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Full-Text Articles in Law
Re-Thinking The Process For Administering Oaths And Affirmations, Colton Fehr
Re-Thinking The Process For Administering Oaths And Affirmations, Colton Fehr
Dalhousie Law Journal
Courts around the world require witnesses to swear an oath to a religious deity or affirm to tell the truth before providing testimony. It is widely thought that such a process has the potential to give rise to unnecessary bias against witnesses based on their religious beliefs or lack thereof. Scholars have offered two main prescriptions to remedy this problem: (i) abolish the oath and have all witnesses promise to tell the truth; or (ii) require oath-swearing witnesses to invoke a non-specific reference to God. The former proposal is problematic as it rests on the unproven assertion that giving an …
Duets, Not Solos: The Mclachlin Court's Co-Authorship Legacy, Peter Mccormick
Duets, Not Solos: The Mclachlin Court's Co-Authorship Legacy, Peter Mccormick
Dalhousie Law Journal
This article explores the recentphenomenon of the formal co-authorship of Supreme Court decisions. It begins with a short history of the practice, primarily in the closing years of the Lamer Court but expanding steadily under McLachlin. A closer investigation reveals two critically important dimensions: first, the practice is skewed toward the Court's more important decisions (measured in terms of subject matter legal complexity, interveners, and subsequent citation); and second, its diffusion across the Court's membership refutes the possibility that it simply reinforces persisting cleavages. This new practice represents a more overtly collegial format directed to the Court's more significant decisions. …
Nom De Plume: Who Writes The Supreme Court's "By The Court" Judgments?, Peter Mccormick
Nom De Plume: Who Writes The Supreme Court's "By The Court" Judgments?, Peter Mccormick
Dalhousie Law Journal
For several dozen of its major decisions, the Supreme Court in recent decades has adopted an unusual judgment style-the unanimous and anonymous "By the Court" format. Unlike judgments attributed to specific justices, "By the Court" presents an unusual and impersonal institutionalist face. But what is happening behind the fagade? Are these deeply collegial products with the actual drafting divided between some (or most, or all) of the justices? Is it "business as usual" which for major judgments involves rotation between the senior judges? Or is it simply a pseudonym for the Chief Justice writing alone in an unusually emphatic way? …
Digital Evidence And The Adversarial System, Colton Fehr
Digital Evidence And The Adversarial System, Colton Fehr
Canadian Journal of Law and Technology
Scholars have observed that the adversarial system tends to provide courts with only a ‘‘small snapshot of the technological whole,” which in turn forms the record upon which broader legal pronouncements occur. As a result, they contend that legislatures should be more proactive in making rules governing complex and rapidly advancing technologies, and that courts must show deference to these rules. Other scholars retort that, in practice, legislatures often fail to update obviously flawed and outdated privacy provisions. Whether due to special interest influence, majoritarian dislike of criminal suspects, or other institutional constraints, legislative responses have been wanting. As such, …
Searching And Seizing After 9/11: Developing And Applying Empirical Methodology To Measure Judicial Output Inthe Supreme Court's Section 8 Jurisprudence, Richard Jochelson, Michael Weinrath, Melaine Janelle Murchison
Searching And Seizing After 9/11: Developing And Applying Empirical Methodology To Measure Judicial Output Inthe Supreme Court's Section 8 Jurisprudence, Richard Jochelson, Michael Weinrath, Melaine Janelle Murchison
Dalhousie Law Journal
In 2005, Margit Cohn and Mordechai Kremnitzer created a multidimensional model to measure judicial discourse inherent in the decision making of constitutional courts. Their model set out multiple indicia bywhich to measure whether the court acted within proper constitutional constraints in order to determine the extent to which a court rendered a decision that was activist or restrained. This study attempts to operationalize that model. We use this model to analyze changes in interpretation of search and seizure law under section 8 after the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at the Supreme Court of Canada. The …
Inherent Jurisdiction And Its Application By Nova Scotiacourts: Metaphysical, Historical Or Pragmatic?, William H. Charles
Inherent Jurisdiction And Its Application By Nova Scotiacourts: Metaphysical, Historical Or Pragmatic?, William H. Charles
Dalhousie Law Journal
The author explores the concept of inherent jurisdiction in the context of its use and application by the courts of Nova Scotia. A general in-depth discussion ofthe nature and source(s) of the concept is followed by an examination of three recent Court of Appeal decisions in an effort to determine that court's understanding of inherent jurisdiction. The Court of Appeal's understanding and sense of the concept is then contrasted with its use and application by the trial courts of Nova Scotia over a period of 150 years. The approach of the two levels of court to inherent jurisdiction is compared …
Watch Your Language: A Review Of The Use Of Stigmatizing Language By Canadian Judges, Jocelyn Downie, Michelle Black
Watch Your Language: A Review Of The Use Of Stigmatizing Language By Canadian Judges, Jocelyn Downie, Michelle Black
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Despite ongoing advances in understanding the causes and prevalence of mental health issues, stigmatizing language is still often directed at people who have mental illness. Such language is regularly used by parties, such as the media, who have great influence on public opinion and attitudes. Since the decisions from Canadian courtrooms can also have a strong impact on societal views, we asked whether judges use stigmatizing language in their decisions. To answer this question, we conducted a qualitative study by searching through modern Canadian case law using search terms that were indicative of stigmatizing language. We found that, although judges …
Tribunal Jurisdiction Over Charter Remedies: Now You See It, Now You Don't, Steve Coughlan
Tribunal Jurisdiction Over Charter Remedies: Now You See It, Now You Don't, Steve Coughlan
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The Supreme Court's decision in R. v. Conway (reported ante p. 201) simplifies the test for deciding whether an administrative tribunal has jurisdiction to grant Charter remedies. At least in principle, it heralds a broader approach to allowing litigants to seek such remedies at the earlier stage of a proceeding, rather than waiting for a review before a court or pursuing a parallel action. The attitude behind Conway signals a greater willingness to allow administrative tribunals to grant Charter remedies. The test on the key question of whether a tribunal has jurisdiction over a particular remedy is still essentially the …
Structures Of Judgment: How The Modern Supreme Court Of Canada Organizes Its Reasons, Peter Mccormick
Structures Of Judgment: How The Modern Supreme Court Of Canada Organizes Its Reasons, Peter Mccormick
Dalhousie Law Journal
In recent decades, the Supreme Court of Canada has developed a distinctive and unusual way of organizing its reasons for judgment; concomitantly, it has developed a comparably distinctive style for its minority reasons as well. This article describes this new decision format and the elements into which it is typically divided, and compares it with the practices of appeal courts in other common law countries. It concludes first by theorizing about the purpose and the functions of decision formats and format changes, and then by defending the current Canadian style.
Habermas, Legal Legitimacy, And Creative Cost Awards In Recent Canadian Jurisprudence, Michael Fenrick
Habermas, Legal Legitimacy, And Creative Cost Awards In Recent Canadian Jurisprudence, Michael Fenrick
Dalhousie Law Journal
Access to justice continues to be a live issue in Canadian courtrooms. While state-sponsored initiatives that promote access continue to flounder in Canada or in some cases, are cancelled altogether, the pressure is mounting to find creative solutions that facilitate greater participation in formal dispute resolution processes. The price of failing in this regard is very high. To truly flourish, both social cohesion and individual liberties require a more participatory and inclusive legal system than the one that currently precludes all but the wealthiest from accessing our courts. Drawing on the legal philosophy of Jargen Habermas, the author examines access …
Promissory Estoppel, Proprietary Estoppel And Constructive Trust In Canada: "What's In A Name?", Jane Matthews Glenn
Promissory Estoppel, Proprietary Estoppel And Constructive Trust In Canada: "What's In A Name?", Jane Matthews Glenn
Dalhousie Law Journal
This paper explores the similarities and differences between promissory estoppel, proprietary estoppel and the remedial constructive trust. Although the three are quite different at one level, as the first is a defence to an action, the second a cause of action as well as a defence, and the third simply a remedy to a cause of action, a closer examination reveals certain underlying similarities. The comparison highlights proprietary estoppel, an oft-overlooked concept in Canada, but which is comparable to promissory estoppel at the substantive level and the constructive trust at the remedial level.
Tribunals Imitating Courts - Foolish Flattery Or Sound Policy?, David Mullan
Tribunals Imitating Courts - Foolish Flattery Or Sound Policy?, David Mullan
Dalhousie Law Journal
In his 2004 Horace E Read Memorial Lecture, David Mullan assesses the impact of the "due process explosion." To what extent has the evolution of Canadian law (both statutory and common) in the domain of procedural fairness been responsible for the phenomenon of excessive judicialization of the administrative process? Has the increase in the number of decision-makers subject to the obligation of procedural fairness and the growth in the parallels between tribunal and court processes affected adversely the interests of the administrative justice system and the public that it is meant to serve? The author suggests that there is a …
After The Revolution: Being Pragmatic And Functional In Canada's Trial Courts And Courts Of Appeal, William Lahey, Diana Ginn
After The Revolution: Being Pragmatic And Functional In Canada's Trial Courts And Courts Of Appeal, William Lahey, Diana Ginn
Dalhousie Law Journal
In a 1998 decision, Pushpanathan v Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada synthesized and revised the previous jurisprudence on "pragmatic and functional analysis" - the approach used since the late 1980's to determine the appropriate standard of deference in substantive review of administrative decision making. The next year, in Baker v. Canada, the Court expanded the reach of the pragmatic and functional analysis by applying it to the exercise of administrative discretion. This paper examines approximately 275 lower court decisions to determine how courts across Canada are responding to and implementing the doctrinal change initiated by the Supreme Court. Patterns …
Removing A "Section 96" Judge: An Historical Case Study, Barry Cahill
Removing A "Section 96" Judge: An Historical Case Study, Barry Cahill
Dalhousie Law Journal
The creation of the Canadian Judicial Council in 1971 and the gradual disappearance of county and district court judges into the superior court judiciary filled a lacuna in the Constitution Act, 1867. The tenure of county court judges was less secure than that of superior court judges, which was constitutionally entrenched and protected. The Judges Act, passed originally to provide for the removal of county court judges, articulated a mechanism which was extended to superior court judges at about the same time as county and district courts were beginning to disappear from the Canadian judicial scene. The lack of such …
Reputational Review I: Expertise, Bias And Delay, Robert E. Hawkins
Reputational Review I: Expertise, Bias And Delay, Robert E. Hawkins
Dalhousie Law Journal
Expertise, bias and delay arguments are shifting the focus of judicial review from the legality of administrative decisions to the reputation of administrative decision- makers. These grounds measure the skill, objectivity and efficiency characteristics that define administrators' reputations. They make it possible for courts to consider these reputations, even if only by way of unarticulated judicial notice, when deciding judicial review applications. After setting out the theory of expertise, bias and delay implicit in recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions, the author concludes that courts must use less impressionistic measures in judging these concepts, lawyers must present more concrete reputational …
Pre-Natal Fictions And Post-Partum Actions, Ian R. Kerr
Pre-Natal Fictions And Post-Partum Actions, Ian R. Kerr
Dalhousie Law Journal
The author examines the theory of liability for pre-natal injuries adopted by Canadian courts. This theory has recently been adopted by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in an unprecedented decision that allows an infant to sue its own mother for alleged negligent conduct that occurred prior to the child's birth. The author argues that, despite contrary claims, the present theory of liability relies on the judicial use of a legal fiction. He maintains that this fiction has been stretched beyond its theoretical limits and concludes that courts are no longer justified in adopting the present theory of liability in …
Framing The Issues For Cameras In The Courtrooms: Redefining Judicial Dignity And Decorum, A Wayne Mackay
Framing The Issues For Cameras In The Courtrooms: Redefining Judicial Dignity And Decorum, A Wayne Mackay
Dalhousie Law Journal
This article examines the role of s. 2(b) of the Charter of Rights in determining the role of cameras in Canadian courtrooms. The discussions reveal that arguments in opposition to cameras are largely unfounded and in contradiction to the freedom of expression guarantee. The denial of the right is in reality based on judges' and lawyers' fear of loss of control of the courtroom environment. Cameras should only be banned from courtrooms as part of a total publication ban, and then only after a careful s. 1 analysis
The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change?, Ian Holloway
The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change?, Ian Holloway
Dalhousie Law Journal
Coming as it does in the midst of all the palaver over political correctness within the American academic community, The Hollow Hope is, if nothing else, an opportune articulation of iconoclasm in the debate over civil rights and constitutional law in the United States.' Professor Rosenberg's questioning of the "cult of the court" provides a welcome expression of healthy skepticism towards an institution which conventional myth reveres beyond its due.
Morguard Investments Ltd.: Emerging International Implications, Simon Coakeley, Peter Finkle, Louise Barrington
Morguard Investments Ltd.: Emerging International Implications, Simon Coakeley, Peter Finkle, Louise Barrington
Dalhousie Law Journal
Events often gain a momentum of their own, sometimes well beyond that anticipated by those who set them in motion; this is as true in the field of law as it is in other areas of human endeavour. MorguardInvestments Ltd. v. De Savoye' is a legal event which seems to be taking on a rapidly building momentum. Basing themselves on this decision, Canadian courts, especially those in British Columbia, are recognizing and enforcing judgments from other courts in civil matters, even when these judgments bear few, if any, of the hallmarks that traditionally entitled a foreign judgment to be recognized …
Change Of Position And Estoppel As Defences To An 'Action For Money Paid By Mistake, Karl J. Dore
Change Of Position And Estoppel As Defences To An 'Action For Money Paid By Mistake, Karl J. Dore
Dalhousie Law Journal
The recent decision in RBC Dominion Securities Inc.v. Dawson' raises some interesting questions regarding the defences available to a claim in restitution for the recovery of money paid by mistake. At issue were the, defences of change of position and estoppel. Both defences are recognized in Canadian law, but questions remain regarding their limits and their relationship.
The Use Of History In Canadian Constitutional Adjudication, Frederick Vaughan
The Use Of History In Canadian Constitutional Adjudication, Frederick Vaughan
Dalhousie Law Journal
It is only in recent years that the use by judges of extrinsic materials has become an issue openly discussed in Canadian legal periodicals. Chief Justice Brian Dickson virtually occasioned a debate on the question in a public address in 1979. The Chief Justice said: ". . . the Supreme Court of Canada recently signalled an increasing receptiveness to the use of extrinsic materials in the Anti-Inflation Reference. Accordingly, I expect that we will see an increasing use by appellate courts of extrinsic evidence". Dickson gave the impression that extrinsic material was not widely used by Canadian courts prior to …
"Institutional Relationships Between Tribunals And Courts" Book Review Of Recent Developments In Administrative Law, Dianne Pothier
"Institutional Relationships Between Tribunals And Courts" Book Review Of Recent Developments In Administrative Law, Dianne Pothier
Dianne Pothier Collection
If one brings together 14 experts on administrative law to participate in a continuing legal education program on "Administrative Law": Recent Developments and Emerging Trends," there is the potential for either stimulating critical analyses or humdrum descriptive update. On reading the preface to this book, the product of such a program held at Toronto and Ottawa in November 1986, I was expective the former. In large measure, I was disappointed.
Promissory Estoppel In The Supreme Court Of Canada, J A. Manwaring
Promissory Estoppel In The Supreme Court Of Canada, J A. Manwaring
Dalhousie Law Journal
In 1972, Viscount Hailsham of St Marylebone said- ... the time may soon come when the whole sequence of cases based on promissory estoppel since the war ... may need to be reviewed and reduced to a coherent body of doctrine by the courts. I do not mean to say that they are to be regarded with suspicion. But as is common with an expanding doctrine, they do raise problems of coherent exposition which have never been systematically explored I Promissory estoppel has yet to receive serious attention from the Supreme Court of Canada, in spite of the fact that …