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Full-Text Articles in Law

Devolution Or Disunion: The Constitution After Meech Lake, Calvin Massey Oct 1991

Devolution Or Disunion: The Constitution After Meech Lake, Calvin Massey

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Professor Massey discusses the theoretical benefits of decentralized federalism and proposes constitutional changes to obtain those benefits and to respond to the disparate aspirations of the Canadian polity. He proposes that the provinces and federal government share concurrent authority over most powers, with provincial legislation paramount in cases of conflict. He suggests an empowered Senate, partially selected by the provinces and partially appointed by the federal government, aboriginal self-government, and territorial Senate representation. Finally, Massey proposes altering the constitutional amending formula to enhance public participation and facilitate amendment where unanimity is not critical.


...Meech Lake To The Contrary Notwithstanding (Part Ii), Roderick A. Macdonald Jul 1991

...Meech Lake To The Contrary Notwithstanding (Part Ii), Roderick A. Macdonald

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In this essay, which has been published in two parts, the author argues that the Meech Lake Accord was more than a hastily cobbled together political deal between the Prime Minister and ten provincial premiers. Despite the unattractive process by which the Meech Lake Accord was struck, and especially defended, despite the disingenuous character of the arguments most often advanced for its adoption, and despite its close connection with other aspects of the federal government's political agenda which many Canadians found suspicious, the Meech Lake Accord did respond to an important issue in post-patriation constitutionalism. A review of Canadian constitutional …


...Meech Lake To The Contrary Notwithstanding (Part I), Roderick A. Macdonald Apr 1991

...Meech Lake To The Contrary Notwithstanding (Part I), Roderick A. Macdonald

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In this essay, which will be published in two parts, the author argues that the Meech Lake Accord was more than a hastily cobbled together political deal between the Prime Minister and ten provincial premiers. Despite the unattractive process by which the Meech Lake Accord was struck, and especially defended, despite the disingenuous character of the arguments most often advanced for its adoption, and despite its close connection with other aspects of the federal government's political agenda which many Canadians found suspicious, the Meech Lake Accord did respond to an important issue in post-patriation constitutionalism. A review of Canadian constitutional …


Rethinking Manner And Form: From Parliamentary Sovereignty To Constitutional Values, R. Elliot Apr 1991

Rethinking Manner And Form: From Parliamentary Sovereignty To Constitutional Values, R. Elliot

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The issue of whether a legislative body in a democratic society can bind itself on matters relating to the procedures by which the legislation is to be enacted, amended or repealed has, to this point, tended to dissolve into the question of which of two contending formulations of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty one prefers, Dicey's traditional formulation or the "new view" by Jennings and others. The author argues that, regardless of how one formulates it, the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty provides an unsound basis upon which to resolve this issue, and that an alternative basis is therefore needed. That …


Charter Challenges: A Test Case For Theories Of Law, W. J. Waluchow Jan 1991

Charter Challenges: A Test Case For Theories Of Law, W. J. Waluchow

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The author's primary objective is to show that versions of legal positivism, according to which legal validity sometimes depends on moral validity (Inclusive Legal Positivism), are theoretically preferable to those forms of positivism (Exclusive Legal Positivism) which deny this possibility. The author attempts to substantiate this conclusion by demonstrating that Inclusive Legal Positivism provides a better theoretical account of challenges to legal validity based on a document like the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. His secondary aim is to show that the choice between Inclusive and Exclusive Legal Positivism can have important consequences for legal practice.


The Principles Of Fundamental Justice: The Constitution And The Common Law, J. M. Evans Jan 1991

The Principles Of Fundamental Justice: The Constitution And The Common Law, J. M. Evans

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article examines the application of the principles of fundamental justice in section 7 of the Charter to administrative law, and in particular its relationship to non-constitutional grounds of judicial review. The author argues that in this area of the law the common law should generally be regarded as the source of the basic tenets of our legal system that section 7 has been said to embody. The author suggests that the traditional grounds of judicial review of administrative action represent the courts' accommodation of individual rights and the collective interest, and thus cover much the same ground as the …