I spent most of today and yesterday in a colloquium on cooperative federalism, as part of the “G3” initiative that groups Université de Montréal, Université libre de Bruxelles and Université de Génève. I gave a talk on the gun registry case under reserve at the Supreme Court of Canada. One of the issues that interested […] Read more

Canada distinguishes between public law and private law. Judicial review of administrative action is kept separate from the law of tort, contract, property and equity. In an important 2010 decision (Canada (Attorney General) v. TeleZone Inc., [2010] 3 SCR 585, 2010 SCC 62), the Supreme Court of Canada signaled that the importance of the distinction […] Read more

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