For context, see my introductory post. In this post I address the respective legislative styles of the civil law and common law legislature in matters of administrative law. A. La loi sur la justice administrative La pierre angulaire du système québécois du droit administratif s’avère la Loi sur la justice administrative.[1] Cette loi-cadre, qui balise […] Read more

Earlier this year I presented a paper at the Université de Montréal as part of a cycle de conférences organized by my colleague Élise Charpentier, who holds the Jean-Louis Badouin chair there. I was asked to present on civil law and Canadian administrative law. I will be laying out my thoughts, in French, over a […] Read more

This is my last post in a series on the Irish Supreme Court’s decision in Zalewski, looking at the historical background to Articles 34.1 and 37.1 of the Irish Constitution. See my penultimate post for further background. There is also historical evidence that supports narrow readings of both Article 34.1 and Article 37.1. (i)                           Reading […] Read more

From the High Court of Australia, an interesting case at the intersection between public law and private law: Redland City Council v. Kozik, [2024] HCA 7. Here, the Council undertook substantial public works on waterways within its area. The Council was statutorily obliged to undertake these works. It was also statutorily entitled to levy special […] Read more

Back in the mists of time (i.e. last October) I posted a series of comments on the important decision of the Irish Supreme Court in the Zalewski case (here, here, here and here). The basic issue is that the court read both Articles 34.1 and 37.1 of the Irish Constitution broadly. I will argue, in […] Read more

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