Peter A Gall QC is a partner at Gall Legge Grant Zwack LLP in Vancouver In Dunsmuir, the Supreme Court set out to do two things: first, to simplify the standards of judicial review by eliminating the patent unreasonableness standard, and second, to strike a balance between upholding the rule of law – that is, […] Read more

Dean R Knight is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, Victoria University of Wellington Dunsmuir has exhilarated and puzzled Canadian audiences of administrative law for a decade now; and, before Dunsmuir, the enigmatic pragmatic and functional framework excited and frustrated the same audience. But, for an observer from abroad, this is no surprise. […] Read more

Diana Ginn is a Full Professor at he Schulich School of Law and William Lahey is President of the University of Kings College, and an Associate Professor, on leave, at the Schulich School of Law The implications of Dunsmuir[1] for judicial deference towards administrative decision making were uncertain for at least two reasons.  The first […] Read more

John M. Evans is Public Law Counsel at Goldblatt Partners LLP, Toronto, and was formerly a judge of the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal The tenth anniversary celebration (if that’s the right word) of Dunsmuir has made me again sort through my thoughts on its significance in the development of administrative law […] Read more

Craig Forcese is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, at the University of Ottawa The Supreme Court of Canada released its Dunsmuir decision in early March 2008, hours before my administrative law class at the University of Ottawa, Common Law Section, was to embark on study of standard of review […] Read more

Naiomi Metallic holds the Chancellor’s Chair in Aboriginal Law and Policy at the Schulich School of Law and practices aboriginal law with Burchells LLP in Halifax Owing to the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (“TRC”), as well as to some high profile cases in the media of late, there is a growing realization […] Read more

Evan Fox-Decent is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Law, McGill University and Alexander Pless is General Counsel at the Department of Justice (and his views are expressed in a personal capacity) In 1979, two Supreme Court of Canada decisions lay the groundwork for a new era of judicial review. In Nicholson v Haldimand-Norfolk […] Read more

Clarence Bennett is the Managing Partner, Saint John and Fredericton, of Stewart McKelvey LLP Having been cited almost fifteen thousand times and continuing to generate academic debate, it is easy to overlook the fact that Dunsmuir v. New Brunswick[1] is a case that, arguably, should not have involved an administrative decision.  In normal circumstances, the […] Read more

Janina Boughey is a Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law The most significant aspect of Dunsmuir is, of course, the majority’s recalibration of the methodology Canadian courts use to afford deference to administrative bodies. It is therefore thoroughly unsurprising that initially Dunsmuir attracted little attention in Australia. The High […] Read more

Gerald Heckman is an Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law (with thanks to Amar Khoday for discussion) What standard of review should apply to questions of law that arise in decision-making under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act[1]? In the decade following Dunsmuir v New Brunswick,[2] the Supreme Court decided six […] Read more