In the classic case of Kruse v. Johnson, [1898] 2 QB 91, Lord Russell of Killowen CJ set out a test of unreasonableness for municipal by-laws. One basis for invalidity, under the broad heading of unreasonableness, was where the by-law in question was “found to be partial and unequal in [its]  operation as between different […] Read more

One of the great unseen issues in public administration is the settlement of applications for judicial review. There has been a general trend in recent years towards the encouragement of out-of-court negotiations between applicants and public bodies. There are obvious benefits to settlement, in terms of sparing scarce judicial resources, permitting both sides to retain […] Read more

I am sure that many of you often lie awake late at night, staring at the ceiling and wondering “how would I serve a judicial review application on a member of a public inquiry commission?” You will find an answer in Environmental Defence Canada Inc. v Alberta, 2024 ABKB 265. A few years ago the […] Read more

This is the final post in my series on ‘Responsive Reasons’: for the previous posts, see here, here, here and here. There are two questions to be addressed in this section: why has responsiveness become important; and is it justifiably important? I will first address technical reasons for the rise of responsiveness in judicial review […] Read more

This is the latest post in my series on ‘Responsive Reasons’: for the previous posts, see here, here and here It cannot be said that the notions of justification and responsiveness have been developed in the United Kingdom to anything like the extent they have been in Canada and Ireland. Nonetheless, a degree of commitment […] Read more

Like many developed countries, Canada has committed to significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades. The federal government has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050: see the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, SC 2021, c 22. Even the provinces that are often at loggerheads with the federal government about climate policy acknowledge […] Read more

This is the latest post in my series on ‘Responsive Reasons’: for the previous posts, see here and here I will suggest in this section that the common law is further evolving to require reasons to be responsive. That is, reasons for decision must be responsive to the evidence before the decision-maker and submissions made […] Read more

In the opening post in this series I described the traditional position in relation to reasonableness review. Here I describe the significant changes that have occurred over the last couple of decades… For all the tenacity of Wednesbury, it has been gradually displaced over the years, around the common law world. I addressed this point […] Read more

In Société des casinos du Québec inc. v. Association des cadres de la Société des casinos du Québec, 2024 SCC 13 the Supreme Court of Canada dealt with a number of important issues that are significant for the law of judicial review of administrative action and for regulation more broadly. I previewed the case in […] Read more