Commentary on developments in administrative law, particularly judicial review of administrative action by common law courts.
I have written a paper entitled, “How Binding are Binding Guidelines? An Analytical Framework” to be published later this year in Canadian Public Administration. You can access a pre-publication version here. In this post, I discuss how intended effects on third parties are an indicium of bindingness. The extent to which a guideline is drafted […] Read more
No sooner had I started to play around with Chat GPT-4 to write administrative decisions than the Federal Court issued a decision on the use of AI in the administrative decision-making process. In Haghshenas v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2023 FC 464, Brown J considered whether using an AI system (Chinook) in writing a decision […] Read more
I asked Chat GPT4 to help me write an administrative decision refusing a student visa application. Sure, here’s an example of how you could structure an administrative decision regarding a student visa application: [Date] [Applicant Name] [Address] [City, Province/State] [Country] [Postal Code] Dear [Applicant Name], Re: [File Number] I am writing to inform you of […] Read more
The last speaker in this year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium, “The Legitimacy of the State” will be Professor Peter Conti-Brown (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania). You can register here or simply join us at this link on Zoom on Tuesday. Professor Conti-Brown will be speaking about central banking, based on his book The Power […] Read more
I have written a paper entitled, “How Binding are Binding Guidelines? An Analytical Framework” to be published later this year in Canadian Public Administration. You can access a pre-publication version here. In a previous post, I introduced the paper. In this post, I explain the second indicium of bindingness: the level of detail and precision […] Read more
Having described in previous posts the limited content of the record for judicial review purposes in Canada (here and here), I turn now to critical analysis. I will suggest in this post that a limited record can undermine judicial review by preventing courts from performing their constitutionality duty of assessing the lawfulness of administrative action […] Read more
I have written a paper entitled, “How Binding are Binding Guidelines? An Analytical Framework” to be published later this year in Canadian Public Administration. You can access a pre-publication version here. In a previous post, I introduced the paper. In this post, I explain the first indicium of bindingness: the presence or absence of imperative […] Read more
The next guest in this year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium will be Professor Robert Thomas (University of Manchester) on Tuesday March 21 at 11.30 eastern time via Zoom (note that the clocks changed in Canada last week so the time difference with Europe is an hour less than usual). Professor Thomas will be discussing […] Read more
On March 29 next, the University of Ottawa is holding a one-day conference to discuss the report of the Rouleau Commission into the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the federal government in 2022. I will be participating as a panelist. If time allows I will post my thoughts on the report and its relationship […] Read more
I am giving a talk at the School of Law, National University of Mongolia next week during their Fourth Annual Conference on Issues in Constitutional and Administrative Law, on the topic of state-owned enterprises. Here are my thoughts… Why Crown Corporations? Crown corporations are “structural heretics”, designed to function as commercial players but to achieve […] Read more