2015

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An Age of Facts? R. v. Smith, 2015 SCC 34

A new edition of Grant Gilmore’s classic Storrs Lectures, The Ages of American Law, was published recently with a new postscript by Philip Bobbitt. Gilmore left American law in the “Age of Anxiety”, an era in which I fear Americans remain, although Bobbitt makes a powerful case for the emergence of an “Age of Consent”. […] Read more

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On the Blurry Line Between Substance and Procedure? Syndicat des employées et employés professionnels et de bureau, section locale 574, SEPB, CTC-FTQ c. Groupe Pages jaunes Cie, 2015 QCCA 918

When an administrative decision-maker hears argument but decides a point on another ground, what is the appropriate posture of a reviewing court? Is this a matter of procedural fairness, because it goes to the ability of the parties to make full and complete submissions, or is it a matter of substantive reasonableness, because it goes […] Read more

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Deference and the Principles of Statutory Interpretation (Again): Bell Canada v. Amtelecom Limited Partnership, 2015 FCA 126

Andy Grewal had an interesting post on the Notice and Comment blog last week on a D.C. Circuit decision holding that the canon against extraterritorial interpretation of statutes trumps Chevron deference (though also suggesting that if the agency turned its mind to the canon its reasoned position might survive review). Grewal comments, astutely: Yet recent […] Read more

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A Change of Role

As of June 1, I will be Associate Dean (Faculty Affairs and Professional Development) and Faculty Secretary, Faculté de droit, Université de Montréal, as part of the team put in place by our incoming Dean, Jean-François GaudreaultDesBiens, to help to execute the reform mandate he has been given by the university authorities. So, the next […] Read more

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Threats to Stare Decisis: The Coherence Problem

This is the fourth and final post excerpting from my paper on stare decisis in Canadian administrative law for the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice’s 2015 National Roundtable on Administrative Law (Moncton, Friday, May 22*): Consistency in Tribunal Decision-Making. You can read the first, second and third posts here, here and here. * This […] Read more