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Undue Delay in Canadian Administrative Law: Law Society of Saskatchewan v. Abrametz, 2022 SCC 29
This is the latest in my series of posts on the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Law Society of Saskatchewan v. Abrametz, 2022 SCC 29 (see also here, here and here). Undue delay in Canadian administrative law is an aspect of procedural fairness. A “corollary” to the duty to act fairly is “a power […] Read more
Some Thoughts on Methodology (with Joe Tomlinson)
Joe Tomlinson and I are finalizing an edited collection on methodology in public law. Here are some thoughts… Lawyers are notorious amongst scholars of the humanities and social sciences for failing to engage in detailed analysis of methodology. This perception is justified. As lawyers often – and in some cases exclusively – write to be […] Read more
Big Bang Theory: Vavilov’s New Framework for Substantive Review
I have uploaded a pre-publication version of “Big Bang Theory: Vavilov’s New Framework for Substantive Review“, my chapter in Flood & Daly eds., Administrative Law in Context (4th ed., Emond Montgomery, 2021): This Chapter sets out the new administrative law framework the Supreme Court of Canada established in Vavilov. The decision in Vavilov was the […] Read more
Big Bang Theory
This Chapter sets out the new administrative law framework the Supreme Court of Canada established in Vavilov. The decision in Vavilov was the ‘big bang’ of Canadian administrative law: from now on, every issue must be analyzed with Vavilov as the starting point, with prior jurisprudence playing a supporting role only to the extent it […] Read more
Rethinking Judicial Oversight in a Time of Crisis (Cristie Ford)
Re-posted with permission from the Regulatory Review, where it was part of the Comparing Nations’ Responses to COVID-19 series. Cristie Ford is a professor and associate dean at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. After the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E., the Jewish […] Read more
Plural Public Law: Relevance and Influence
I gave my inaugural lecture as the University Research Chair in Administrative Law at the University of Ottawa last month. You can watch the lecture here (after some introductory remarks from Dean Sylvestre, Chief Justice Wagner and Justice Bich). The comments from my respondents, Justice Stratas and Professor Cartier can be found here. This is […] Read more
Continuing Standard of Review Development: Green v. Law Society of Manitoba, 2017 SCC 20
I was not looking forward to the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Green v. Law Society of Manitoba, 2017 SCC 20 with any great excitement. I suspected that Court would resolve the case narrowly, as a question of vires, and not employ the standard of review framework. I was agreeably surprised, therefore, that in […] Read more
Some More Thoughts on the TWU Litigation
I have been following, via Trinity Western University School of Law’s invaluable Twitter feed, proceedings at the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal: I posted on the first-instance decision here. The questions from the bench on Day One did not augur particularly well for the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, but the judges have also probed the […] Read more
Eligibility to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada
Mr. Justice Nadon, a member of the Federal Court of Appeal, was named — and indeed has been sworn in — as a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada. But a challenge has been launched to his appointment. And until the challenge is resolved, Justice Nadon will not sit as a member of the […] Read more
A Successful Closed-Mind Argument in the Citizenship Setting
A basic principle of administrative law is that a decision-maker must approach its decisions with an open mind. Demonstrating that a decision-maker had a “closed mind”, however, is extremely difficult. A decision-maker bent on refusing an application come what may will, if clever enough, keep his or her prejudices to him or herself.Interestingly, the applicant […] Read more