The UK’s Independent Review of Administrative Law was completed earlier this year. The Faulks Report was published today. Although the UK government may try to suggest otherwise, the headline is that the Panel does not think significant reforms of judicial review are appropriate. Chapter 1 addresses the possibility of codifying administrative law. (You can see […] Read more

The next speakers in this year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium on “Front-Line Administration” are Margaret Doyle and Nick O’Brien. They will be having a dialogue about their recent book, Reimagining Administrative Justice: Human Rights in Small Spaces (Palgrave, 2019): This book reconnects everyday justice with social rights. It rediscovers human rights in the ‘small […] Read more

Over at Verfassungsblog, as part of an international series on COVID-19, I have a post on the law and politics of the pandemic response in Canada. Here are the opening and closing paragraphs: As of early 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across Canada. These are dark days. Although the arrival of vaccines suggests […] Read more

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of British Columbia handed down an important — perhaps even monumental — decision on s. 96 of the Constitution Act, 1867: Trial Lawyers’ Association of British Columbia v British Columbia (Attorney General), 2021 BCSC 348. Hinkson CJ held that the legislation giving the province’s Civil Resolution Tribunal jurisdiction over […] Read more

The next speaker in this year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium, “Front-Line Administration”, is Professor Bernardo Zacka (MIT). Register here for tomorrow’s Zoom webinar. Prof Zacka will be discussing his work on front-line decision-makers. Here is a short description of his book, When the State Meets the Street: Public Service and Moral Agency (Harvard University […] Read more

Readers may have noticed that I have not blogged about the important decision of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal on delay in administrative proceedings in Abrametz v Law Society of Saskatchewan, 2020 SKCA 81. I became involved in the matter shortly after the Court of Appeal decision. The Law Society decided to seek leave to […] Read more

Over the years, s. 96 of the Constitution Act, 1867 has enjoyed a remarkable evolution. It has been the little appointing provision that could: its handful of words about the process for appointing judges to the superior courts have, by judicial exegesis, created forests of jurisprudence on the limitations on legislative power to encroach on […] Read more

The next speaker in this year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium on “Front-Line Administration” is Professor Jennifer Raso of the University of Alberta. Register here for the Zoom webinar with Professor Raso next Tuesday, February 23 at 11.30. Prof Raso will be discussing her work on front-line decision-makers. Here is the abstract from her important […] Read more

I have posted “A Critical Analysis of the Case of Prorogations” to SSRN. Here is the abstract: R (Miller) v Prime Minister is a landmark case about the scope of prerogative power and judicial review in common law systems. In this article, I critically analyze the seminal decision of the UK Supreme Court in what […] Read more

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Wastech Services Ltd. v. Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District, 2021 SCC 7 touches on a couple of issues arising at the intersection between public and private law. The case was about contractual discretion. M contracted with W to provide waste removal and transportation services. For many years […] Read more