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The Supreme Court Of Canada And Constitutional (Equality) Baselines, Rosalind Dixon
The Supreme Court Of Canada And Constitutional (Equality) Baselines, Rosalind Dixon
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In its approach to defining “analogous grounds” for the purposes of subsection 15(1) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Supreme Court of Canada has adopted an unusual mix of broad and generous interpretation, and high formalism. This article argues that one potential reason for this is the degree of heterogeneity among the nine distinct enumerated grounds in section 15. Heterogeneity of this kind can produce quite different interpretive consequences, depending on whether a court adopts a direct, “multi-pronged,” or a more synthetic, “common denominator,” approach to the question of analogical development. The Court, over time, has implicitly shifted …
Rights In The Age Of Identity Politics, Avigail Eisenberg
Rights In The Age Of Identity Politics, Avigail Eisenberg
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In 1982, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was entrenched in the Constitution at the height of what has come to be known as an era of identity politics. The influence of identity politics on Canadian jurisprudence is evident both in some of the specific rights entrenched in the Charter and in the manner these rights have been interpreted. This paper examines two approaches to Charter interpretation that use the resources of identity politics. On the identity approach, claims individuals and groups make about their identities in the course of advancing rights claims are treated as immutable, non-negotiable facts, rather …
Aboriginal And Treaty Rights And Violence Against Women, John Borrows
Aboriginal And Treaty Rights And Violence Against Women, John Borrows
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Violence against Indigenous women is a crisis of national proportions. Unfortunately, Indigenous peoples have been prevented from arguing that Indigenous communities are a constitutional site of activity for dealing with such violence. This article suggests that Aboriginal and treaty rights under section 35 of the Constitution could play a significant role in ensuring that all levels of government are seized with the responsibility for dealing with violence against women. This article explores how section 35 could be reinterpreted in ways that place issues of gender and violence at the heart of its analysis.
The Charter's Influence Around The World, Mark Tushnet
The Charter's Influence Around The World, Mark Tushnet
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Over the past several decades, the influence of the United States Constitution and Supreme Court around the world has waned while that of the Canadian Charter and Supreme Court has increased. This article examines several reasons for these changes, including: the relative ages of the constitutions; the US Supreme Court’s recent conservatism; the Canadian Supreme Court’s role in developing the doctrine of proportionality; the US Supreme Court’s interest in originalism; differing structures of constitutional review and judicial supremacy; and the two Courts’ relative openness to transnational influences.
Inclusion, Voice, And Process-Based Constitutionalism, Colleen Sheppard
Inclusion, Voice, And Process-Based Constitutionalism, Colleen Sheppard
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article explores a growing emphasis on process issues in the elaboration of constitutional rights and freedoms, focusing on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In a diverse range of contexts, judges are framing constitutional rights and freedoms in terms of the processes and practices they require, rather than in terms of specific constitutionally mandated substantive outcomes. Thus, constitutional rights have been interpreted to require a duty to negotiate, a duty to consult, a duty to accommodate, and entitlements to participate in democratic governance. The growing emphasis on processes and practices is positive to the extent that it resonates …
Patterning Rights Constitutionalism: Thirty Years With The Charter, Benjamin L. Berger, Jamie Cameron
Patterning Rights Constitutionalism: Thirty Years With The Charter, Benjamin L. Berger, Jamie Cameron
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
No abstract provided.
The Charter At Thirty, Michael Ignatieff
The Charter At Thirty, Michael Ignatieff
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Rights Adjudication In A Plurinational State: The Supreme Court Of Canada, Freedom Of Religion, And The Politics Of Reasonable Accommodation, Sujit Choudhry
Rights Adjudication In A Plurinational State: The Supreme Court Of Canada, Freedom Of Religion, And The Politics Of Reasonable Accommodation, Sujit Choudhry
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
A disproportionate number of the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent cases on freedom of religion come out of Quebec and involve claims for reasonable accommodation. These decisions represent a point of national cleavage in two respects. First, in each case the Quebec Court of Appeal rejected the section 2(a) claims, and the Supreme Court of Canada overturned its decision. Second, the Supreme Court has often divided on national lines with one or more francophone judges from Quebec writing a concurrence or a sharp dissent. Moreover, francophone judges from outside Quebec have also broken ranks with their colleagues. The cleavages on …
Social Justice And The Charter: Comparison And Choice, Margot Young
Social Justice And The Charter: Comparison And Choice, Margot Young
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
At a time of radical inequality, the changes sought by social justice advocacy are urgently needed. Yet repeatedly, courts fail to respond adequately to this challenge. A core issue plagues social justice jurisprudence under sections 7 and 15: the difficulty inevitable in the contemplation and expression of the social and political forms in which oppression and social injustice occur. This problem manifests doctrinally in ways specific to the rights at issue. In section 15 cases, the casting of comparator groups has been deeply problematic, and in both section 15 and section 7 cases, the courts fail to deliver a nuanced …
The New Borders Of The Constitutional, Gavin W. Anderson
The New Borders Of The Constitutional, Gavin W. Anderson
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The key critical constitutional debates of the future are likely—and need—to be very different from those that animated the Charter’s first thirty years. Since 1982, the borders between law and politics, rights and utility, and the public and the private have staked out the main territory contested by critical scholarship. However, these borders now demarcate a restricted landscape, drawing critics onto the ground of normative debate preferred by liberal theory, and leading them to propose, at best, a form of moderate pragmatism. A more promising approach lies in reconnecting constitutional debate to the socio-historical strand of critical theory, as represented …
Undoing Historical Wrongs: Law And Indigeneity In India, Pooja Parmar
Undoing Historical Wrongs: Law And Indigeneity In India, Pooja Parmar
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Beginning with a close look at a recent call by the Supreme Court of India to undo the historical injustices done to the "original inhabitants" of the country, this paper examines similar calls for justice made by Jaipal Singh Munda, the most vocal representative of Adivasis in the Constituent Assembly of India between December 1946 and January 1950, when both the possibilities and limitations of addressing past injustices were being written into the Constitution of India. While drawing attention to debates and disagreements over righting certain past wrongs that remain largely absent from historical accounts of the Constitution's drafting, this …
The Legitimacy Of The Juridical: Constituent Power, Democracy, And The Limits Of Constitutional Reform, Joel Colon-Rios
The Legitimacy Of The Juridical: Constituent Power, Democracy, And The Limits Of Constitutional Reform, Joel Colon-Rios
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article asks and answers the question of what conditions must be met for a constitutional regime to enjoy democratic legitimacy. It argues that the democratic legitimacy of a constitutional regime depends on its susceptibility to democratic re-constitution. In other words, it argues that a constitution must provide an opening, a means of egress for constituent power to manifest from time to time. In developing this argument, the article advances a distinction between ordinary constitutional reform -- understood as subject to certain limits -- and the exercise of constituent power through which a society produces novel juridical forms without being …
Are National Class Actions Constitutional?: A Reply To Hogg And Mckee, Janet Walker
Are National Class Actions Constitutional?: A Reply To Hogg And Mckee, Janet Walker
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article argues that there is no constitutional impediment to the certification of multijurisdictional class actions by provincial superior courts, and no constitutional requirement to confine plaintiff classes to those in which each claim has a real and substantial connection to the forum. Neither the text of the Constitution nor the constitutionally mandated rules of the conflict of laws restrict court jurisdiction in this way. Rather, the principles of order and fairness require Canadian courts to exercise jurisdiction over multi-jurisdictional class actions in a way that maximizes the objectives of class actions, and minimizes the incidence of overlapping classes and …
The Supreme Court Of Canada, Charter Dialogue, And Deference, Rosalind Dixon
The Supreme Court Of Canada, Charter Dialogue, And Deference, Rosalind Dixon
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
For those concerned about the democratic legitimacy of Charter review by Canadian courts, the idea of dialogue offers a promising middle path between the extremes of judicial and legislative supremacy. Current dialogue theory, however, largely fails to live up to this promise of compromise. Instead of distinguishing democratic worries associated with US style, strong-form judicial review, it largely endorses the legitimacy of such review. For dialogue to live up to its original promise, a new theory that more clearly distinguishes Canada from the United States is required. This article offers a new theory of dialogue in which the willingness of …
Judicial Review And American Constitutional Exceptionalism, Miguel Schor
Judicial Review And American Constitutional Exceptionalism, Miguel Schor
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article challenges the conventional view of the pervasiveness of American-style judicial review. It questions why social movements contest constitutional meaning by fighting over judicial appointments in the United States, and why this strategy makes little sense in democracies that constitutionalized rights in the late twentieth century. The United States has been both a model and an anti-model in the global spread of judicial review, as the hope of Marbury (constitutionalized rights) has been tempered by the fear of Lochner [courts run amok). In reconciling Marbury and Lochner, other polities have adopted stronger mechanisms of judicial accountability that make it …
Modern Constitutional Democracy And Imperialism, James Tully
Modern Constitutional Democracy And Imperialism, James Tully
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
To what extent is the development of modern constitutional democracy as a state form in the West and its spread around the world implicated in western imperialism? This has been a leading question of legal scholarship over the last thirty years. James Tully draws on this scholarship to present a preliminary answer. Part I sets out seven central features of modern constitutional democracy and its corresponding international institutions of law and government. Part II sets out three major imperial roles that these legal and political institutions have played, and continue to play. And finally, Part III surveys ways in which …
The Constitutive Paradox Of Modern Law: A Comment On Tully, Ruth Buchanan
The Constitutive Paradox Of Modern Law: A Comment On Tully, Ruth Buchanan
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This commentary draws out and elaborates upon some of the more challenging aspects of Professor Tully's sophisticated taxonomy of the relationship between modern constitutional forms and constituent powers. Tully's article reveals the historical particularities of these formations, and at the same time encourages the reader to think beyond them, towards the potentially uncategorizable realm of democratic constitutionalism. Yet, how is it possible to use a taxonomy of modern constitutional democracy as a means of understanding what ties in the uncharted territory beyond? This commentary further explores to what extent this paradoxical modern configuration of constituent powers and constitutional forms may …
The Forgotten Right: Section 9 Of The Charter, Its Purpose And Meaning, James Stribopoulos
The Forgotten Right: Section 9 Of The Charter, Its Purpose And Meaning, James Stribopoulos
The Supreme Court Law Review: Osgoode’s Annual Constitutional Cases Conference
This paper examines why section 9 of the Charter, the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned, has failed to flourish. The paper argues that the right has essentially remained dormant because the Supreme Court of Canada has not yet expressly identified the underlying purpose of this important constitutional guarantee. After briefly canvassing the current state of affairs under section 9, the paper shifts to a purposive analysis of the guarantee. Its historic antecedents, the provision’s drafting history, the international influences that helped shape its framing, the testimony of senior civil servants involved in its drafting, as well as …
Prescribed By Law/Une Règle De Droit, Robert Leckey
Prescribed By Law/Une Règle De Droit, Robert Leckey
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In Multani, the Supreme Court of Canada's kirpan case, judges disagree over the proper approach to reviewing administrative action under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The concurring judges questioned the leading judgment, Slaight Communications, on the basis that it is inconsistent with the French text of section I. This disagreement stimulates reflections on language and culture in Canadian constitutional and administrative law. A reading of both language versions of section 1, Slaight, and the critical scholarship 'reveals a linguistic dualism in which scholars read one version of the Charter and of the judgment and write about them in …
Law's Religion: Rendering Culture, Benjamin L. Berger
Law's Religion: Rendering Culture, Benjamin L. Berger
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article argues that constitutional law's inability to deal with religion in a satisfying way flows, in part, from its failure to understand religion as, in a robust sense, culture. Once one begins to understand the Canadian constitutional rule of law itself as a cultural form, it becomes apparent that law renders religion in a very particular fashion, and that this rendering is a product of law's symbolic categories and interpretive horizons. This article draws out the elements of Canadian constitutionalism's unique rendering of religion and argues that, although Canadian constitutionalism claims to understand religion as a culture, this is …
Beyond Self-Congratulations: The Charter At 25 In An International Perspective, Louise Arbour, Fannie Lafontaine
Beyond Self-Congratulations: The Charter At 25 In An International Perspective, Louise Arbour, Fannie Lafontaine
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the authors situate the Canadian human rights evolution in an international context. They look first at the context of the Charters adoption and the characteristics that make it an agent of positive social change in Canada. Secondly, they discuss three areas where interaction between international legal values and our domestic human rights system can be rendered more effective: a) the use of international law in defining the content and possible limitations of Charter rights; b) the increased necessity for a better implementation of international human …
The Charter 25 Years Later: The Good, The Bad, And The Challenges, Beverley Mclachlin
The Charter 25 Years Later: The Good, The Bad, And The Challenges, Beverley Mclachlin
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This year, as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Charter, journals and newspapers are replete with evaluations. Some are positive, some less so. Some are downright critical. Today, I would like to offer my reflections on the good news and the bad news about the Charter,a quarter-century on.
Sharpening The Dialogue Debate: The Next Decade Of Scholarship, Kent Roach
Sharpening The Dialogue Debate: The Next Decade Of Scholarship, Kent Roach
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The first part of this commentary examines the roles of coordinate construction in which legislatures act on their own interpretation of the constitution, second look cases in which the courts judge the constitutionality of a legislative reply to a judicial decision, and various constitutional remedies. The second part examines some differences in emphasis between the author's approach to dialogue and that taken by Hogg and his co-authors with respect to the justification of the judicial role in the dialogue, the relation between Charter dialogue and common law constitutionalism, and the proper interpretive approach to section 7 of the Charter. Three …
Does The Observer Have An Effect?: An Analysis Of The Use Of The Dialogue Metaphor In Canada's Courts, Richard Haigh, Michael Sobkin
Does The Observer Have An Effect?: An Analysis Of The Use Of The Dialogue Metaphor In Canada's Courts, Richard Haigh, Michael Sobkin
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In "Charter Dialogue Revisited-Or 'Much Ado About Metaphors,"' it is noted that the original idea behind the dialogue metaphor was simply to describe Canada's constitutional structure. Despite this, the metaphor has been criticized for having normative content and influencing courts and legislatures. In this commentary, the authors analyze all Supreme Court of Canada and lower court uses of the dialogue metaphor and conclude that, with some exceptions, the courts have employed the metaphor properly, i.e., descriptively. Since, however, the metaphor can be misapplied-used other than to describe or explain the relationship between the courts and legislatures in Canada-the authors recommend …
A Reply On "Charter Dialogue Revisited", Peter W. Hogg, Allison A. Bushell Thornton, Wade K. Wright
A Reply On "Charter Dialogue Revisited", Peter W. Hogg, Allison A. Bushell Thornton, Wade K. Wright
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Constitutionalism From The Top Down, Grant Huscroft
Constitutionalism From The Top Down, Grant Huscroft
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Dialogue theory regards judicial interpretation of the Charter as authoritative, and, as a result, denies that continuing disagreement with the courts is legitimate. There is little scope, in other words, for dialogue with the courts in any meaningful sense. The Charter is best understood as establishing strong-form judicial review rather than weak, and legislatures have only as much room to respond to judicial decisions as the courts are prepared to allow.
Dialogue Theory, Judicial Review, And Judicial Supremacy: A Comment On "Charter Dialogue Revisted", Carissima Mathen
Dialogue Theory, Judicial Review, And Judicial Supremacy: A Comment On "Charter Dialogue Revisted", Carissima Mathen
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
By suggesting that we view the judicial-legislative relationship as a dialogue, the authors of "Charter Dialogue" have greatly influenced constitutional debate in Canada. This commentary offers three observations about the authors' latest contribution. First, it queries the continued usefulness of the term "dialogue." Second, it raises concerns with the idea that section 1 of the Charter promotes dialogue, as the term is now explained by the authors. Finally, it queries the authors' perspective on judicial review and their accompanying terminology.
Charter Dialogue Revisited: Or "Much Ado About Metaphors", Peter W. Hogg, Allison A. Bushell Thornton, Wade K. Wright
Charter Dialogue Revisited: Or "Much Ado About Metaphors", Peter W. Hogg, Allison A. Bushell Thornton, Wade K. Wright
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article is a sequel to the 1997 article "The Charter Dialogue Between Courts and Legislatures (Or Perhaps The Charter of Rights Isn't Such A Bad Thing After All)." In the present article, the authors review various academic critiques of their "dialogue" theory, which postulates that Charter decisions striking down laws are not the last word, but rather the beginning of a "dialogue," because legislative bodies are generally able to (and generally do) enact sequel legislation that accomplishes the main objective of the unconstitutional law. The authors also examine the Supreme Court of Canada's dicta on the "dialogue" phenomenon, and …
The Day The Dialogue Died: A Comment On Sauve V. Canada, Christopher P. Manfredi
The Day The Dialogue Died: A Comment On Sauve V. Canada, Christopher P. Manfredi
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In Sauvé v. Canada (2002) a sharply divided Supreme Court of Canada nullified the inmate disenfranchisement provision of the Canada Elections Act. One of the more important aspects of the majority decision by Chief Justice McLachlin is her refusal to let the concept of dialogue take her down the path of judicial deference. This commentary examines the chief justice's reasons for not taking this path and explores how these reasons reveal the limitations of the dialogue metaphor as originally articulated by Peter Hogg and Allison Bushell. The commentary concludes that any meaningful concept of legislative-judicial dialogue must recognize a coordinate …
Foreword, Jamie Cameron