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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Environmental Emergency And The Legality Of Discretion In Environmental Law, Jocelyn Stacey Jan 2019

The Environmental Emergency And The Legality Of Discretion In Environmental Law, Jocelyn Stacey

Jocelyn Stacey

This article argues that environmental issues confront us as an ongoing emergency. The epistemic features of serious environmental issues – the fact that we cannot reliably distinguish ex ante between benign policy choices and choices that may lead to environmental catastrophe – are the same features of an emergency. This means that, like emergencies, environmental issues pose a fundamental challenge for the rule of law: they reveal the necessity of unconstrained executive discretion. Discretion is widely lamented as a fundamental flaw in Canadian environmental law, which undermines both environmental protection and the rule of law itself. Through the conceptual framework …


The Promise Of The Rule Of (Environmental) Law: A Reply To Pardy's Unbearable Licence, Jocelyn Stacey Jan 2019

The Promise Of The Rule Of (Environmental) Law: A Reply To Pardy's Unbearable Licence, Jocelyn Stacey

Jocelyn Stacey

This short reply clarifies and defends the argument presented in "The Environmental Emergency and the Legality of Discretion in Environmental Law." It responds to the arguments that were made, and that could have been made, in Pardy's critique "An Unbearable Licence".


Can Pragmatism Function In Administrative Law?, Jocelyn Stacey, Alice Woolley Jan 2019

Can Pragmatism Function In Administrative Law?, Jocelyn Stacey, Alice Woolley

Jocelyn Stacey

This article draws out the ways in which Justice Rothstein grappled with complexity in administrative law. It argues that Justice Rothstein took a pragmatic approach to complexity in administrative law. Specifically, he sought to articulate a framework for judicial review that was workable for administrative decision-makers, litigants, their lawyers and reviewing courts. In addition, he looked to past experience with judicial review, evidenced in judicial precedent, rather than focusing on abstract theoretical norms.