I have a guest post over on the UK Constitutional Law Group’s blog explaining the utility of the approach to judicial review outlined in A Theory of Deference in Administrative Law to one of the most rancourous debates in common law academia. You can check it out here. Read more

Adrian Vermeule has an engaging new paper on Agency Independence. Here’s the abstract: It is often said that the legal touchstone of agency independence is whether the agency head or heads are removable at will, or only for cause. Yet this test does not adequately describe the landscape of agency independence. There are many important […] Read more

My colleague Daniel Turp led a spirited challenge to the federal government’s decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. Spirited and all as the challenge was, it failed before the Federal Court.The key plank in the argument was legislation that came into force in 2007, the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act. As s. 3 of the […] Read more

They love their hockey up in Québec City, but have had nothing to love in the major leagues since the Nordiques decamped to Colorado in the mid-90s. Efforts are afoot to revive the local brand. One of the elements is a stadium, financed in part by the City of Québec and the provincial government. The […] Read more

I have a new paper on Canadian administrative law, which is forthcoming in the McGill Law Journal. Here is the abstract: In its decision in Dunsmuir v. New Brunswick, the Supreme Court of Canada attempted to clarify and simplify Canadian judicial review doctrine. I argue that the Court got it badly wrong, as evidenced by […] Read more

There is a great post on Slaw.ca by Ian Mackenzie from last week on recording administrative hearings. He gives an excellent overview of the issues, embedded in an understanding of the old concern that increased formality may lead to decreased efficacy. Read more

Last week the Supreme Court of Canada released its reasons in a “fivefecta” of copyright cases. Interesting questions were raised. Are additional royalties payable when a video game is downloaded rather than bought over the counter? Is streaming a communication to the public which requires payment to the copyright holder? When a consumer listens to […] Read more

Mindful of the threat of a terrorist attack during the Olympics, the British authorities have developed an Air Security Plan. One element of the plan is to install missiles on the roof of a residential apartment tower in Leytonstone. Unsurprisingly, the residents were upset. They went, unsuccessfully, to the High Court to judicially review the […] Read more

One of the drivers of the development and application of doctrine in administrative law is the concept of the principles of good administration. On one view, courts and administrators work collaboratively to produce rational and efficient policies and decisions.Fleshing out the principles of good administration is an interest of mine, so I was intrigued to […] Read more

The Supreme Court of the United States recently cast a critical eye over the concept of Auer deference (so called even though the seminal case is actually Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co.). When administrative bodies promulgate rules, regulations and policies to fill in the gaps in statutory provisions, their promulgations may themselves have […] Read more