Administrative Law Matters

Commentary on developments in administrative law, particularly judicial review of administrative action by common law courts.

From Blogger

Drugs and Administrative Law: Katz Group Canada Inc. v. Ontario (Health and Long-Term Care), 2013 SCC 64

The Supreme Court of Canada had not addressed a challenge to the vires of delegated legislation since reformulating the framework for judicial review of administrative action in Dunsmuir until today’s decision in Katz Group Canada Inc. v. Ontario (Health and Long-Term Care), 2013 SCC 64. A good summary is available here.The Court took a classical […] Read more

From Blogger

Chevron Deference in Canada?

The comments of Evans J.A. in Qin v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2013 FCA 263 are obiter, strictly speaking, but they are comments by Evans J.A. and will carry a great deal of weight.There are two important aspects to Evans J.A.’s formulation of the rules for judicial review of administrative interpretations of law. First, where […] Read more

From Blogger

The Lori Douglas Inquiry

The Lori Douglas affair took a spectacular new turn yesterday, when the entire Inquiry Committee resigned. The Committee, established under the Judges Act, was inquiring into allegations against a Manitoba judge. The Committee published reasons for its decision. Notably, the Committee felt its function was being frustrated by the resort of various parties to the […] Read more

From Blogger

Light blogging, heavy writing

I have been quiet for the last couple of weeks, mainly because I have been working on two fairly extensive projects (along with the usual term-time workload) with short deadlines. One of these is a set of written submissions to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, at which I am giving evidence […] Read more

From Blogger

Deference Denied on Questions of Procedural Fairness: Osborn v. The Parole Board, [2013] UKSC 61

Traditionally courts have seen themselves as the guardians of fair procedures. The substance of administrative decisions is for the decision-makers: they are the ones entrusted by the legislature with making decisions, and they have the expertise to do so. Courts have been much less deferential in addressing the processes by which those decisions are reached. […] Read more