Criminal Law/Policy
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Excitement over Incitement
The UK law on incitement and its enforcement go off the rails Continue reading
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Undignified
The Supreme Court holds that life imprisonment without parole is unconstitutional. Its reasons are unconvincing. Continue reading
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Still Wrong, Just a Little Less So
The Québec Court of Appeal errs in thinking the Charter prevents the imposition of, in effect, life imprisonment without parole Continue reading
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Just Asking
Should the power over criminal law be transferred to the provinces? Continue reading
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Throwing Away the Key
Thoughts on life imprisonment without parole, in New Zealand and in Canada Continue reading
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Unusual Indeed
The trouble with a caustic, pseudo-originalist opinion of Wakeling JA Continue reading
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Counter-Rebellion
Judges of the Alberta Court of Appeal question the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on mandatory minimum sentences Continue reading
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Antigone in Hamilton
The confrontation between New Zealand legal system and a family trying to bury a dead husband/father is eerily like Sophocles’ tragedy Continue reading
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Rafilovich: A Textualist (or Quasi-Textualist) Turn?
Since Telus v Wellman, the Supreme Court of Canada has moved towards a sort of “textually constrained” purposivism in statutory interpretation cases. To my mind, textually constrained purposivism involves two parts: (1) a focus on the text over abstract purposes in determining the meaning of text and (2) if there are conflicting purposes at the Continue reading
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R v King: Creative Remedies
On September 19, 2019, certain new amendments to the Criminal Code took effect. Those amendments, among other things, repealed s. 634 of the Criminal Code, which enshrined the statutory right to peremptory challenges of potential jurors (as opposed to challenges for cause). The bill in question replaced s.634 with a new provision that allowed expanded Continue reading
Double Aspect 