Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law in high gear for new year
Many goals reached, more on the way
Since August, 2021, many of the goals set for the Marcel A. Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law have been attained. A new website complete with social media presence launched this fall. A regular blog and a Western Canada case reporter prepared by law students under faculty supervision are underway. A for-credit Scholarly Publications course for the peer-reviewed Desautels Review of Private Enterprise and Law began with the fall term as an official part of the Law Faculty’s course calendar. And that is just the beginning.
The course and all students involved in Desautels Centre-related activities fall under the supervision of Dr. Virginia Torrie, Associate Dean (Juris Doctor Program). “The Desautels Review is an excellent opportunity for students to learn about the mechanics of scholarly publishing. It is also great to see students actively involved with the Desautels Centre – it is a unique experience for them to be involved with building something with both academic and scholarly dimensions.”
Students currently enrolled in the Desautels Review course are close to publish the inaugural issue, and are thankful for the dedication and guidance of the new editorial board consisting of professors, alumni and internationally-respected legal scholars. The Review’s rolling call for submissions accepts academic articles focusing on the integration of business, law, and the humanities as they apply to family-controlled and other private enterprises in Canada.
“What we learned at school is not just some text, but a useful tool to solve problems in daily life.” – Xiyuan Feng, 2L
Xiyuan Feng is a second-year law student currently engaged in doing work for the Desautels Centre. “Through this work, I found so much fun in commercial law,” said Feng. “I am very grateful for the opportunity of sitting in the commercial symposium, which introduced so many interesting ideas and inspired me to explore more afterwards. Through writing the blogs, I start to think how to use the law to help people.”
To encourage law students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and early-career practitioners across Canada to conduct research in this area of law, the Review launched two paper competitions. The deadline for doctoral candidates is February 28, 2022, and the deadline for JD students is June 17, 2022.
A National Business Law Network is emerging through the Centre’s initiatives, and law students at Robson Hall are forming clinical connections through the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic. Conference and research opportunities are starting to be announced, and the Faculty can already boast the formation of a Desautels Research Cluster consisting of Professors Jennifer Schulz and Darcy MacPherson, Associate Professor Virginia Torrie, and Assistant Professors Bruce Curran, Krish Maharaj, and Katie Szilagyi.
The Desautels Centre will host visiting scholar Dr. Matthew J. Bellamy, an associate professor at Carleton University, on January 25, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. as the inaugural speaker for the Annual Desautels Lecture Series. Dr. Bellamy will discuss parts of his new book, Brewed in the North: A History of Labatt’s in a talk titled “Family Firm to Managerial Enterprise: Three Generations of Labatt’s and the Bootlegging Manager-Entrepreneur Who Saved the Brewery from Prohibition.”
The Desautels Centre’s mandate is to integrate the disciplines of law, business and the humanities as they apply to family-controlled and other private enterprises.
Follow the Desautels Centre and the Desautels Review on Twitter @DesautelsCentre and @DesautelsReviewand on LinkedIn at The Marcel A. Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law and Desautels Review of Private Enterprise and the Law.