Commentary on developments in administrative law, particularly judicial review of administrative action by common law courts.
Apologies again for the long silence. Things remain rather chaotic, as we find ourselves between Canada and Cambridge, a move made all the more difficult by Brexit, and I have several writing commitments which have been filling my limited free time. These are now much closer to being fulfilled (or, at least, the deadlines are […] Read more
I am currently on holiday in Ireland, where I have a ringside view of the debate over Brexit — whether the British people should vote on June 23 to leave the European Union. Just as things are hotting up — and the polls begin to indicate that a majority may well vote in favour of […] Read more
We are literally in the middle of packing our bags today, so this is a quick note to draw your attention to the availability of the webcast from Supreme Courts and the Common Law, held at the Cyberjustice Laboratory last Friday. Chief Justice McLachlin kicks off the event (after some introductory remarks from me, Guy […] Read more
Regular readers will know that I have been following very closely the Canadian case law on internal administrative appeals. Three recent decisions, two from the Federal Court of Appeal on the Refugee Appeal Decision (the body that first prompted my interest in the subject) and one from the Prince Edward Island Court of Appeal (h/t […] Read more
One could be forgiven for thinking that the Supreme Court settled this question definitively in the following quote from the Reference re Supreme Court Act : Both the general eligibility requirements for appointment and the specific eligibility requirements for appointment from Quebec are aspects of the composition of the Court. It follows that any substantive change […] Read more
At the behest of Canadian Heritage and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, I have authored a report, Best Practices in Administrative Decision-Making: Viewing the Copyright Board of Canada in a Comparative Light, with a viewing to contributing to the 2017 five-year legislative review of Canada’s Copyright Act. Download it here. Here is the abstract: […] Read more
I have posted before on unsuccessful efforts, in Australia and Canada, to invoke statistical evidence in order to demonstrate bias on the part of an administrative decision-maker. In the Australian and Canadian scenarios, the claims of bias were based on evidence showing that immigration officials invariably rejected asylum applications. An interesting recent Irish case, C.S.B […] Read more
I am really delighted to say that from October 1, I will be a Senior Lecturer in Public Law at the University of Cambridge. I have been hired to teach administrative law; the position opened up because of the impending retirement (from his university position only) of Professor Christopher Forsyth. There are very few places […] Read more
Netflix, Inc. v. Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, 2015 FCA 289 is a useful illustration of some of the problems caused by judicial intervention on an intrusive standard on procedural matters. At issue was a tariff certified by the Copyright Board that imposed a monthly minimal fee for free trial periods […] Read more
I have been following, via Trinity Western University School of Law’s invaluable Twitter feed, proceedings at the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal: I posted on the first-instance decision here. The questions from the bench on Day One did not augur particularly well for the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, but the judges have also probed the […] Read more