2014

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What Should Public Lawyers Do?

That is the title of a famous/notorious essay by political scientist Brendan O’Leary reviewing Paul Craig’s Public Law and Democracy in the UK and the USA. O’Leary attacked Craig’s book, not so much for its content but for its very mission: to draw lessons for public lawyers from political science and political philosophy.* The basic […] Read more

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Court Fees, Constitutional Rights and the Common Law

In a remarkable decision yesterday, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down British Columbia’s regime of court fees as unconstitutional: Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia v. British Columbia (Attorney General), 2014 SCC 59. A litigant was faced with a $3,600 bill for scheduling a 10-day trial. She could not pay the court fees — […] Read more