The focus of this book is the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which came into force in 2003, and the amendments to the Act which came into force in October 2012. The 2012 amendments can in turn best be understood as the response of the current federal government to perceived limitations of the 2003 law, as well as a response to some decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada interpreting the YCJA. The present edition discusses caselaw interpreting the Act, recent social science literature, and changes in the political context and social perception of youth crime since the YCJA came into force. Previous editions of the book have been cited approvingly by all levels of courts in Canada including the Supreme Court of Canada.
The book includes discussion of constitutional, evidentiary, and procedural issues that are relevant to youth justice; it also explores some of the ethical and practical issues that confront lawyers and other professionals working in the youth justice system. As well, it considers the broader social and political context for issues of adolescent offending and youth justice.
Youth Criminal Justice Law will appeal to a broad audience, from students of law and other related disciplines, seeking an introduction to the laws governing young people who come into conflict with the law, to lawyers, judges, probation officers, and other justice system professionals who are working in this field.

Nicholas Bala is one of Canada's leading experts in the field of family law. He has a special interest, and has published extensively, in the area of family obligations and legal issues related to children such as child abuse, young offenders, custody and access following divorce, and child support. His work is often cited by the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. He has done considerable consulting on law reform issues in the family law field for federal and provincial governments as well as for aboriginal organizations, and he has appeared as a witness at a number of Parliamentary hearings. He is frequently invited to speak at education programs for judges, lawyers, doctors, and other professionals and is regularly interviewed by the media about family law issues. Professor Bala received the Queen's Law Students' Society Award for Teaching Excellence in 1993 and 1998. He has been a visiting professor at McGill University and Duke Law School and a visiting scholar at the University of Calgary.

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Sanjeev Anand is the Dean at the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan. He is a former prosecutor and began his career as a Legal Aid staff lawyer whose practice primarily dealt with the defence of young offenders.He teaches and researches in five fields: substantive criminal law, criminal procedure, sentencing, evidence, and constitutional law. An area of particular interest to Dr. Anand is youth justice. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen book chapters, journal articles, and commissioned reports on various aspects of Canada’s juvenile justice system. Dean Anand’s work has been cited by courts across the nation, including the Supreme Court of Canada. He has done considerable consulting on law reform issues in the criminal law field for the federal government and he is a frequent media commentator on criminal and constitutional law issues. He is the coauthor (with Eric Colvin) of Principles of Criminal Law, 3d ed. (2007), a treatise that critically explores the general principles underlying the law of criminal culpability in Canada.

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