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Judges Commons

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Judicial process

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Osgoode Hall Law School of York University

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Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Judges

Who Writes? Gender And Judgment Assignment On The Supreme Court Of Canada, Peter Mccormick Jan 2014

Who Writes? Gender And Judgment Assignment On The Supreme Court Of Canada, Peter Mccormick

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article poses the question: Now that women are receiving an increasing share of the seats on the Supreme Court of Canada (the Court), can we conclude with confidence that they have been admitted to full participation, with a mix of judgments—including the more significant decisions—that is fully comparable to their male colleagues? The author looks at the assignment of reasons for judgment on the Court over the last three chief justiceships, with specific reference to the relative rate of assignments to male and female judges. He finds that the male/female gap is more robust than ever, although he also …


"Was It Something I Said?": Losing The Majority On The Modern Supreme Court Of Canada, 1984-2011, Peter J. Mccormick Jul 2012

"Was It Something I Said?": Losing The Majority On The Modern Supreme Court Of Canada, 1984-2011, Peter J. Mccormick

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Appeal court judges do not just vote and run; they vote and then they explain, at length, why theirs is the most reasonable position. Since the core of explanation is persuasion, this means that between the initial conference vote and the final decision, some of the judges sometimes change their minds; and this in turn means that sometimes an initial majority becomes a minority and vice versa, something which often leaves clear footprints in the written record. This paper demonstrates that this happens more often than we might think—some 255 times for the last three Chief Justiceships, or roughly once …


American Citations And The Mclachlin Court: An Empirical Study, Peter Mccormick Jan 2009

American Citations And The Mclachlin Court: An Empirical Study, Peter Mccormick

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article examines the use of American jurisprudence by the judges of the McLachlin Court, using an earlier study of such citations as a reference point. In addition to tracking overall use of American citations over time, it looks at these trends: which Canadian judges use American cases and for which types of cases; and which American cases, courts, and judges are being cited. Brief descriptions of the Supreme Court cases with the largest use of American citations precede a categorization of the results. The article confirms previous academic findings that the use of American citations have been modest, with …


Does A Judge's Party Of Appointment Or Gender Matter To Case Outcomes?: An Empirical Study Of The Court Of Appeal For Ontario, James Stribopoulos, Moin A. Yahya Apr 2007

Does A Judge's Party Of Appointment Or Gender Matter To Case Outcomes?: An Empirical Study Of The Court Of Appeal For Ontario, James Stribopoulos, Moin A. Yahya

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

A recent study by Cass Sunstein identified ideological differences in the votes cast by judges on the United States Courts of Appeals in certain types of cases. He found that these patterns varied depending on the ideology of an appellate judge's co-panelists. In this study, we undertake a similar examination of the busiest appellate court in Canada, the Court of Appeal for Ontario. This study collects data on the votes cast by individual judges in every reported decision between 1990 and 2003. Each case was cod6d by type, for example "criminal law," "constitutional law," or "private law." In addition, the …