2022
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Understanding Administrative Law in the Common Law World – Response to Contributors
Over the past few months, the Administrative Law in the Common Law World Blog has hosted a symposium on my recent book on judicial review. The contributions were uniformly excellent. I hope my response matches up… In Understanding Administrative Law in the Common Law World (Oxford University Press, 2021), I set out to offer a […] Read more
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The Rise of Facts in Public Law IV: Facts as Constitutional Causes of Action
In a draft book chapter I am working on with co-author Kseniya Kudischeva, we discuss the increased importance of factual assessments in public law. This is the fourth of four substantive parts (see Part I here, Part II here and Part III here). Comments and thoughts welcome. We turn lastly to a distinctly Canadian phenomenon, […] Read more
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The Rise of Facts in Public Law III: Systemic Challenges to Regulatory Regimes
In a draft book chapter I am working on with co-author Kseniya Kudischeva, we discuss the increased importance of factual assessments in public law. This is the third of four substantive parts (see Part I here and Part II here). Comments and thoughts welcome. In our increasingly complex and fast-changing world, legislatures and executives have […] Read more
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The Rise of Facts in Public Law II: Factual Assessments in Judicial Review of Legislation
In a draft book chapter I am working on with co-author Kseniya Kudischeva, we discuss the increased importance of factual assessments in public law. This is the second of four substantive parts (see Part I here). Comments and thoughts welcome. In federal systems, factual assessments can never be entirely off limits in judicial review of […] Read more
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The Federation of Law Societies of Canada and Online Teaching
Like many Canadian law faculties, the University of Ottawa has been delivering a significant amount of its teaching virtually or bi-modally during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have been teaching administrative law in a flipped classroom format for the last two years: students consume recorded lectures beforehand and participate via Zoom in small- and large-group class […] Read more
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Exam Season
Teaching term is over and exam season is upon us. Here is this year’s exam for Administrative Law. You have six hours… In the fictional Canadian province of Lower Canada, there occurred in 2020 an outbreak of a highly contagious and extremely dangerous flu-like disease known as VICOD. In Lower Canada, the Public Health Act […] Read more
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Early Canadian Administrative Law
The few historically oriented discussions of public administration in Canada tend to take the regulation of railways in the 1850s as their starting point. But there were early pre-cursors to the administrative state. The dominant theory of Canadian economic development is that the country was built on the production and export of various ‘staples’. From […] Read more
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The Rise of Facts in Public Law I: Factual Assessments in Judicial Review of Administrative Action
In a draft book chapter I am working on with co-author Kseniya Kudischeva, we discuss the increased importance of factual assessments in public law. Here is the first of four substantive parts. Comments and thoughts welcome. Common law judges have traditionally been highly reluctant to interfere with factual assessments made by administrative decision-makers. This reluctance […] Read more
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Prerogative, Justiciability, Remedy: Acadian Society of New Brunswick v Canada (Prime Minister), 2022 NBQB 55
The remarkable decision in Acadian Society of New Brunswick v Canada (Prime Minister), 2022 NBQB 55 deserves comment, especially for its treatment of justiciability and remedy. Here, DeWare CJ declared that the appointment of a unilingual Anglophone Lieutenant-Governor for the bilingual province of New Brunswick was unconstitutional as it violated a variety of New-Brunswick-specific provisions […] Read more
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Restitution and Reasonableness Review: Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres v. Canada (Attorney General), 2022 FC 393
The application of the principles of restitution/unjust enrichment to overpayments of tax in Canada is in a muddled state. The problem arises where a taxpayer overpays on the basis of a mistake of law or a mistake of fact, a capacious set of categories which can include mistakes about the lawfulness or applicability of a […] Read more