Law Commons^™

Interprovincial Sovereign Immunity Revisited, Janet Walker

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The conventional wisdom has been that the Canadian provincial Crowns are immune from the jurisdiction of the courts of other Canadian provinces just as they are immune from the jurisdiction of foreign courts. This reflects the old views that the provinces are like foreign countries for the purposes of the conflict of laws and that court jurisdiction over the Crown is purely a creature of statute. Recent recognition of the constitutional bases for court jurisdiction and the need to reassess conflict of laws rules in light of the principles of Canadian federalism invites us to revisit interprovincial sovereign immunity, especially …