In an earlier paper,1 the author undertook to show that the interrelations between legal and economic (market) processes were considerably more intricate and subtle than recent literature has allowed. Overall it was suggested that voluntary market exchange is both a partial emanation or dependent variable and an independent or determining or conditioning variable so far as certain interrelations between legal and economic processes are concerned. The implicit thrust of the article was that certain concepts of welfare economics could be revised to reflect a broader and more viable analysis of choice. The objective of the present chapter is to begin that revision, to reconsider certain fundamental concepts of welfare economics in terms of a broader and more complex and yet more viable model of choice and power.

Cases and materials on law and poverty

Welfare Economics, Power and Property

The social sciences have been prominent in demonstrating that the legislative approach of the early years to systemic discrimination was erroneous insofar as the individual and intentional foundation of this phenomenon is concerned. Sociological studies have identified sources and socio-cultural effects that have brought to light the collective and perceptual dimensions of a phenomenon that proves to be social and complex before it is individual. Further, an overview of the major decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada shows the legal evolution of the notion of discrimination itself toward recognition of a singular concept with variables that are simple or multiple, homogeneous or complex, but above all inseparable. This article concludes with a brief presentation of the systemic approach, an analytical framework for complex phenomena introduced as a useful and pertinent tool in the study of situations involving discrimination.

Cases and materials on law and poverty

Citations

Welfare Economics, Power and Property

La discrimination systémique: variation sur un concept unique

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