2023
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Reminder: Peter Conti-Brown on Central Banks, Tuesday April 4 at 11.30 via Zoom (Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium 2023)
The last speaker in this year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium, “The Legitimacy of the State” will be Professor Peter Conti-Brown (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania). You can register here or simply join us at this link on Zoom on Tuesday. Professor Conti-Brown will be speaking about central banking, based on his book The Power […] Read more
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When Do Guidelines Bind? The Level of Detail and Precision
I have written a paper entitled, “How Binding are Binding Guidelines? An Analytical Framework” to be published later this year in Canadian Public Administration. You can access a pre-publication version here. In a previous post, I introduced the paper. In this post, I explain the second indicium of bindingness: the level of detail and precision […] Read more
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The Prospects for Candour in Canada: Why a Limited Record is Problematic
Having described in previous posts the limited content of the record for judicial review purposes in Canada (here and here), I turn now to critical analysis. I will suggest in this post that a limited record can undermine judicial review by preventing courts from performing their constitutionality duty of assessing the lawfulness of administrative action […] Read more
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When Do Guidelines Bind? Presence or Absence of Imperative Language
I have written a paper entitled, “How Binding are Binding Guidelines? An Analytical Framework” to be published later this year in Canadian Public Administration. You can access a pre-publication version here. In a previous post, I introduced the paper. In this post, I explain the first indicium of bindingness: the presence or absence of imperative […] Read more
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Reminder: Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium with Professor Robert Thomas, Tuesday 11.30 eastern time
The next guest in this year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium will be Professor Robert Thomas (University of Manchester) on Tuesday March 21 at 11.30 eastern time via Zoom (note that the clocks changed in Canada last week so the time difference with Europe is an hour less than usual). Professor Thomas will be discussing […] Read more
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uOttawa Conference on the Rouleau Commission Report on the Emergencies Act
On March 29 next, the University of Ottawa is holding a one-day conference to discuss the report of the Rouleau Commission into the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the federal government in 2022. I will be participating as a panelist. If time allows I will post my thoughts on the report and its relationship […] Read more
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Crown Corporations in Canada
I am giving a talk at the School of Law, National University of Mongolia next week during their Fourth Annual Conference on Issues in Constitutional and Administrative Law, on the topic of state-owned enterprises. Here are my thoughts… Why Crown Corporations? Crown corporations are “structural heretics”, designed to function as commercial players but to achieve […] Read more
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When Do Guidelines Bind? An Analytical Framework: Part 1
I have written a paper entitled, “How Binding are Binding Guidelines? An Analytical Framework” to be published later this year in Canadian Public Administration. You can access a pre-publication version here. I will be posting the paper in parts over the coming weeks. Here are the introductory sections: Guidelines play an important role in contemporary […] Read more
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Reminder: Professor Joseph Heath on the Civil Service, Tuesday March 14 11.30 eastern
The next speaker in this year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium will be Professor Joseph Heath (University of Toronto). Professor Heath will be discussing his book The Machinery of Government: Public Administration and the Liberal State (OUP, 2020): In political theory, the traditional model of state power was that elected officials make policy decisions which […] Read more
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New Paper — The Autonomy of Administration
Last September I participated in a University of Toronto symposium on the career of Justice Rosalie Abella. The papers from the symposium are to be published in the University of Toronto Law Journal. A pre-publication version of my piece, “The Autonomy of Administration“, is now available for download on SSRN: Justice Rosalie Abella is closely […] Read more
