Youth and the Law: What's the Law?, cartea 1

What's the law? What does it mean? If the law is "broken," especially criminal law, there may be a penalty: jail time, a fine, parole. But who "makes" the law? How can the government draw clear lines in imposing individual responsibility?

Consider a 15-year-old victim of bullying. He has "had enough." He takes his father's gun from a locked closet and goes to school, where he shoots and seriously wounds a bully. How is he to be tried and sentenced? How is a court to decide? This is the central question explored in this book. The laws relating to young offenders depend heavily upon the courts to protect and guide the young as well as society. How is a court to interpret this policy in legal decisions?

All these questions and more are discussed in light of the Supreme Court of Canada's decisions relating to youth, police in schools, bullying, spanking, violent young offenders, police arrest, the right to be warned, special courts, burden of proof, and sentencing.