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

Towards the end of 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada released another decision on the interpretation of statutes in a regulatory context: Lundin Mining Corp. v. Markowich, 2025 SCC 39. Lundin can be read alongside the earlier 2025 decision in Telus Communications Inc. v. Federation of Canadian Municipalities, 2025 SCC 15, where the majority rejected the argument […] Read more

Here are my speaking notes for the webinar on ‘Agency Independence in Comparative Perspective’ (see here) Agency independence is often spoken of as if it were a single, settled concept. In Canadian administrative law, it is nothing of the sort. Independence is contingent, variable, and to a very large extent the product of legislative choices […] Read more

I spent the academic year 2023-2024 as scholar in residence at the Law Reform Commission of Ireland, on a long-running project addressing reform of the administrative justice system. I am pleased to say that the Commission’s Consultation Paper has now been published: Reform of Non-Court Adjudicative Bodies and Appeals to Courts (LRC CP 70-2025). This is a very meaty […] Read more