Commentary on developments in administrative law, particularly judicial review of administrative action by common law courts.
In a few minutes, Novak Djokovic’s challenge to the validity of the decision to cancel his visa is going to get underway before Australia’s federal court. You can access the court materials here. The live stream will be here. I do not think Djokovic is likely to win this case. He bears the onus to […] Read more
There is an interesting piece today in the Globe and Mail — Canada’s paper of record — about fundamental disagreement between the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada about the interpretation of the Charter. The nine judges are “more divided than ever” on fundamental legal questions. There is certainly a divide there, but it […] Read more
In Vavilov, the Supreme Court of Canada established three correctness categories which are exceptions to the presumption of reasonableness review. The majority also noted that these categories are not necessarily closed. To date, there has been little interest in identifying new categories, with the exception of Stratas JA’s discussion in Entertainment Software Association (in which […] Read more
With Joe Tomlinson (York) and Jennifer Raso (Alberta) I have posted “Administrative Law in the Digital World” to SSRN, a chapter to appear in Carol Harlow ed., Research Handbook on Administrative Law (Edward Elgar, 2022): The rapid advancement of digital technologies is now reaching into almost every aspect of human life. Administrative law scholars cannot […] Read more
Happy New Year to you all. Blogging has been hindered recently by a spectacular confluence of writing deadlines, with no fewer than four lengthy papers due for submission in January, but I expect normal service to resume over the next few weeks (including links to some of those papers). In the meantime, you may be […] Read more
Here is another post in my series on constitutionally conforming interpretation. The first two posts are here and here. Judges and commentators have made structural, institutional and intentionalist arguments about the presumption of constitutionally conforming interpretation. Whilst it is impossible to avoid some form of a presumption of constitutionally conforming interpretation, given the Constitution’s supremacy […] Read more
Historically, the strongest support from Canadian courts for broad delegations of authority to executive officials has come in times of emergency. There may be scope for debate about whether the COVID-19 pandemic qualifies as an emergency, but there is no doubt that it has called for rapid, flexible responses on the part of public officials […] Read more
Here is another post on the theme of the presumption of constitutionality. The first one is here. An initial difficulty is that there is disagreement even about the content of the presumption of constitutionally conforming interpretation. The presumption of constitutional conformity “acknowledges the centrality of constitutional values in the legislative process, and more broadly, in […] Read more
The panel events from the UK/Ireland and Australian launches are now available on YouTube. Here is the UK/Ireland material, with Justice Gerard Hogan, Joanna Bell, Eoin Carolan, Alison Young and yours truly: And here is the Australian event, with Justice James Edelman, Narelle Bedford, Janina Boughey and Dean Knight: Stay tuned for more events in […] Read more
I am working on a paper for an edited collection to be published by Hart Publishing (Matthias Klatt ed.) on constitutionally conforming interpretation. I have been considering the various ways in which this and related principles operate in Canada. Here are some early reflections. Comments are very welcome, as this is a very complex area… […] Read more