In Youssef, an Egyptian national who has been present in Britain since 1994 challenged a decision taken in 2005 by the Foreign Secretary. In his capacity as a member of the U.N. Security Council’s Sanctions Committee, the Secretary had released a ‘hold’ on Mr. Youssef’s being placed on a sanctions list; the consequence of […] Read more

Although B010 v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2015 SCC 58 was billed in the initial summary as an administrative law case, there is precious little discussion of the general principles of standard of review in McLachlin C.J.’s decision for a unanimous Supreme Court of Canada. At issue was the interpretation of legislation designed to discourage […] Read more

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada will release its decision on the appeal in Hernandez Febles v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2012 FCA 324. I summarized the Federal Court of Appeal decision here. Here is a primer on one of the issues: whether courts should defer to administrative decision-makers on interpretations of international law. […] Read more

The majority of the Federal Court of Appeal in Hernandez Febles v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2012 FCA 324 refused to defer to the immigration authorities’ interpretation of Article 1F(b) of the Refugee Convention (as implemented by s. 36 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act).The question at issue was whether the applicant had properly […] Read more

Julian Assange is currently hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy, where he may be for some time. The British government’s suggestion that he could be arrested there is wide of the mark, however. The Foreign Secretary does have statutory powers under the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act, 1987 to remove the diplomatic or consular status […] Read more

Last week, the New York Times published a lengthy article on the ‘secret kill list’ being maintained by President Obama. Whatever the merits of targeted killings as a matter of international law, international human rights law, or justice, for students of administrative law, there are at least three aspects of interest to the story. To […] Read more