2022

Comments

Social Media Platforms as Common Carriers

I have not had as much time as I would like recently to pursue my research interests in the regulation of social media platforms. Before the pandemic, I wrote favourably of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel: What are the social media behemoths — Facebook, Google, Netflix, Twitter, Youtube, etc — that have come […] Read more

Comments

A Defence of Administrative Law Doctrine, Part II.C, The General Principles of Judicial Review

This is an extract from my paper “A Defence of Administrative Law Doctrine“ Professor Allan’s third proposition is that there are no general principles of judicial review. Indeed, the very proposition that general principles give administrative law a “genuine sense” is “actually a contradiction in terms”.[1] As a “body of doctrine”, administrative law lacks “any […] Read more

Comments

A Defence of Administrative Law Doctrine, Part II.B, Legality, Rationality and Procedural Propriety

This is an extract from my paper “A Defence of Administrative Law Doctrine“ The second proposition is that the heads of review – legality, rationality and procedural propriety – are too abstract to guide judges: “Though a convenient summary of our conclusions in any particular case, the doctrine cannot provide any justifying ground for those […] Read more

Comments

A Defence of Administrative Law Doctrine, Part II.A, The Constitutional Foundations of Judicial Review

This is an extract from my paper “A Defence of Administrative Law Doctrine“ In his writings on deference, Professor Allan picked up on a theme he had first elaborated in “Doctrine and theory in administrative law: an elusive quest for the limits of jurisdiction”.[1] As he later summarized his general position, doctrinal grounds of review […] Read more

Comments

Reconciliation and Regulation

In this post, I want to mark the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation by highlighting two recent Alberta Court of Appeal decisions on reconciliation and regulation. Both treat reconciliation as an integral part of the regulatory enterprise. Consider first Fort McKay First Nation v Prosper Petroleum Ltd, 2020 ABCA 163. Here, the Alberta Energy […] Read more

Comments

Justice Abella’s Administrative Law Jurisprudence: Critical Analysis

For previous posts in this series, prepared for today’s University of Toronto symposium on Justice Abella, see here, here and here In the scholarly literature on deference, one finds pro-deference arguments based on legislative intent,[1] relative institutional competence,[2] democratic legitimacy[3] and much else besides.[4] These arguments tend to be developed from the perspective of the […] Read more