Constitutional law
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Google, Speaker and Censor
Some recent stories highlight Google’s ambiguous role as provider and manager of content, which, from a free-speech perspective, puts at it at once in the shoes of both a speaker potentially subject to censorship and an agent of the censors. The first of these is an interesting exchange between Eugene Volokh, of UCLA and the… Continue reading
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La primauté de la législation
La semaine dernière, la Cour supérieure du Québec a rejeté la demande visant, entre autres, à faire déclarer inconstitutionnelle la “Loi 204”, qui exempte rétroactivement l’entente sur la gestion du futur amphithéâtre de Québec, conclue entre la ville de Québec et Qubecor, de l’exigence d’un appel d’offre (dans la mesure où cette exigence s’y appliquait, ce que… Continue reading
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En Français S.V.P./In English Please
In 2008, the Township of Russel, just outside Ottawa, passed a by-law requiring any new commercial sign to be bilingual. An angry activist and a shopkeeper challenged the validity of the by-law. The Court of Appeal for Ontario has rejected their challenge, in Galganov v. Russel (Township), 2012 ONCA 409, released last Friday. Before getting… Continue reading
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The Good of Religion: Video
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a discussion with professor Robert P. George, of Princeton, about “religious liberty and the common good.” The video of the discussion is below. Continue reading
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Can the Viceroy Do Wrong?
Radio-Canada reports that Québec’s former Lieutenant-Governor, Lise Thibault, is trying to avoid having to stand trial on charges of fraud, forgery, and breach of trust, by invoking the common law rule that the Queen can do no wrong. As her lawyer puts it, criminal proceedings oppose the sovereign and the subject, and the sovereign cannot… Continue reading
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Gun-Registry Hearing Today
Something almost as exciting as the Euro has started today in Montreal: the merits hearings in the gun-registry litigation, which I have been covering extensively. As I am not in Montreal, I am totally dependent on the media for any information about it. Things are not very encouraging so far. The reports by Radio-Canada and… Continue reading
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Federalism and Judicial Review
A paper of mine has been chosen for a presentation at the Third Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. It is about the legitimacy of judicial review of legislation on federalism grounds – that is, courts striking down legislation because it infringes not individual rights, but the division of… Continue reading
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An Ancient Parliamentary Right
I learned something about constitutional and Parliamentary tradition yesterday, and decided I’d post about because I was probably not alone in my ignorance of this quirk. Apologies to those in the know already! *** Each session of the mother of parliaments, at Westminster, and her daughters throughout the Commonwealth, starts with a Speech from the… Continue reading
Double Aspect 