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The Phenomenology Of Medico-Legal Causation, Nicholas Hooper
The Phenomenology Of Medico-Legal Causation, Nicholas Hooper
Dalhousie Law Journal
The language of counterfactual causation employed from the bench obscures the analytical vacuity of the "butfor" test. This paper takes issue with the consistent recourse to "common sense" as a methodological tool for determining the deeply complex issue of causality. Despite manifestly empty gestures to, e.g., robust pragmatism, the current approach imposes the dominant values of the judiciary in a manner that perpetuates the current distribution of power. Whatever the merits of counterfactual inquiry, its legal iteration requires judges to construct a hypothetical narrative about "how things generally happen." This, in turn, impels a uniquely comprehensive brand ofjudicialcreativity. The results …
Judgment And Opportunity: Decision Assignment On The Mclachlin Court, Peter Mccormick
Judgment And Opportunity: Decision Assignment On The Mclachlin Court, Peter Mccormick
Dalhousie Law Journal
The workload of the Supreme Court of Canada is shared among the Court's nine members, but is this sharing equal with respect to the writing of judgments? A simple count does not provide an answer because not all cases are equally important. This paper develops an objective measure of case importance-the Legal Complexity Index-and applies it to the cases decided by the McLachlin Court. It demonstrates that judgment-delivery opportunities for significant cases have not been shared equally, either overall or with respect to any of the major subdivisions of the caseload. Some judges enjoy the spotlight, while others are relegated …
The Forms And Limits Of Judicial Inquiry: Judges As Inquiry Commissioners In Canada And Australia, Grant R. Hoole
The Forms And Limits Of Judicial Inquiry: Judges As Inquiry Commissioners In Canada And Australia, Grant R. Hoole
Dalhousie Law Journal
In both Canada and Australia the conduct ofpublic inquiries draws heavily from the expertise of the legal profession, with judges frequently serving as commissioners and inquiry hearings often reproducing the popular imagery of a courtroom. Despite this affinity between public inquiries and the legal profession, however, jurisprudential and academic authorities repeatedly stress that public inquiries are non-adjudicative. Indeed, the received wisdom is that the investigative focus of public inquiries justifies their divergence from the procedural and substantive commitments of adjudication. This paper challenges that assumption. It argues that the service of judges as inquiry commissioners should be premised on their …
Refining The Reasonable Apprehension Of Bias Test: Providing Judges Better Tools For Addressing Judicial Disqualification, Jula Hughes, Dean Philip Bryden
Refining The Reasonable Apprehension Of Bias Test: Providing Judges Better Tools For Addressing Judicial Disqualification, Jula Hughes, Dean Philip Bryden
Dalhousie Law Journal
Despite a considerable amount of litigation concerning judicial impartiality, the Canadian "reasonable apprehension of bias" test for judicial disqualification has remained fundamentally unaltered and is well accepted in the jurisprudence. Unfortunately, the application of the test continues to generate difficulties for judges who need to use it to make decisions in marginal cases. Based on previously published doctrinal and empirical research, the goal in the present contribution is to suggest modifications to the test that will better explain the existing jurisprudence and make it easier for judges to understand when recusal is or is not necessary in marginal cases. The …
Revising Canada's Ethical Rules For Judges Returning To Practice, Stephen Ga Pitel, Will Bortolin
Revising Canada's Ethical Rules For Judges Returning To Practice, Stephen Ga Pitel, Will Bortolin
Dalhousie Law Journal
It has recently become more common for retired Canadian judges to return to the practice of law This development raises an array of ethical considerations and potential threats to the integrity of the administration of justice. Although most codes of legal ethics contemplate the possibility of former judges returning to practice, the rules on this particular topic are dated, under-analyzed, and generally inadequate. This article reviews the Canadian ethical rules that specifically relate to former judges and identifies their shortcomings. In doing so, the authors consider, for comparative purposes, Canadian ethical rules directed at former public officers who return to …
The Impeachment Of The Judges Of The Nova Scotia Supreme Court, 1787-1793: Colonial Judges, Loyalist Lawyers, And The Colonial Assembly, Jim Phillips
Dalhousie Law Journal
In 1790 the Nova Scotia House of Assembly passed seven "articles of impeachment" against two ofthe colony's Supreme Courtjudges, the firstattempt bya British North American assembly to remove superior courtjudges. Although the impeachment failed when the British government rejected the charges, it is noteworthy nonetheless. The product of a dispute between newly arrived loyalist lawyers and a local elite of "old inhabitants, " it was at one and the same time a political struggle between the Assembly and the executive branch, and one that involved concerns about judicial competence. The impeachment crisis also demonstrates the close links between the judiciary …
Sharing The Spotlight: Co-Authored Reasons On The Modern Supreme Court Of Canada, Peter J. Maccormick
Sharing The Spotlight: Co-Authored Reasons On The Modern Supreme Court Of Canada, Peter J. Maccormick
Dalhousie Law Journal
When the Supreme Court of Canada delivers its reasons forjudgment, the normal expectation (the rare "By the Court" decision aside) is that the judgment of the Court-unanimous or majority or even plurality-will be designated as having been delivered by one specific judge. ("The reasons of A, B, C and D were delivered by B.") But in recent decades, the practice has developed for two or more judges to share this formal designation; co-authorships currently account for one judgment (and, for that matter one set of minority reasons) in every ten. This article explores this practice, unusual among comparable national high …
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 …
The Most Dangerous Justice: Measuring Judicial Power In The Lamer Court, 1991-97, Peter Mccormick
The Most Dangerous Justice: Measuring Judicial Power In The Lamer Court, 1991-97, Peter Mccormick
Dalhousie Law Journal
The Suoreme Court is an important national institution, but it is also nine individuals with differing conceptions of the law, the constitution and the judicial role. When the Court divides, which it does about half the time, some judges tend more often than others to write or to sign the reasons that constitute the decision of the Court. This article explores the notion of "judiciapl ower" by looking at the way that judges have written opinions and signed on to the opinions of others for the first seven years of this decade, looking for the "most powerful" (melodramatically: the "most …
R. V. R.D.S.: A Political Science Perspective, Jennifer Smith
R. V. R.D.S.: A Political Science Perspective, Jennifer Smith
Dalhousie Law Journal
Political scientists, including those who study Canadian government and politics, regard the judiciary as a component of the system of governance as a whole. They view it as an institution in relation to other institutions. Thus in The Judiciary in Canada: The Third Branch of Government, Peter Russell examines such issues as the structure of the judiciary in the federal system, the separation of powers and judicial independence, and the appointment, promotion and removal of judges.' As well, political scientists follow the development of the law itself, in areas of peculiar relevance to political life, like electoral law, or of …
Did She Mention My Name?: Citation Of Academic Authority By The Supreme Court Of Canada, 1985-1990, Vaughan Black, Nicholas Richter
Did She Mention My Name?: Citation Of Academic Authority By The Supreme Court Of Canada, 1985-1990, Vaughan Black, Nicholas Richter
Dalhousie Law Journal
Readers of court judgments will have observed that in the course of expressing reasons for the decisions they reach, judges commonly refer to books and articles written by academics. This is not surprising. Many scholarly publications contain information, arguments and opinions pertinent to the choices that judges must make, and lawyers commonly refer to such works in the written and oral arguments they present to courts. We would therefore expect the judges who must assess and respond to such arguments to make mention of that scholarly material. Moreover a certain portion of academic writing-in particular, a preponderance of law review …
Dworkin And The Doctrine Of Judicial Discretion, David Jennex
Dworkin And The Doctrine Of Judicial Discretion, David Jennex
Dalhousie Law Journal
In a series of books and articles published over the last thirty years, Ronald Dworkin has relentlessly attacked the positivist view according to which law is a species of empirically verifiable fact. A position closely associated with this view, and with which Dworkin also takes issue, is the doctrine of judicial discretion. This doctrine asserts that in hard cases - cases in which it is unclear what the law requires - there is no legally required dispensation, so that judges are entitled to use discretion in making their decision. Dworkin disagrees, maintaining that in many such cases a thorough investigation …
Reasoning With The Charter, Gerald Tg Seniuk
Reasoning With The Charter, Gerald Tg Seniuk
Dalhousie Law Journal
Reasoning with the Charter by Leon Trakman is a timely and useful book. It is "timely" because in this the tenth anniversary of the Charter it is appropriate to review its impact, which Prof. Trakman finds wanting and unduly circumscribing. It is also useful, although "useful" is not a term usually associated with a theoreticalbook such as this. Certainly this is not a "how-to" book about Charter application. It does, however, outline a different approach to Charter interpretation and it may be that the neglect by our judges of this approach is a mistake. Perhaps not; but there are at …
Lord Mansfield And Negotiable Instruments, Jane D. Samson
Lord Mansfield And Negotiable Instruments, Jane D. Samson
Dalhousie Law Journal
In any system of judge-made law the longevity, education and character of a judge have enhanced significance. The idea of a judge personifies Justice, blinded and impartial, but the law he creates will inevitably be infused with his personality. Where an individual develops an entire system of law, his contribution to legal history can be overwhelming. Lord Mansfield remains a case in point.