Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Canada (102)
- Canada. Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (56)
- Constitutional law (35)
- Canada. Supreme Court (19)
- Judicial review (14)
-
- United States (9)
- Civil rights (6)
- Democracy (6)
- Federal government (5)
- Constitutional history (3)
- Constitutional law--Interpretation and construction (3)
- Freedom of religion (3)
- Indigenous peoples--Legal status, laws, etc. (3)
- Mandatory sentences (3)
- National security--Law and legislation (3)
- Abortion (2)
- Administrative law (2)
- Appellate courts (2)
- Constitutional amendments (2)
- Deportation (2)
- Discrimination--Law and legislation (2)
- Etc. (2)
- European Union (2)
- Freedom of speech (2)
- Germany (2)
- Government accountability (2)
- Government liability (2)
- Human rights (2)
- Indigenous peoples--Government relations (2)
- Judicial power (2)
Articles 1 - 30 of 128
Full-Text Articles in Law
A Narrowing Field Of View: An Investigation Into The Relationship Between The Principles Of Treaty Interpretation And The Conceptual Framework Of Canadian Federalism, Joshua Ben David Nichols
A Narrowing Field Of View: An Investigation Into The Relationship Between The Principles Of Treaty Interpretation And The Conceptual Framework Of Canadian Federalism, Joshua Ben David Nichols
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In its recent decisions in Tsilhqot’in Nation and Grassy Narrows, the Supreme Court of Canada has significantly altered the position of Indigenous peoples within the structure of Canadian federalism. This article sets out to investigate the basis for the Court’s jurisdiction to change this structure. Its approach is historical, as it covers judicial treaty interpretation from St Catherine’s Milling to Grassy Narrows. By contextualizing the most recent change in light of the last 250 years of treaty making, we can see how the notion of Crown sovereignty has become entangled with the Westphalian model of the state (i.e., the state …
Re-Charting The Remedial Course For Section 11(B) Violations Post-Jordan, Andrew Pilla, Levi Vandersteen
Re-Charting The Remedial Course For Section 11(B) Violations Post-Jordan, Andrew Pilla, Levi Vandersteen
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In R v Jordan, the Supreme Court of Canada adopted a new framework for establishing violations of the right to be tried within a reasonable time under section 11(b) of the Charter. It did not, however, adopt a new approach to the remedy applicable thereafter. Since the 1987 decision R v Rahey, the only remedy for unreasonable delay has been a stay of proceedings. This article contends that this “automatic stay rule” must be revisited post-Jordan. It does so by conceptualizing Jordan as a shift from an “interest balancing” framework—where individual and societal interests are …
Administrative Constitutionalism And The Unity Of Public Law, Matthew Lewans
Administrative Constitutionalism And The Unity Of Public Law, Matthew Lewans
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Public law scholarship in the common law tradition often aims at elucidating a connection between law and constitutional values like equality, due process, and the rule of law. However, in their quest to reveal the morality of public law, common lawyers often focus their attention on judicial interpretations of constitutional values to the exclusion of other sources of constitutional jurisprudence. The author argues that the traditional fascination with courts as the primary or exclusive arbiters of constitutional values should be tempered and supplemented by recognizing the valuable contributions of administrative officials who interpret and enforce constitutional norms when exercising statutorily …
Quebec V A And Taypotat: Unpacking The Supreme Court’S Latest Decisions On Section 15 Of The Charter, Alicja Puchta
Quebec V A And Taypotat: Unpacking The Supreme Court’S Latest Decisions On Section 15 Of The Charter, Alicja Puchta
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The Supreme Court of Canada’s articulation for the test for discrimination under section 15 of the Charter has undergone numerous permutations over the past twenty-five years. The Supreme Court introduced its latest round of changes in its 2013 decision in Québec (Attorney General) v A and its 2015 decision in Kahkewistahaw First Nation v Taypotat. Together, these two decisions clarified that the appropriate approach to section 15 was not one focused strictly on stereotype and prejudice, but rather on all contextual factors that may inform whether an impugned law violates the norm of substantive equality. This paper critically analyzes the …
Unreasonable Disagreement?: Judicial–Executive Exchanges About Charter Reasonableness In The Harper Era, Matthew A. Hennigar
Unreasonable Disagreement?: Judicial–Executive Exchanges About Charter Reasonableness In The Harper Era, Matthew A. Hennigar
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Assessments of “reasonableness” are central to adjudicating claims under several Charter rights and the section 1 “reasonable limits” clause. By comparing Supreme Court of Canada rulings to facta submitted by the Attorney General of Canada to the Court, this article examines the federal government’s success under Prime Minister Harper at persuading the Supreme Court of Canada that its Charter infringements in the area of criminal justice policy are reasonable, and when they fail to do so, on what grounds. The evidence reveals that the Conservative government adopted a consistently defensive posture in court, never conceding that a law was unreasonable, …
Promises Of Law: The Unlawful Dispossession Of Japanese Canadians, Eric M. Adams, Jordan Stanger-Ross
Promises Of Law: The Unlawful Dispossession Of Japanese Canadians, Eric M. Adams, Jordan Stanger-Ross
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article is about the origins, betrayal, and litigation of a promise of law. In 1942, while it ordered the internment of over twenty-one thousand Canadians of Japanese descent, the Canadian government enacted orders in council authorizing the Custodian of Enemy Property to seize all real and personal property owned by Japanese Canadians living within coastal British Columbia. Demands from the Japanese-Canadian community and concern from within the corridors of government resulted in amendments to those orders stipulating that the Custodian held that property as a “protective” trust and would return it to Japanese Canadians at the conclusion of the …
Musings And Silences Of Chief Justice William Osgoode: Digest Marginalia About The Reception Of Imperial Law, G. Blaine Baker
Musings And Silences Of Chief Justice William Osgoode: Digest Marginalia About The Reception Of Imperial Law, G. Blaine Baker
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article focuses on musings and silences in the margins of Canadian Chief Justice William Osgoode’s late-eighteenth-century law library, to understand the role he assigned to Westminster-based imperial law in the transmission of British justice to the colonies. It concludes that this role was limited, mostly by Osgoode’s greater commitment of time and energy to legislative and executive branches of government than to the judiciary, and by his sometimes cavalier impatience with English courts and legal commentators.
Dialogue: Clarified And Reconsidered, Rainer Knopff, Rhonda Evans, Dennis Baker, Dave Snow
Dialogue: Clarified And Reconsidered, Rainer Knopff, Rhonda Evans, Dennis Baker, Dave Snow
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Controversies about constitutional “dialogue” often stem from disagreement over the concept itself. The metaphor’s meaning and attendant consequences differ depending on whether it reflects the assumptions of judicial interpretive supremacy or coordinate interpretation. By combining that distinction with the contrast between weak-form and strong-form rights review, this article creates an integrated framework for clarifying dialogic variation across such jurisdictions as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. We apply this framework most intensely to the Canadian case and bring differences between several dialogic forms—especially the difference between “clarification dialogue” and “reconsideration dialogue”—into sharper relief than is …
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. …
Book Review: The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind—And Changed The History Of Free Speech In America, By Thomas Healy, Jamie Cameron
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This is a book review of Healy, Thomas. The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed his Mind—and Changed the History of Free Speech in America. Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Co. 2013.
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 …
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 …
Islamic Law And Constitution-Making: The Authoritarian Temptation And The Arab Spring, Mohammad Fadel
Islamic Law And Constitution-Making: The Authoritarian Temptation And The Arab Spring, Mohammad Fadel
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In the wake of the Egyptian military coup of 3 July 2013, much commentary has focused on the religious-secular divide in Egypt as the principal division that laid the groundwork for the subsequent coup. Less attention has been paid to the profound divisions within religiously-minded Egyptian political actors regarding whether democratic or authoritarian government is more desirable from a religious perspective. This article explores the division between Islamist supporters of a “republican” conception of a modern Muslim constitutional and religious order, and Islamist supporters of an “authoritarian” conception of constitutional government in alliance with a state-supported religious establishment. The article …
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, …
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 …
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 …
Formal Versus Functional Method In Comparative Constitutional Law, Francesca Bignami
Formal Versus Functional Method In Comparative Constitutional Law, Francesca Bignami
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In the field of comparative constitutional law, the dominant approach to concept formation and research design is formal. That is, comparative projects generally identify what counts as the supreme law that can be enforced against all other sources of law based on the “constitutional” label of the positive law (written constitutions and the jurisprudence of constitutional courts) and the law books. This formal method, however, has significant limitations when compared with the functional method used in the field of comparative law more generally speaking. After a brief exposition of the functional method, this article explores the advantages of the functional …
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 …
Book Review: Nothing To Lose But Our Chains: On Constitutional Disobedience, By Louis Michael Seidman, Carissima Mathen
Book Review: Nothing To Lose But Our Chains: On Constitutional Disobedience, By Louis Michael Seidman, Carissima Mathen
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Book review of Nothing To Lose But Our Chains: On Constitutional Disobedience, by Louis Michael Seidman.
Losing Relevance: Quebec And The Constitutional Politics Of Language, Emmanuelle Richez
Losing Relevance: Quebec And The Constitutional Politics Of Language, Emmanuelle Richez
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article asks whether Quebec has lost relevance in the constitutional politics of language. It proposes a doctrinal analysis of the Supreme Court’s Charter jurisprudence, with an emphasis on the most recent body of case law, and an assessment of its political consequences in the area of language policy in Quebec. The article argues that constitutional review has increasingly protected individual rights over Quebec’s collective right to maintain its language and culture. This can be explained by the move towards an implacable parallel constitutionalism and a redefinition of official minority linguistic rights in the jurisprudence, as well as by the …
Touching Torture With A Ten-Foot Pole: The Legality Of Canada’S Approach To National Security Information Sharing With Human Rights-Abusing States, Craig Forcese
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In 2011, then-Public Safety Minister Vic Toews issued “ministerial directions” to Canada’s key security and intelligence agencies on “Information Sharing with Foreign Entities.” These directions permit information sharing in exigent circumstances, even where there is substantial risk of mistreatment of an individual. After a brief chorus of condemnation, the directions sank into relative obscurity while remaining part of Canada’s national security policy framework. This article aims to reignite discussion of these policies and their controversial content, relying in large measure on documents obtained by the author directly or through journalistic researchers under access to information law. First, I examine dilemmas …
Substantive Equality As Equal Recognition: A New Theory Of Section 15 Of The Charter, Anthony Robert Sangiuliano
Substantive Equality As Equal Recognition: A New Theory Of Section 15 Of The Charter, Anthony Robert Sangiuliano
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article presents a novel theory of the concept of substantive equality under section 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms called Substantive Equality as Equal Recognition. This contribution is timely in light of the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent disagreement over the proper jurisprudential approach to interpreting section 15(1) in the 2013 case of Quebec v A. Substantive Equality as Equal Recognition holds that the purpose of section 15(1) is to ensure that the law’s application does not reflect, through its impact or effects, hierarchies of status that exist between citizens within Canadian society. The article argues …
Failure To Report: The Manifestly Unconstitutional Nature Of The Human Smugglers Act, Jennifer Bond
Failure To Report: The Manifestly Unconstitutional Nature Of The Human Smugglers Act, Jennifer Bond
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This paper uses the Human Smugglers Act as a case study of what can happen when a Canadian government tables legislation that is highly controversial not only for reasons of ideology or policy, but also because it almost certainly violates the Charter. The conclusion is twofold: first, that a requirement originally meant to increase government accountability in the face of Canada’s human rights instruments is failing; and second, that this same requirement is now providing the government political cover to deflect legitimate constitutional critique while simultaneously avoiding substantive engagement. The result is an impoverished constitutional dialogue and a misled Canadian …
Canadian Bijuralism At A Crossroad? The Impact Of Section 8.1 Of The Interpretation Act On Judicial Interpretation Of Federal Legislation, Aline Grenon
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Section 8.1 of the Interpretation Act affirms the equal authority of the common law and civil law in the field of property and civil rights. The section states, subject to two exceptions, that federal enactments based on rules and concepts that are part of the law of property and civil rights are to be interpreted in accordance with these rules and concepts. Prior to the enactment of section 8.1 in 2001, courts had a tendency to opt for a uniform application of federal legislation based on common law concepts, with often negative results for Quebec civil law. Since then, the …
Democracy And The Right To Vote: Rethinking Democratic Rights Under The Charter, Yasmin Dawood
Democracy And The Right To Vote: Rethinking Democratic Rights Under The Charter, Yasmin Dawood
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article addresses the Supreme Court of Canada’s theory of democracy and the right to vote. After setting forth the Court’s general approach to democracy, I develop a new conceptual framework for the Court’s approach to democratic rights. First, I argue that the Court has adopted a “bundle of democratic rights” approach to the right to vote. By this I mean that the Court has interpreted the right to vote as consisting of multiple democratic rights, each of which is concerned with a particular facet of democratic governance. Second, I claim that the democratic rights recognized by the Court are …
Do Bills Of Rights Matter?: An Examination Of Court Change, Judicial Ideology, And The Support Structure For Rights In Canada, Donald R. Songer, Susan W. Johnson, Jennifer Barnes Bowie
Do Bills Of Rights Matter?: An Examination Of Court Change, Judicial Ideology, And The Support Structure For Rights In Canada, Donald R. Songer, Susan W. Johnson, Jennifer Barnes Bowie
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Competing theories regarding the development of a “rights revolution” in Canada have appeared in the judicial and constitutional literature in recent years. On the one hand, scholars argue that the profound effects often attributed to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are substantially overstated, and conventional analyses have overlooked the more important role of changes in what is called the “support structure” for rights. Others have advanced a competing theory that the Charter created an expansion of civil liberties. We take advantage of an extensive dataset on the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada to provide a more systematic …
The German Abortion Decisions And The Protective Function In German And Canadian Constitutional Law, Vanessa Macdonnell, Jula Hughes
The German Abortion Decisions And The Protective Function In German And Canadian Constitutional Law, Vanessa Macdonnell, Jula Hughes
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
In the First and Second Abortion decisions, the German Constitutional Court drew on earlier jurisprudence to hold that the state was under a constitutional duty to protect the fetus from deprivations of its interest in life by the pregnant woman. In this article, we suggest that Canadian constitutional law scholars and reproductive rights advocates would benefit from examining the German abortion decisions despite their highly controversial nature. In our view, the benefits are twofold. First, the German cases demonstrate that recognizing the protective function can help clarify constitutional doctrine by revealing the tensions that underlie many difficult constitutional cases. Second, …
Social Justice And The Charter: Comparison And Choice, Margot Young
Social Justice And The Charter: Comparison And Choice, Margot Young
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
At a time of radical inequality, the changes sought by social justice advocacy are urgently needed. Yet repeatedly, courts fail to respond adequately to this challenge. A core issue plagues social justice jurisprudence under sections 7 and 15: the difficulty inevitable in the contemplation and expression of the social and political forms in which oppression and social injustice occur. This problem manifests doctrinally in ways specific to the rights at issue. In section 15 cases, the casting of comparator groups has been deeply problematic, and in both section 15 and section 7 cases, the courts fail to deliver a nuanced …