Canadian administrative law is different in many ways from that of other Commonwealth jurisdictions, but on one question it (for the most part) clings doggedly to an old mantra: procedural questions are for the courts alone to decide, without any deference to decision-makers. This orthodoxy has recently been challenged as a matter of principle. But […] Read more

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

In Ireland last week, the High Court rendered a landmark judgment on surrogacy: M.R. v. An t-Ard Cláraitheoir, [2013] IEHC 91. Here, the registrar of births had refused to register a biological (or genetic) parent as the mother of her twins. Instead, the state agency insisted that the surrogate (or gestational) mother should be registered. […] Read more