My preoccupation with the internal standard of review issue has led me to wonder whether it would even be constitutionally permissible for a Canadian legislature to require an administrative body to conduct judicial reviews. The idea is not entirely far-fetched: the UK’s new tribunal system has just this feature, with the Upper Tribunal required on […] Read more

Canadian decisions on internal appellate review are coming thick and fast. Another one arrived last week, with some media fanfare: Huruglica v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2014 FC 799. Here, Phelan J. gave the Refugee Appeal Division a very broad role indeed. Rebuking the Division for applying judicial review standards to an internal appeal, he […] Read more

Once more unto the ‘internal standard of review’ breach. Do the principles regulating judicial review by courts of administrative decision-makers apply when there is an appeal within an agency, and if so, to what extent? I tackled this question last year in the context of the Refugee Appeal Division. Now, the Federal Court has pronounced […] Read more