I have uploaded a pre-publication version of “Big Bang Theory: Vavilov’s New Framework for Substantive Review“, my chapter in Flood & Daly eds., Administrative Law in Context (4th ed., Emond Montgomery, 2021): This Chapter sets out the new administrative law framework the Supreme Court of Canada established in Vavilov. The decision in Vavilov was the […] Read more
Something more than filial pride prompts me to recommend Stephen Daly, Tax Authority Advice and the Public (Hart, 2020). This is a fine book about the application of public law principles to the provision of advice by the UK tax authorities (but whose lessons are generalizable to other jurisdictions). Tax authority “advice” takes various forms, […] Read more
I have posted “Life After Vavilov? The Supreme Court of Canada and Administrative Law in 2021” to SSRN. I will be presenting this next week at the CLEBC Administrative Law Conference: In this paper, I review the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2021 administrative law jurisprudence. I discuss the appellate standard of review; the Supreme Court’s […] Read more
The Supreme Court of Canada heard the appeal in Law Society of Saskatchewan v Abrametz on Monday, from this decision of the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan: 2020 SKCA 81. I was co-counsel for the appellant law society. You can watch the proceedings here. The hearing was virtual. We suffered a technical glitch when, about […] Read more
This is the penultimate post in the series on the 50th anniversary of the Kerr Report, cross-posted from the Australian Public Law blog. In the 1970s Australia was poised to move ahead of the world in allowing access to government information. Just before the federal election in 1972 the Australian Labor Party promised legislation for […] Read more
Registrations are open for the ANU Law conference on ‘Public Law and Inequality’ on 16-18 February 2022, organised by the Centre for International and Public Law. The conference will be held in a hybrid format, with an in-person conference for those in Australia and with international participants in virtual attendance. There is a modest registration […] Read more
A message from Professor Eoin Carolan (University College Dublin) As you may already be aware, the 2022 edition of the Public Law Conference series will be held in University College Dublin, Ireland, from July 6th to 8th next year. This email is just to flag that the deadline for abstracts for the event is approaching. […] Read more
The UK launch of Understanding Administrative Law in the Common Law World (OUP, 2021) takes place tomorrow, at 5pm GMT. With the clocks already having gone back in the British Isles, this is 1pm EST. You can sign up here. Justice Gerard Hogan (Irish Supreme Court), Professor Joanna Bell (Oxford) and Professor Alison Young (Cambridge) […] Read more
Many months ago I promised a third post on the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in References re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, 2021 SCC 11. I would like to say I am saving the best for last but really I am saving the easiest for last: having tackled the separation of powers and judicial […] Read more
I am working on a paper (for the International Academy of Comparative Law) on Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, from a public law perspective. As I have written previously, it is settled law in Canada that legislatures can make broad delegations of authority to administrative decision-makers, including delegations to address public health crises. A […] Read more