2015

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Would Too Many Cokes Spoil the Broth?

South of the border, more and more voices are joining the chorus of concern about the administrative state. It is difficult to trace cause and effect — administrative and executive power have long been a topic of concern on the left and right of American politics — though I suspect that President Obama’s use of […] Read more

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Discrimination, Deference and Pluralism: Quebec (Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse) v. Bombardier Inc. (Bombardier Aerospace Training Center), 2015 SCC 39

In my view, the Supreme Court of Canada’s commitment to deference is in tension with its institutional role as the country’s highest court. According deference to administrative decision-makers means favoring legal pluralism, permitting those decision-makers to put their own spin on rules of substantive and procedural law. But a court of final resort may feel […] Read more

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Who Should Decide Procedural Fairness Questions?

The latest contributor to the growing literature on deference and procedural fairness is Adrian Vermeule in “Deference and Due Process“: In the textbooks, procedural due process is a strictly judicial enterprise; although substantive entitlements are created by legislative and executive action, it is for courts to decide independently what process the Constitution requires. The notion […] Read more

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Must the Show Go On? Budlakoti v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2015 FCA 139

In several recent decisions, the Federal Court of Appeal has set out a general framework for conducting judicial reviews of administrative action. Budlakoti v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2015 FCA 139 is an example. Stratas J.A. noted that there are “three distinct analytical steps” in any judicial review: (1)               Preliminary objections. […] Read more