In a new paper to be published in the Australian Journal of Administrative Law & Practice, entitled “Artificial Administration: Administrative Law, Administrative Justice and Accountability in the Age of Machines“, I bring together much of my previous scholarship on the topic of automation in public administration. In Parts II and III of the paper, I […] Read more

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

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

In a pair of decisions this week the Alberta Court of Appeal has tackled the question of the framework for judicial review of regulations: Auer v. Auer, 2022 ABCA 375 and TransAlta Generation Partnership v. Alberta (Minister of Municipal Affairs), 2022 ABCA 381. In both instances — Governor-in-Council regulations on support payments in Auer, ministerial […] Read more

This is an extract from my paper “A Defence of Administrative Law Doctrine“ I argued in Part II that administrative law doctrine is not empty, as it precludes judicial conclusions in concrete cases. In this Part, I will argue that administrative law doctrine is not pernicious either. Setting out a systemic conception of doctrine is […] Read more

For previous posts in this series, prepared for today’s University of Toronto symposium on Justice Abella, see here, here and here In the scholarly literature on deference, one finds pro-deference arguments based on legislative intent,[1] relative institutional competence,[2] democratic legitimacy[3] and much else besides.[4] These arguments tend to be developed from the perspective of the […] Read more

This is the last in my series of posts on the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Law Society of Saskatchewan v. Abrametz, 2022 SCC 29 (see also here, here, here and here). Before discussing the available remedies for administrative delay in the wake of Abrametz, it is appropriate to note the dissenting reasons of […] Read more

In this and the following post, I will address the implications of Law Society of Saskatchewan v. Abrametz, 2022 SCC 29 for the standard of review on procedural fairness matters (see my overview of the case here). I will suggest that the implications are potentially profound, as Abrametz suggests that procedural fairness issues should be […] Read more

I have posted “The Ages of Administrative Law“, my contribution to this year’s Public Law Conference, to SSRN. Here is the third and final substantive part. Thoughts and comments very welcome. Already in the Age of Expansion general principles relating to administrative justice and administrative law had begun to emerge. That process accelerated from the […] Read more

In Canada, it has historically been very difficult to shed light on the decision-making processes of the highest levels of government. Cabinet decision-making is protected by conventions of confidentiality, public-interest immunity and, at the federal level, the regime under the Canada Evidence Act. Even when constitutional principles, such as judicial independence, are in play, disclosure of cabinet-level […] Read more