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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…
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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 Those amendments, among other things, repealed s. 634 of the Criminal Code, which enshrined the statutory right to peremptory challenges of potential jurors (as opposed to challenges for cause).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…
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Heresy!
The UK Supreme Court’s decision in “the Case of Prorogations” and the political constitution
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Pipeline…
The Rule of Law need not be exclusively the rule of courts. But in order for a society to be governed by the Rule of Law, even those who advocate a “thick” conception of the Rule of Law say that we need an impartial system of courts (see Tom Bingham, “The Rule of Law”; and…
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R v Poulin: Charter Interpretation in the Spotlight
Introduction Section 11 (i) of the Charter guarantees the right to offenders “if found guilty of the offence and if the punishment for the offence has been varied between the time of commission and the time of sentencing, to the benefit of the lesser punishment.” Ambiguity ripples through this provision. Most notably, does the provision…
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The Road to Serfdom at 75: Part II
Hayek’s proposals for resisting collectivism
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Can the Administrative Process Achieve Social Justice?
Can administrative law achieve any ideal of social justice? The answer is perhaps yes. But there is nothing built-in the system to encourage this result. For that reason, deference to administrators because of the political aims they might pursue is a week reed on which to rest a more general case for deference. This much…
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Much Ado About Context: A Note in Anticipation of Vavilov et al
A short post today about the role of “context” in administrative law. Many speak about “context” in the law of judicial review as if it is some inherent element of the law. In Khosa, Justice Binnie, for example, noted that in applying the reasonableness standard of review, the standard “takes its colour from the context”…
Double Aspect 