Other than that, the people in Halifax are fantastic. It's just like the Canada that I know and love. I've already had 2 Kinder Eggs as a throwback to my youth and plan on eating more than several more. On the way from the airport, the airport transport bus driver asked me what stop I needed to be dropped off at and I told him the Lord Nelson Hotel. He asked if I was staying there, and I told him no. He asked me where I was going to be living for the summer and drove out of his way to get me to my new front door! He even helped me take my bags across the street! I was so grateful. Everyone in this city is like that.
Halifax is only 400,000 people (and the whole of Nova Scotia is only 1 million); WAY smaller than Atlanta's 5.1 million! This city is like a small town pretending to be a big city. One of my new roommates says that is the perfect way to describe it. There's a lot of tension between trying to preserve the historic feel of the city and trying to make it modern. Apparently, the historic preservation is winning out so far. The downtown area is beautiful though. Very quaint and has almost a Pier 39 Seattle feel to it. Lots of coffee shops, pubs, and restaurants. I'm told that there's a Tall Ships Festival in July which I am SUPER excited about and there's also a street performer festival some time this summer. I can't wait to get in the city to experience it!
Note: NS is on Atlantic time, so an hour ahead. I did not know that. Made for some interesting scheduling problems :)
I feel somewhat out of place clothing-wise. The temperature here is about the way the
temperature was in GA a month ago. I little chilly with warm moments and warm days. It got VERY windy last night. Overall, it's unpredictable. The tulips are just starting to bloom, the forsythia is in full force, the trees are beginning to bud as are the cherry trees and dogwoods. The crocuses are just starting to shoot out of the ground. I'm hoping that everything gets just a little bit more colorful. There are public gardens a few blocks from me, and I think I'm going to explore those a little later on this week. I think they're going to be beautiful even though it's not in full bloom yet. So, I realized that I didn't pack nearly as well as I should have. I have a jacket and a few pairs of long pants, but overall I brought a lot of skirts. A little too cold for that! I knew that it was going to be colder than GA, but not this cold! I also looked on weather.com last week when they were having a warm spell, and unfortunately based my clothing decisions on that. Oh well! I'll just have to go pick up a few things to last me until the weather picks up in a few weeks.Other than that though, everyone here seems to be wearing a lot of gray and black. I love color, so this is heartbreaking to me. Goodbye, lime green cardigan! I won't be wearing you for a little while! I'm hoping that poeple inject more color in their lives as things get warmer; otherwise I have very few clothing options. I'll just have to wear lots of neutrals with a speck of color here and there. Overall though, this city (as are most in Canada) is much more casual than the US. Most people at the court wear khakis and button downs. There isn't a suit or a jacket in sight! Well... except for on the back of the justices' doors.
I was introduced around the court today and was officially called a clerk! That was very exciting for me! I met the Chief Justice and Associate Chief Justice of the NS Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of the Appeals court, who was surprisingly young. Everyone was very nice and warm and welcoming. The Chief of the Supreme Court was funny and charming and reminded me of my favorite uncle who is a lawyer in Ontario. I got a good overview of the court system in Canada (I was told some things several times). I also learned that the law schools in Canada do not have the socratic method, so that's different. That explains the funny look I got from Justice LeBlanc when I told him that first year was hard. It's more like my undergraduate experience, I assume. When I told him that the socratic method is alive and well in the United States, he looked shocked. He asked me if it was like Paper Chase and I told him that my contracts class definitely was!
My office isn't really an office, and I don't have a window to look over the beautiful water, but there's a huge desk in the law library upstairs that I was told I could work at. So I'm thinking I'll spend some time up there when I get sick of my little hole. I guess they really expect you to work and not admire the beautiful maritime scenery! Oh well.
I got my first two assignments today. I spent the better part of 4 hours (the whole afternoon) going over one of the cases that has a whole mess of issues and involves a pro se
defendant/appellant, although they don't use that term. It's a criminal case. Canada has a Federal Criminal Code (not like the US), but instead of Canada v. Smith, the still say "The Queen at the recommendation of the province of Nova Scotia (or Canada) v. Smith" and instead of referring to the party as "the State," they say "the Crown." It's a holdover from the British system. The case law at times refers to British Law, but this is apparently falling by the wayside. Older British law (before 1950) is more relevant that modern British Law because the Canadian legal system and Canada in general has been developing a much different ethos. One of the persuasive authorities I was reading for the case today actually referenced the American Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, so I think that there's a little bit of citation to American cases and the system, but not really. I know that the new discovery rules in civil litigation cases is modelled very closely to the US FRCP to have a very open discovery period, unlike the British system which is not nearly as generous. I just hope I don't have to read any cases from 1852. Those are the worst -- 1 sentence that's 3 pages long! UGH!Supreme Court of Canada cases are mandatory authority, but they deal with less constitutional issues than our Supreme Court. Where the USSC deals almost exclusively with Constitutional issues, the Supreme Court of Canada is an appeals court for nearly everything and can (and sometimes does) hear cases that have no constitutional question. The federal court system here is a court of general jurisdiction. There is no mandate that the case implicate a federal question or that there by diversity between the parties. The court that I'm clerking has original jurisdiction in criminal cases (they have jurisdiction over all jury trials whereas the provincial courts will hear lesser criminal cases that do not have a jury), divorce (divorce is issued by the federal government. Separations, custody, etc. is reserved for the provincial family courts), civil litigation like assual, battery, etc. So they really do hear a little bit of everything. The federal judges are appointed and paid by the federal government, but the building and all the administrative support is owned and operated by the provincial government. Everyone agrees that it is one whacky way to do things. When I find out more about how the system works, I will definitely get it into this blog!
The city is beautiful and the house I'm living in is this old victorian home. It used to be one of the shipping captains' house. It's huge and my room is big and bright, and I picked a good location at the center of everything. All the hosues here are pretty much old victorian houses. The foundations of this house are these stone foundations that are like 2.5 feet thick. This house is SOLID. That's Robin sitting on my front steps talking about something or other.Will tell more about the city and general impressions later. I'm off!
You're doing great!
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