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Full-Text Articles in Law
Policy Preference Change And Appointments To The Supreme Court Of Canada, Benjamin Alarie, Andrew Green
Policy Preference Change And Appointments To The Supreme Court Of Canada, Benjamin Alarie, Andrew Green
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Canadian prime ministers appoint judges to the Supreme Court of Canada at their own discretion. This practice has been criticized as providing prime ministers with the ability to appoint judges whose policy preferences are regarded as politically congenial. We examine the Court's judgments in the post-Charter era to discern the apparent policy preferences of the judges. Our results suggest that the policy preferences of judges are not strongly associated with the political party of the prime minister and that their policy preferences shift over time in seemingly unpredictable ways. We discuss the implications of this analysis for possible reforms of …
American Citations And The Mclachlin Court: An Empirical Study, Peter Mccormick
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 …