Law Commons^™

Legality, Legitimacy And Constitutional Amendment In Canada, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

It is accepted that Canada’s Constitution is almost impossible to amend, and that this amendment rigidity stems from the Constitution’s patriation in 1982 and two failed reform initiatives, the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords. The high-stakes drama of 1982, threat of Quebec separation and denouement of the post-patriation Accords were events of singular urgency which have dominated the literature and consigned the longer history of amendment to the background. This article provides a corrective which explores Canada’s two uneven periods of constitutional change – before and after textual rules – and in doing so theorizes that rich insights into the …

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

Jamie Cameron

Thomas Healy’s The Great Dissent re-treads the familiar story of US Supreme Court Justice Holmes’s First Amendment conversion between March and November 1919, when he launched his marketplace of ideas theory and strong-form version of the clear and present danger doctrine. Healy’s book demonstrates that fresh perspectives on this vital and ever-intriguing change of mind or transformation on Holmes’s part remain possible. The review offers its own perspective by highlighting the process of “reverse mentoring” which took place, in which the older jurist was mentored on free speech issues by the emerging thought leaders of the day – Laski, Frankfurter, …

Collateral Thoughts On Dialogue's Legacy As Metaphor And Theory: A Favourite From Canada, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

“Collateral Thoughts” is part of a special issue edited by Professor James Allan, who invited and challenged a group of scholars to select and discuss a favourite law review article. I chose “The Charter Dialogue Between Courts and Legislatures” because it is the most influential article to date in the Charter of Rights and Freedom’s relatively short history (since 1982). I call this reflection “Collateral Thoughts” because my interest is less in the merits of dialogue theory than in its remarkable impact, at home in Canada as well as abroad, in the broader reaches of comparative constitutionalism and constitutional theory. …

Victim Privacy And The Open Court Principle, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

This Report takes a comprehensive look, in the administration of justice, at the tension between victim privacy and the open court principle. It discusses the common law foundations of openness in the justice system, and analyzes the Supreme Court of Canada’s decisions on this issue under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In considering the status of victims in the criminal justice system the Report focuses on privacy rights, especially for complainants in sexual assault proceedings. It includes chapters which offer comparative, transnational and international perspectives and the author’s reflections on these questions, as well as an extensive bibliography. …

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

Jamie Cameron

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.

Law, Politics, And Legacy Building At The Mclachlin Court In 2014, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

This Article was written for Osgoode Hall Law School’s annual Constitutional Cases conference, and provides the keynote overview of the McLachlin Court’s 2014 constitutional jurisprudence. The Court’s 2014 constitutional decisions (Appointment and Senate References; Tsilqot’in Nation; Trial Lawyers) and restrictions on Mr. Big operations (Hart), in combination with a tsunami of Charter decisions early in 2015 (the 2015 Labour Trilogy; Carter v. Canada; R. v. Nur; and others), made this a legacy-building year. More than an overview, this Article probes the nature of the McLachlin Court’s legacy this year and the relationship between legal and political dynamics, to ask: in …

Foreword, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

No abstract provided.

Governance And Anarchy In The S.2(B) Jurisprudence: A Comment On Vancouver Sun And Harper V. Canada, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

The article identifies and explains a double standard in the Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence. The contrast is between the open court jurisprudence, which is a model of good constitutional governance – or principled decision making – and the Court’s s.2(b) methodology, which is “anarchistic” or capricious and undisciplined, in the sense of this article. Two landmark cases decided in 2004 illustrate the double standard: the first is Re Vancouver Sun, [2004] 2 S.C.R. 332, which dealt with the open court principle under Parliament’s anti-terrorism provision for investigative hearings, it represents a high water mark for open court and s.2(b) …

Introductory Remarks, Benjamin L. Berger, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

Benjamin Berger and Jamie Cameron worked in partnership with the Osgoode Hall Law Journal to organize this Symposium on Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The papers were published in 2013 as a special issue of the Law Journal. The Symposium marked the 30th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and Berger and Cameron constructed a program that invited critical, theoretical, and comparative reflection on the Charter by Canadian and non-Canadian scholars. Speakers included: Gavin Anderson (University of Glasgow); John Borrows (University of Minnesota); Sujit Choudhry (New York University); Rosalind Dixon (University of New South Wales); Avigail Eisenberg …

The Van Ert Methodology Of Domestic Reception, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

A review of Gibran van Ert's book: Using International Law in Canadian Courts. This review approaches the author's methodology of domestic reception from a constitutionalist's perspective.

The Charter And Criminal Justice: Twenty-Five Years Later, Jamie Cameron, James Stribopoulos

Jamie Cameron

When the Charter of Rights and Freedoms turned twenty-five in 2007, Professors Jamie Cameron and James Stribopoulos organized a conference which brought together leading thinkers on the Charterand criminal justice. A strong faculty of academics, judges and practitioners debated and discussed the Charter's impact on criminal justice. The papers from this conference, which have now been edited by Professors Cameron and Stribopoulos, provide a fascinating look at how the Charter has transformed the Canadian criminal justice system.

Book Review: The Constitutional Protection Of Freedom Of Expression, By Richard Moon, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

No abstract provided.

Journalists And Their Secret Sources, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron, Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, on confidential sources, free press and the link to democratic values.

Confidential Sources: The Public Interest In Keeping Secrets, Brian Rogers, Kevin Donovan, Gail C. Cove, Jamie Cameron, Julian Sher

Jamie Cameron

"Confidential sources: The public interest in keeping secrets What is different about confidential newsgathering sources? Why is it in the public interest to protect these sources, and when is it more important to know who they are? How do shield laws work in the US, and who should set the rules for confidential sources -- the courts or the legislatures?"

Law And Feminism: Editor's Note, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

No abstract provided.

Abstract Principle V. Contextual Conceptions Of Harm: A Comment On R. V. Butler, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

This comment provides a critique of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in R. v. Butler, which held that section 163(8) of the Criminal Code, defining obscenity, is a reasonable limit on freedom of expression under section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Before discussing the Charter, the Court expanded the scope of section 163(8) to include a prohibition against sexually explicit material that is degrading or dehumanizing. Initially, the author is critical of the Court's methodology, which enlarged section 163(8) at the expense of expressive freedom, without even mentioning the Charter. Once the Court had interpreted …

The Original Conception Of Section 1 And Its Demise: A Comment On Irwin Toy V. A-G Of Quebec, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

The author submits that the logic and purpose of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, as it was originally conceived, demand that the substantive rights be given a broad and literal interpretation with limitations imposed exclusively under section 1. This distinction between breach and justification must be maintained to preserve the Charter's integrity. The author suggests that the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Irwin Toy will only perpetuate the confusion surrounding Charter interpretation. The Court again failed to articulate a concrete conception of section 1 review, and, in obiter dicta, noted that forms of expressive activity having physical …

Patterning Rights Constitutionalism: Thirty Years With The Charter, Benjamin L. Berger, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law (Volume Ii), Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron