On this day in ...... 1987, in RWDSU v. Saskatchewan, in which locals of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, along with other unions, challenged laws in several provinces, the Supreme Court of Canada held that there was no constitutional right to strike. They thus rejected the argument that the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms -- stating in relevant part "2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: ... d) freedom of association." -- includes such a right. The lone woman on the Court, Justice Bertha Wilson (left), was also the lone dissenter from this decision.
... 1609 (400 years ago today), Spain and Netherlands signed the Treaty of Antwerp, which ended nearly a half-century of hostilities between northern Netherlands and Spanish rulers and marked the beginning of the Twelve Years Truce, . In its announcement of an upcoming conference commemorating this quatrocentenary, Tilburg University continues:
Whereas at the expiration of the Truce in 1621, the war would resume for another quarter century, no serious strategic attempts were made any more by Madrid to re-conquer the Northern Netherlands.
The Twelve Years Truce did not only lay out the groundwork for the future final peace settlement in political terms, but also in legal terms. ...
Between the late 15th and late 17th centuries, peace treaties became much more elaborate legal instruments than they had been before. The legal principles, concepts and rules which were developed within the peace treaties of that period came to form a major part of the classical law of nations, and to its hardcore, the laws of war and peace. The Truce of Antwerp and papers documenting its negotiation process constitute important formative as well as informative sources for the laws of war and peace of the Early Modern Age.
Details on this conference, to be held April 23 & 24, are here. (credit for photo of Antwerp's circa 1580 Guildhouses)
