Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium 2020: Matthew Lewans, Monday, March 9, FTX 137, 5pm

On Monday, the Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium features Matthew Lewans from the University of Alberta, on the topic of “Deference” (Monday March 9, FTX 137, 17:00 to 19:00). As ever, all are welcome to attend.

Prof Lewans will be discussing in particular his monograph, Administrative Law and Judicial Deference (Hart Publishing, 2016):

In recent years, the question whether judges should defer to administrative decisions has attracted considerable interest amongst public lawyers throughout the common law world. This book examines how the common law of judicial review has responded to the development of the administrative state in three different common law jurisdictions – the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canada – over the past 100 years. This comparison demonstrates that the idea of judicial deference is a valuable feature of modern administrative law, because it gives lawyers and judges practical guidance on how to negotiate the constitutional tension between the democratic legitimacy of the administrative state and the judicial role in maintaining the rule of law.

Here is Prof Lewans’ bio:

Dr. Lewans is a Professor at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law. His research interests include administrative law, constitutional law, jurisprudence, and professional responsibility. He has been a part of the University of Alberta since 2007.

Dr. Lewans received a B. Comm and an LLB from the University of Saskatchewan, BCL from the University of Oxford, an LLM from the University of Auckland, and an SJD from the University of Toronto. Before being called to the Saskatchewan Bar he was a law clerk at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal. Dr. Lewans practiced for several years before joining the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta.  His publications can be found in the University of Toronto Law Journal, Queen’s Law Journal, McGill Law Journal, Constitutional Forum, and the Alberta Law Review.

Dr. Lewans is a member of the Board of Directors for the Edmonton Community Legal Centre. The Centre is a not-for-profit organization that provides free legal services, advice, representation, and education to low income residents in the Edmonton area.

And here is some suggested reading on the general topic:

Jeremy Waldron, ‘Authority for Officials’ in Lukas Meyer, Stanley Paulson and Thomas Pogge, Rights, Culture, and the Law: Themes from the Legal and Practical Philosophy of Joseph Raz (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003) 45

H Wade MacLauchlan, “Judicial Review of Administrative Interpretations of Law: How Much Formalism Can We Reasonably Bear?” (1986) 36 University of Toronto Law Journal 343

David Dyzenhaus, “The Politics of Deference: Judicial Review and Democracy” in Michael Taggart ed., The Province of Administrative Law (Hart Publishing, 1997)

Mary Liston, “Transubstantiation in Canadian Public Law: Processing Substance and Instantiating Process” in John Bell, Mark Elliott, Jason Varuhas and Philip Murray eds., Public Law Adjudication in Common Law Systems: Process and Substance (Hart Publishing, 2016)

Jennifer Raso, “Unity in the Eye of the Beholder? Reasons for Decision in Theory and Practice in the Ontario Works Program” (2020) University of Toronto Law Journal (forthcoming)

Cases

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. International Union of Operating Engineers, [1970] SCR 425

C.U.P.E. v. N.B. Liquor Corporation, [1979] 2 SCR 227

Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837 (1984)

This content has been updated on March 5, 2020 at 18:59.