Law and Literature

By David Kumagai, 2L

The 12-person jury stood huddled together in the lobby of Innis College. Jay Gatsby’s fate was in their hands.

Was he or wasn’t he behind the wheel of the car that killed Myrtle Wilson? One of the many things the jury needed to consider was the explosive testimony they had just heard from Gatsby himself.

It its decision on the case Cojocaru v. British Columbia Women’s Hospital and Health Centre, the Supreme Court of Canada cites work by Prof. Simon Stern about the degree to which a judge's copying from other sources in a trial decision, with or without attribution, should affect the validity of the decision. The decision quotes at length from Prof. Stern's forthcoming article "Copyright Originality and Judicial Originality," which will appear in the University of Toronto Law Journal. The SCC agrees with Prof.