In a lecture entitled The Canadian Constitutional Experiment, Brian Donohue will examine the unique nature of the Canadian approach both philosophically and practically, presenting accessible analysis of several leading and controversial Supreme Court decisions.

"After the Charter of Rights was introduced in 1982 it was generally assumed that Canadian courts would embrace the American jurisprudence; that our Supreme Court's decisions would look very much like those of the U.S. Supreme Court," says Donohue. "But in fact Canada has formulated an innovative and indigenous conception of bipolar constitutional authority."

Donohue will show the advances of our model over American jurisprudence, and demonstrate the changes in legal theory and legal decision making that are helping Canada to lead the way in becoming a polity for the 21st century.

Donohue is Associate Professor of Philosophy at University of Sudbury College, which is an affiliated college of Laurentian University. He has been Philosophy department chair at both Sudbury and Laurentian, and teaches philosophy and Political Science at both. A distinguished teacher, he recently won the Laurentian Award for Teaching Excellence. He has published in leading journals on philosophical jurisprudence, political theory, and the history of philosophy. He is also well known as

a commentator, and regularly publishes in the Toronto Star and the Sudbury Star.

For more information about the President's Lecture Series, contact Dave Stephen at 864-4612, or 792- 0025, local 4612. The series is sponsored in part by the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation.