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Facing Justice
In a decision delivered this morning, R. v. N.S., 2012 SCC 72, the Supreme Court has ruled that the rights of a witness who, for sincere religious reasons, wishes to testify with her face covered and those of an accused against whom she testifies must be balanced on a case-by-case basis, eschewing a bright-line rule, though suggesting that in…
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Much Ado About a Living Tree
In preparation for a guest-lecture on constitutional interpretation that I am going to give in a few weeks at McGill, I just re-read the famous “Persons Case”―Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General), [1930] A.C. 124. It is remembered for its invocation of the “living tree” metaphor and for consecrating a “large and liberal” and evolving approach…
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Le langage de la justice
Un article paru sur le site de Radio-Canada parle d’une étude réalisée par un avocat, Mark Power, de Heenan Blaikie, pour le compte de la Fédération des associations des juristes d’expression française de common law, portant sur la constitutionnalité de nominations de juges unilingues à la Cour suprême. Selon Me Power (ou du moins selon…
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The Sincerest Form of Flattery?
Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery, but I think that outright theft is even better―it is, after all, imitation pushed to its logical utmost. Well, I was a very flattered man yesterday, upon discovering that a self-described “Canadian Legal Directory,” legalfinder.ca, had published verbatim two of my recent posts (the one…
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Anti-Terrorism Act Upheld
In a unanimous decision by the Chief Justice, the Supreme Court has today upheld the constitutionality of the anti-terrorism provisions of the Criminal Code, enacted after 9/11 as the Anti-Terrorism Act, S.C. 2001 c. 41. The case is R. v. Khawaja, 2012 SCC 69. In addition to constitutionality of the provisions in question Mr. Khawaja also raised issues relating…
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Most Interesting, If I May Say So
Following up on posting about a recording of an interview with H.L.A. Hart, here’s another interview with a giant, Lord Denning. It is the Master of the Rolls’ appearance in 1980 on Desert Island Discs, a BBC talk show on which some interesting person is invited to talk about the 8 records (as well as…
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Mass Confusion
There is a long article in the New York Times about the increasing opposition to the use of exceedingly long prison sentences―often life imprisonment without parole―as punishment for all sorts of crimes, often not involving any violence, including drug-related offences, resulting in the phenomenon of “mass incarceration.” The article highlights the findings of social scientists…
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Hart and Voice
As part of its commemoration of the 50th anniversary of H.L.A. Hart’s The Concept of Law, the Oxford University Press has put online the recordings of a substantive interview David Sugarman took with Hart, in 1988. (You have to scroll down to get to the audio links.) There’s a lot of interesting stuff there. Though much…
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Clawbies Nominations
The Canadian legal blogosphere hasn’t Hollywood’s glamour just yet (we’re working on it, I hear), but it does have its own yearly awards, the Clawbies. Here are my nominations, in no particular order. Michael Geist’s Blog: hardly needs a presentation, but it is an invaluable resource for IP and internet-related news and analysis. The Court: all Supreme…
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Hate, Dignity, and Law
For those who are not yet sick and tired of my expostulations on the subject, I venture some concluding thoughts on the criminalization of hate speech, and on Jeremy Waldron’s argument in support of such criminalization. My previous posts on the topic are here, here, here, and here. Prof. Waldron argues that hate speech must…
Double Aspect 