Just when you thought you had seen every conceivable standard of review problem (and/or that Vavilov had solved them all), along comes Gannett v. Halifax Regional Centre for Education, 2026 NSCA 16. Here, the statute provides for a decision by the provincial Labour Board and then: The review of a decision of the Board shall be conducted […] Read more

As I have observed before, (with apologies to Kenneth Shepsle) administrative agencies are a “they”, not an “it”. Further evidence comes from West Whitby Landowners Group Inc. v. Elexicon Energy Inc., 2025 ONCA 821. Over the objection of the Ontario Energy Board, the Ontario Court of Appeal held that Board staff members could make binding […] Read more

In Canadian law, the protections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms apply with relatively little force in areas of economic regulation. The following passage from R. v. Wholesale Travel Group Inc., [1991] 3 SCR 154 is representative of the courts’ concern that giving too expansive a scope to the Charter might be socially damaging: Regulatory legislation […] Read more

I was in Dublin last week for the launch of the Law Reform Commission of Ireland’s recent Consultation Paper on Non-Court Adjudicative Bodies (see here). You can view the event here, chaired by Justice Bolger and featuring remarks from me, Frank Clarke and Richard Barrett: Read more

Last month, the Federal Court of Appeal handed down an important judgment in Canada (Attorney General) v. Canadian Civil Liberties Association, 2026 FCA 6. The Court of Appeal unanimously agreed with the Federal Court that the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act during the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests in Ottawa in 2022 was unlawful. Common […] Read more

Readers may recall my post marking Conor’s untimely passing (see here). The London School of Economics held a wonderful event last week commemorating Conor’s life and scholarship. I spoke on the ‘Public Law’ panel with Baroness Hale of Richmond and Professor Roger Masterman. Here are my speaking notes (to be published in due course by […] Read more

As noted previously, the Irish government is suggesting significant reforms to the law of judicial review. I was invited to make a submission to the Joint Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration. Here it is:   This submission relates to the heads of legislation set out in the general scheme of the Civil Reform […] Read more

It has been a busy couple of weeks, mainly because earlier this month I appeared with Sujit Choudhry at the Supreme Court of Canada to argue the appeal in Democracy Watch v. Attorney General of Canada. I had never actually done oral argument in person at the Supreme Court, so this was a fascinating experience — […] Read more

I am very pleased to pass on information about an important symposium taking place in March at the Court of Appeal for Ontario to mark the 50th anniversary of her appointment to that court – see further here.  The Court of Appeal for Ontario is marking the 50th anniversary of the appointment of Bertha Wilson to the […] Read more

This week the Irish government published heads of legislation that would significantly reform judicial review of administrative action. The general scheme of the Civil Reform Bill 2025 can be accessed here. Some, but by no means all, of these suggestions were made in a report on civil justice reform several years ago (see here). Some […] Read more