In Ireland last week, the High Court rendered a landmark judgment on surrogacy: M.R. v. An t-Ard Cláraitheoir, [2013] IEHC 91. Here, the registrar of births had refused to register a biological (or genetic) parent as the mother of her twins. Instead, the state agency insisted that the surrogate (or gestational) mother should be registered. […] Read more

Next week, the Quebec Court of Appeal will hear argument in the Gun Registry Destruction case: Québec (Procureur général) c. Canada (Procureur général), 2012 QCCS 4202 (unofficial English translation of the first-instance decision). I have previously explained why the attempted destruction of the data by the federal government is unconstitutional (see my posts here, here […] Read more

Language is the third rail of Canadian politics, so it is with some trepidation that I wander out onto the tracks to muse on enforcement discretion in the wake of recent controversy about the Charter of the French Language and the Office québécois de la langue française. “Pastagate” arose when the OQLF conducted an inspection […] Read more

There are limits to what courts can do to thwart legislative enactments of Henry VIII clauses, which grant powers to the executive to modify legislation. Typically, Henry VIII clauses are included in legislation for limited periods of time, to facilitate the implementation of the statutory provisions. Much of what governs modern life is not produced […] Read more

In an important decision yesterday in Saskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v. Whatcott, 2013 SCC 11, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld against constitutional challenge s. 14 of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code (albeit with slight modifications).  The legislation provides for private parties to make complaints to a human rights tribunal; s. 14 allows the tribunal […] Read more

I linked in passing in Saturday’s post to Cass Sunstein’s very interesting article on OIRA, The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Myths and Realities. Here is the abstract: Since its creation in 1980, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a part of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has become a […] Read more

I am naturally all in favour of caps being doffed to academics. But should the preferences of my ego be translated into judicial review doctrine? Two recent decisions from either side of the Atlantic demonstrate the favoured judicial approaches to review of academic decisions and some of the potential pitfalls. In Kwao v. University of Keele, […] Read more

Given the recent discussion of the constraints law places — or doesn’t place — on administration, I think Executive Order — Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity is noteworthy. Even though President Obama is not under any duty to follow the strictures of the Administrative Procedure Act in issuing executive orders, the hallmarks of administrative law can […] Read more

I managed to be inadvertently provocative on this subject last time out, with Michael Greve failing to catch my clin d’oeil towards Akhil Amar’s anguished declaration that if Obamacare were turned to dust by the U.S. Supreme Court his whole life would be a fraud. In any event, Greve has now explained in some more […] Read more

In Barreau du Québec c. Khan, 2011 QCCA 792, the Québec Court of Appeal held that a student who failed a bar exam was entitled to look over her exam, answer booklet, answer key and correction grid and to take notes while doing so. With its decision in Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec […] Read more