2016

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Prescribing Surveillance by Law

Tomorrow I am speaking at the first in a series of conferences — En 2 mots / In 2 Words — organized by my colleague Vincent Gautrais. My topic is “Prescribing Surveillance by Law”. Here is the abstract I prepared: The common law of judicial review of administrative action has treated broad discretionary powers in […] Read more

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Bias and Statistical Evidence: ALA15 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2016] FCAFC 30

There is a new decision from the Full Federal Court of Australia on whether and how statistical evidence can be used to demonstrate bias (in particular, prejudgement of relevant issues): ALA15 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2016] FCAFC 30. Readers will recall that this question has also been raised in Canada (unsuccessfully) and […] Read more

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Values, Doctrine and Decisions in Judicial Review of Administrative Action

In his London School of Economics Ph.D. thesis, Dean Knight offers an interesting theoretical perspective on judicial review doctrine. Grouping writers and judges into four broad groups, ranging from those who prefer more formalistic, bounded approaches to those who embrace thorough contextual inquiry, he assesses each group against Lon Fuller’s ‘internal morality of law’. Knight’s […] Read more

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Capturing Regulatory Capture by Expanding the Record: Sobeys West Inc. v. College of Pharmacists of British Columbia, 2016 BCCA 41

Canadian courts have generally been cautious about expanding the content of the record on judicial review. I am generally in favour of restraint (see e.g. here), as expanding the content of the record may have the effect of enticing courts to expand the scope of judicial review. But the factual matrix of Sobeys West Inc. […] Read more

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The Value of Academic Blogging

Word filtered down from on high (literally: the University of Montreal is on a mountain and the central administration sits on its peak) today that my tenure application was approved by the University Council, effective June 1. This is very nice news of course but I am not fishing for compliments. I only mention it […] Read more