth 15% of your final mark and must be done on an individual basis.

Instructions

1. Find an article (not a case or case commentary/review) from a newspaper, news magazine or the internet that involves a legal issue relating to business. On any given day, the newspaper reports numerous stories involving legal disputes or regulatory compliance issues pertaining to business.

The article you choose must not have been published more than three months ago (from May 25, 2020) and be a minimum of five paragraphs (25-30 sentences) long.  You may choose your article from a number of sources. It may come from a newspaper (the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post), a weekly newsmagazine such as McLean’s, or from a professional news source located on the internet. Be wary of online articles. They are often quite short and may not meet the length requirement. 

Since this assignment will be submitted electronically, you will not be able to submit a copy of the article (unless it is from an online source, in which case please include a link to your article). If you have drawn from a non-online source, please take a picture of the front page of the article. I will need to know the date on which it was published and the source. A significant reduction in marks will occur if this information is not provided.

2. Prepare report covering the following topics:

Part A - Summary – description of what happened. Do not copy sections of the article. Use your own words to summarize. Do not incorporate more than one quote from your article in the summary. (1/2 page)

Part B - Legal Terminology – identify and define three to four words that appear to be legal terminology. Be sure to use a Canadian legal dictionary to complete this section. Cite your reference source using APA citation standards.

Part C - Legal Issue and Significance – identify and explain the legal issue being addressed in the article. (You may have already identified and defined the principle in the Legal Terminology section and therefore this part might seem repetitive; that’s fine). To determine the issue, consider, for example, whether there is a problem that needs resolving, a dispute (or potential dispute) between two or more parties, or a violation under the law that is being addressed (this will likely be the case if your article deals with a criminal law matter). Why is this issue important to the parties? To society?

Part D – Personal Connection

Why did you choose this article? What appealed to you about the issue/topic? What personal connection(s) can you make to the substance of the article? This section should be between 5-8 sentences.

References – On a separate page at the end of your report, cite your article and your reference any source(s) you used, adhering to APA citation style.

3. Format Requirements – Your report should be type-written using 12 point Arial font, double-spaced. It should include the following:

- cover page with title of the article in quotation marks and the source name

- date

- your name and student number

- course name and course code

- my name

- your report should follow the same outline as set out above (Parts A-D, References), using the same subheadings

- your references must be listed on the last page of your report in proper APA format

Please submit your report through the “What’s in the News?” portal set up in the Assignments folder in Bb by the start of class on July 27, 2020.

 The rubric for this assignment follows on the next page.