Administrative Law Matters
Commentary on developments in administrative law, particularly judicial review of administrative action by common law courts.
From Blogger
Who Decides to Deport You When There’s a Risk of Torture?
There is a piece in the latest print issue of Maclean’s magazine (sub only) on a very interesting Federal Court case from earlier this month: Muhammad v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2014 FC 448. M’s details were posted on what I have dubbed “Canada’s Least Wanted“, the Canadian Border Services Agency’s ‘wanted‘ list of immigration […] Read more
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“SCC Upholds Harper Cabinet Decision on Railway Regulation”: Some Thoughts on Canadian National Railway Co. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2014 SCC 40
My suggestion to headline writers is made with tongue firmly in cheek, of course. Often in public law cases, the federal government is a “winner” or “loser” only in the limited sense that a position it took as an institution was vindicated or not. That the identity of the cabinet members tends to be largely […] Read more
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The Fact of the Matter Is…: McCormick v. Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, 2014 SCC 39
A quick note on McCormick v. Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, 2014 SCC 39, an interesting case about whether law firm partners can be required to retire at 65. Short answer: yes (in British Columbia). The BC Human Rights Tribunal found that Mr. McCormick was an employee of the firm, a finding which would have entitled […] Read more
From Blogger
Some Notes on Allan, The Sovereignty of Law
T.R.S. Allan is one of the most important public-law thinkers of the present age and his new book, The Sovereignty of Law, is a major contribution to public law theory. Here is a brief summary which may be of interest to readers. At the heart of this book is the distinction made by H.L.A. Hart […] Read more
From Blogger
Legal Academia 2.0: New and Old Models of Academic Engagement and Influence
Quite a bit away from our usual fare, but my paper for the upcoming Symposium on the Nadon Reference draws on my experiences in the online world. Here is the abstract for Legal Academia 2.0: Across the country, legal and political aficionados hunched over their keyboards waiting for the announcement. Some were genuinely surprised by […] Read more
From Blogger
Won’t Someone Please Think of the Civil Servants: John Doe v. Ontario (Finance), 2014 SCC 36
By now, it is a familiar story. The standard of review is reasonableness. An exhaustive review of the relevant statutory language and factual matrices follows. And then there is a brief conclusion: the decision is reasonable or unreasonable.At the risk of beating a horse whose death certificate is now turning yellow and fraying at the […] Read more
From Blogger
Advisory Committees for Important Appointments: Does Trudeau’s Senate Plan Require a Constitutional Amendment?
APOLOGY: I worked on this post Thursday evening and hit “publish” on Friday. It did not appear until Saturday, however, and when it did, one of the drafts appeared. Here, fixed as of Monday May 12, is what I actually wanted to say. Apologies to anyone who got the half-baked version of my analysis. It […] Read more
From Blogger
Unreasonable Interpretations of Law — Final Version
The final pre-copy-edit version of my paper, Unreasonable Interpretations of Law is available for download from SSRN. I have made some revisions in response to comments. The paper will appear in a volume of the Supreme Court Law Review which will also be published as a stand-alone book, Administrative Tribunals and Judicial Deference in Canada: […] Read more
From Blogger
Administrative Independence: the Importance of Security of Tenure
Independence of administrative decision-makers is a variable concept, as Richard Revesz and Kirti Datla remind us: Structural differences between agencies result in different levels of independence. Seven structural features are traditionally associated with agency independence: removal protection, specified tenure, multimember structure, partisan balance requirements, litigation authority, budget and congressional communication authority, and adjudication authority. Some […] Read more
From Blogger
How (Not) to Conduct Deferential Review: Dionne v. Commission scolaire des Patriotes, 2014 SCC 33
The province of Quebec allows pregnant workers to exercise a right of withdrawal from dangerous work environments. At issue in Dionne v. Commission scolaire des Patriotes, 2014 SCC 33 was a supply teacher’s thwarted effort to exercise her right of withdrawal. A unanimous Supreme Court of Canada quashed the decision of the Commission des lésions […] Read more