There is likely to be an increase in Irish legal content on the blog in the next while as I am preparing a new edition of Administrative Law in Ireland. In a series of posts I am going to discuss the important decision in Zalewski. The decision of the Irish Supreme Court in Zalewski v […] Read more

This is my contribution to a Balkinization symposium on Chevron deference from a comparative perspective. You can find links to all the posts in the symposium here. The opening post by Oren Tamir and Susan Rose-Ackerman is particularly helpful. I am a committed comparativist — in my 2021 monograph on judicial review of administrative action, […] Read more

In the original ATCO case in 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada addressed the issue of the scope of a regulator’s statutory authority, making a distinction between express and implied powers. As I have written, this distinction makes little sense and it would be better simply to focus on legislative intent, discerned by consideration of […] Read more

All of a sudden there is intense interest in Canada in the consequences of rights of appeal for the availability of judicial review.  The basic issue, to be considered next month by the Supreme Court of Canada in Yatar (and at umpteen roundtables and seminars until that case is decided), is whether legislation creating a […] Read more

As we have done almost every year since 2013, Justice Stratas and I will be doing a joint online event next week for the Ontario Bar Association casting a look over the current state of affairs in Canadian administrative law: Our most popular Administrative Law Section event is back again this year to bring you […] Read more

To mark the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, I thought I might highlight Grammond J’s fascinating decision in Bastien v. Jackson, 2022 FC 591, which prompts questions about the relationship between the principles of administrative law and the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples. B and J were councillors of the Piikani Nation. B brought a […] Read more

After a hiatus of nearly four years, the Supreme Court of Canada yesterday applied the reasonableness standard for the first time since Vavilov and the companion case of Canada Post. The decision in Mason v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2023 SCC 21 (Jamal J for the majority; Côté J concurring) is significant as far as […] Read more

In a previous post, I addressed the relationship between the notwithstanding clause and administrative law. Here I address a number of other relevant issues: the role of Charter values; the principles of judicial review of administrative action; and the relationship between legislation passed notwithstanding Charter rights and existing statutory schemes. Charter Values So much for […] Read more

The ‘notwithstanding’ clause of the Constitution of Canada (contained in s. 33 of the Constitution Act, 1982) provides as follows:  33 (1) Parliament or the legislature of a province may expressly declare in an Act of Parliament or of the legislature, as the case may be, that the Act or a provision thereof shall operate notwithstanding a […] Read more

I recently highlighted Professor Andrew Green’s paper on the effect — or not! — of Supreme Court of Canada decisions in administrative law. I am happier to report that a new paper published in Canadian Public Administration by David Said comes to the conclusion that the Court’s decisions can be significant: “Navigating entangled terrain: The […] Read more