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Full-Text Articles in Law
Pursuing A Reconciliatory Administrative Law: Aboriginal Consultation And The National Energy Board, Matthew J. Hodgson
Pursuing A Reconciliatory Administrative Law: Aboriginal Consultation And The National Energy Board, Matthew J. Hodgson
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Environmental assessment within the process of regulatory review is recognized as the preferred means for carrying out the duty to consult and accommodate Aboriginal rights in administrative decisions over proposed resource development. Recent evidence suggests that integrating the duty to consult into National Energy Board (NEB) proceedings and subsuming the law of Aboriginal consultation under principles of administrative justice have not advanced the goal of reconciliation. This article considers whether the statutory mandate of the National Energy Board requires it to have sufficient regard to Aboriginal rights in a manner consistent with the adjudication of constitutional issues in administrative law. …
Leaving Labour Law’S Pragmatic And Purposive Fortress Behind: Canadian Union Successor Rights Law As A Case Study, Pascal Mcdougall
Leaving Labour Law’S Pragmatic And Purposive Fortress Behind: Canadian Union Successor Rights Law As A Case Study, Pascal Mcdougall
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In this article, I analyze a series of Canadian cases on union successor rights defining the circumstances in which labour rights should be transferred to a successor entity in the context of business sales, restructuring and subcontracting. My analysis casts doubt on a globally influential theory of legal interpretation, which I call the “old legality.” According to this theory, labour law is made not through conventional legal reasoning but through non-legal, pragmatic, and purposive applications of loose industrial relations standards. I claim that the old legality paradigm is analytically inaccurate and has the perverse effect of normalizing the status quo …
Innovation In Healthcare, Innovation In Law: Does The Law Support Interprofessional Collaboration In Canadian Health Systems?, Nola M. Ries
Innovation In Healthcare, Innovation In Law: Does The Law Support Interprofessional Collaboration In Canadian Health Systems?, Nola M. Ries
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Interprofessional collaboration in health care describes a model of practice in which multiple health professionals work together in a team-based approach to patient care. A growing body of literature demonstrates that interprofessional collaboration advances health care quality and safety, improves patient outcomes and experiences of care, and promotes job satisfaction among health professionals. Governments and health organizations across Canada are working to advance interprofessional health care delivery. This article examines the importance of law in supporting a shift to interprofessional collaboration in Canadian health care and discusses two key aspects of the legal context in which health practitioners work. First, …
“The Lands…Belonged To Them, Once By The Indian Title, Twice For Having Defended Them…And Thrice For Having Built And Lived On Them”: The Law And Politics Of Métis Title, Karen Drake, Adam Gaudry
“The Lands…Belonged To Them, Once By The Indian Title, Twice For Having Defended Them…And Thrice For Having Built And Lived On Them”: The Law And Politics Of Métis Title, Karen Drake, Adam Gaudry
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
To predict what is on the horizon of the Métis legal landscape, we can look to jurisprudence on First Nations’ rights, given that Métis rights cases are typically ten to fifteen years behind those of First Nations. With the release of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Tsilhqot’in, the next big issue in Métis law may be Métis title. Scholars have doubted the ability of Métis to establish Aboriginal title in Canada for two reasons: first, Métis were too mobile, and second, Métis were too immobile. This paper critically analyzes these positions and argues that the case for Métis …
Religious Institutionalism In A Canadian Context, Victor M. Muñiz-Fraticelli, Lawrence David
Religious Institutionalism In A Canadian Context, Victor M. Muñiz-Fraticelli, Lawrence David
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Does freedom of religion protect religious institutions or does it only protect the individual religious conscience? Canadian jurisprudence after the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms takes a decidedly individualist turn, deliberately avoiding the question of the rights of religious institutions. This individualist focus neglects the historical trajectory of religious freedom, the social understanding of religious faith by religious adherents themselves, and the institutional structures in which religion emerges and develops (and through which it is ultimately protected). An institutional account of religious liberty can complement the individualist account, as it better explains the legal order, better …
Conservatives, The Supreme Court Of Canada, And The Constitution: Judicial-Government Relations, 2006–2015, Christopher Manfredi
Conservatives, The Supreme Court Of Canada, And The Constitution: Judicial-Government Relations, 2006–2015, Christopher Manfredi
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Three high-profile government losses in the Supreme Court of Canada in late 2013 and early 2014, combined with the government’s response to those losses, generated a narrative of an especially fractious relationship between Stephen Harper’s Conservative government and the Court. This article analyzes this narrative more rigorously by going beyond a mere tallying of government wins and losses in the Court. Specifically, it examines Charter-based invalidations of federal legislation since 2006, three critical reference opinions rendered at the government’s own request, and two key judgments delivered in the spring of 2015 concerning Aboriginal rights and the elimination of the long-gun …
As Good As It Gets? Security, Asylum, And The Rule Of Law After The Certificate Trilogy, Graham Hudson
As Good As It Gets? Security, Asylum, And The Rule Of Law After The Certificate Trilogy, Graham Hudson
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article uses constitutional discourses on the legality of security certificates to shed light on darker, neglected corners of the security and migration nexus in Canada. I explore how procedures and practices used in the certificate regime have evolved and migrated to analogous adjudicative and discretionary decision-making contexts. I argue, on the one hand, that the executive’s ability to label persons security risks has been subjected to meaningful constraints in the certificate regime and other functionally equivalent adjudicative proceedings. On the other hand, the ability of discretionary decision makers to deport individuals who pose de jure security risks to face …
Earwitness Evidence: The Reliability Of Voice Identifications, Christopher Sherrin
Earwitness Evidence: The Reliability Of Voice Identifications, Christopher Sherrin
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
While much attention has been paid to the frailties of eyewitness evidence, little attention has been given to the reliability of voice identification evidence, even though such “earwitness” evidence has been tendered in several wrongful conviction cases. The author reviews the empirical literature on the reliability of earwitness evidence and compares it to the principal factors used by Canadian criminal courts to assess earwitness testimony. The author concludes that earwitness evidence often can be quite unreliable and that the courts have not always properly assessed its reliability, offering some suggestions for reform.
Taxing State-Owned Enterprises: Understanding A Basic Institution Of State Capitalism, Wei Cui
Taxing State-Owned Enterprises: Understanding A Basic Institution Of State Capitalism, Wei Cui
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
State-owned enterprises (“SOEs”) have become active investors in global markets in the last decade, challenging policymakers in Canada and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries to confront the logic of “state capitalism.” This article develops a novel theory of the income taxation of SOEs. Many countries subject their SOEs to the income tax, but economists tend to dismiss SOE taxation as superfluous. A contrary, popular belief holds that SOE taxation is necessary to ensure fair competition. This article shows that both views are mistaken and explains SOE taxation in terms of the agency problem for dividend policy. Because …
Process And Reconciliation: Integrating The Duty To Consult With Environmental Assessment, Neil Craik
Process And Reconciliation: Integrating The Duty To Consult With Environmental Assessment, Neil Craik
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
As the duty to consult Aboriginal peoples is operationalized within the frameworks of government decision making, the relevant agencies are increasingly turning to environmental assessment (EA) processes as one of the principal vehicles for carrying out those consultations. This article explores the practical and theoretical dimensions of using EA processes to implement the duty to consult and accommodate. The relationship between EA and the duty to consult has arisen in a number of cases and a clear picture is emerging of the steps that agencies conducting EAs must carry out in order to discharge their constitutional obligations to Aboriginal peoples. …
No Refuge: Hungarian Romani Refugee Claimants In Canada, Sean Rehaag, Julianna Beaudoin, Jennifer Danch
No Refuge: Hungarian Romani Refugee Claimants In Canada, Sean Rehaag, Julianna Beaudoin, Jennifer Danch
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
From 2008 to 2012, thousands of Hungarian Roma sought asylum in Canada. Some political actors suggested that their claims were unfounded and demonstrated that Canada’s refugee processes were vulnerable to abuse. In contrast, advocates for refugees argued that persecution against Roma was rampant in Hungary and noted that hundreds of Hungarian Roma were granted refugee status in Canada. Much of this debate has occurred in an evidentiary vacuum. This article fills this vacuum through a qualitative and quantitative study of Hungarian Romani refugee claims. First, the context of the study is discussed. Then, the article explores the experiences of Hungarian …
A Theory Of Quasi-Constitutional Legislation, Vanessa Macdonnell
A Theory Of Quasi-Constitutional Legislation, Vanessa Macdonnell
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Since the 1970s, the Supreme Court of Canada has treated a small number of statutes as quasi-constitutional. Despite the longstanding presence of quasi-constitutional statutes in Canadian law, however, the Court has yet to articulate comprehensive criteria for recognizing a statute or regulation as quasi-consitutional. In this article, I argue that quasi-constitutional legislation or more accurately, some provisions in quasi-constitutional legislation should be understood as implementing constitutional imperatives. I use the term constitutional imperatives to refer to constitutional obligations of varying degrees of specificity that emanate from the rights-conferring aspects of the Constitution, as well as from those aspects of the …
The Promise Of The Rule Of (Environmental) Law: A Reply To Pardy’S Unbearable Licence, Jocelyn Stacey
The Promise Of The Rule Of (Environmental) Law: A Reply To Pardy’S Unbearable Licence, Jocelyn Stacey
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
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.” The reply further develops the public-justification conception of the rule of law, arguing that it is at home within Canadian public law. It also argues that this conception of the rule of law highlights possibilities for future research directions in Canadian environmental law.
Dead Hands, Living Trees, Historic Compromises: The Senate Reform And Supreme Court Act References Bring The Originalism Debate To Canada, J. Gareth Morley
Dead Hands, Living Trees, Historic Compromises: The Senate Reform And Supreme Court Act References Bring The Originalism Debate To Canada, J. Gareth Morley
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Recent American debates about the relationship between the historic political compromises underlying constitutional provisions and their contemporary judicial application have been largely ignored in Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada has only twice referred to originalism—and never positively. But in two 2014 decisions about how central institutions of government—the Senate and the Supreme Court of Canada itself—might be changed, the Court relied on the underlying historic political compromises to interpret the Constitution, rejecting arguments from the text or democratic principle. In this article, I consider how Canadian courts have looked to history in the past and in the 2014 decisions, …
Reconsidering Copyright’S Constitutionality, Graham J. Reynolds
Reconsidering Copyright’S Constitutionality, Graham J. Reynolds
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In 1996, in Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin – Michelin & Cie v National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (CAW-Canada) [Michelin], Justice Teitelbaum of the Federal Court (Trial Division) held both that specific provisions of the Copyright Act did not infringe the right to freedom of expression as protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that, even if they did, these provisions could be justified under s 1 of the Charter. Since Michelin, these conclusions have been treated by Canadian courts as settled. The purpose of this paper is to challenge these conclusions …
“By The Court”: The Untold Story Of A Canadian Judicial Innovation, Peter Mccormick
“By The Court”: The Untold Story Of A Canadian Judicial Innovation, Peter Mccormick
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
What do the BCE case of 2008, the Securities Reference case of 2010, the Senate Reform Reference case of 2014, and the Carter (assisted suicide) case of 2015 have in common? All are unanimous decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada in which the reasons for judgment—the explanation as to why the outcome is the legally and constitutionally appropriate one—are not attributed to any specific named judge or judges on the Supreme Court, but rather to a mysterious entity called THE COURT. Very few Supreme Court decisions take this form, and there was a time not that long ago when …
The Conventions Of Constitutional Amendment In Canada, Richard Albert
The Conventions Of Constitutional Amendment In Canada, Richard Albert
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Commentators have suggested that the unsuccessful national referendum to ratify the 1992 Charlottetown Accord created an expectation of popular participation requiring national referendal consultation in major reforms to the Constitution of Canada. In this article, I inquire whether federal political actors are bound by a constitutional convention of national referendal consultation for formal amendments to the basic structure of the Constitution of Canada. Drawing from the Supreme Court of Canada’s Patriation Reference, I suggest that we cannot know whether federal political actors are bound by such a convention until they are confronted with the question whether or not to hold …
Bordering The Constitution, Constituting The Border, Efrat Arbel
Bordering The Constitution, Constituting The Border, Efrat Arbel
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
It is an established principle in Canadian law that refugees present at or within Canada’s borders are entitled to basic constitutional protection. Where precisely these borders lie, however, is far from clear. In this article, I examine the Canadian border as a site at which to study the constitutional entitlements of refugees. Through an analysis of the Multiple Borders Strategy (MBS)--a broad strategy that re-charts Canada’s borders for the purposes of enhanced migration regulation--I point to a basic tension at play in the border as site. I argue that the MBS imagines and enacts the border in two fundamentally different …
Compact Is Back: The Supreme Court Of Canada’S Revival Of The Compact Theory Of Confederation, Sébastien Grammond
Compact Is Back: The Supreme Court Of Canada’S Revival Of The Compact Theory Of Confederation, Sébastien Grammond
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The compact theory of Canadian Confederation is the idea that the Constitution is the product of a political agreement (or “compact”) among the country’s constitutive parts. Although the theory has been widely criticized, this article shows how the theory has recently been used by the Supreme Court of Canada to explain the origins of certain parts of the Constitution and to guide its interpretation, in particular in cases involving constitutional amendment and indigenous rights. It then discusses how the Court dealt with instances where one party’s consent to a foundational compact was vitiated or altogether lacking, and whether the Court’s …