Public lawyers may sometimes tend to think that deference is a phenomenon unique to cases involving judicial review of government action. A moment’s reflection should be enough to dispel that notion. For example, judges in civil trials regularly defer to expert witnesses (negligence being a particular case in point) and boards of directors; and appellate […] Read more

There are shades of the Hart vs. Fuller debate in the disagreement between Scalia J. and Breyer J. in last week’s greenhouse gases case: UARG v. EPA. As part of a much wider debate about the relationship between law and morality, Hart and Fuller jousted over a rule prohibiting vehicles in the park. To simplify […] Read more

Here is a great passage from an Australian case (Mainteck Services v. Stein Heurtey) on contractual interpretation: What is the legal meaning of a promise to sell “my Dürer drawing”, if the vendor’s wife owns a Dürer drawing which is on display in their home, and the vendor keeps another secretly in his study? What […] Read more

Canadian courts have come to accept that the constitution is not some sort of holy grail that administrative decision-makers should not touch. As it is the supreme law of the land, its writ ought to run in any government agency, and its authority may be invoked by individuals in almost any decision-making setting. But does […] Read more