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How to do Originalism
In my last post, I summarized the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Caron v. Alberta, 2015 SCC 56, which held that Alberta is not under a constitutional obligation to enact legislation in French as well as English. There was, you will recall, a majority opinion by Justices Cromwell and Karakatsanis, who were joined by four of
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What Did They Mean?
Must the laws of Alberta ― like those of Manitoba (as well as Québec, New Brunswick, and of course Parliament itself) be enacted and published in both French and English? The answer to this question, which the Supreme Court addressed in Caron v. Alberta, 2015 SCC 56, decided on Friday, turns on the meaning of a short
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Not too Broad
In a decision delivered this morning, the Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the constitutionality of subjecting the members of the Canadian armed forces to the military justice system for all almost offences against acts of Parliament. In R. v. Moriarity, 2015 SCC 55, it ruled that the provisions of the National Defence Act pursuant to which
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Conflict and Frustration
Last Friday, the Supreme Court issued decisions in three cases dealing with the federal paramountcy doctrine, which holds that when both a federal and a provincial statutes are applicable to a situation, the federal one prevails, and the provincial one is rendered inoperative, to the extent ― if any ― of the conflict between them.
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N’importe quoi
Les partis d’opposition à l’Assemblée nationale n’aiment pas le lieutenant-gouverneur du Québec. Peut-être pas personnellement, mais la fonction, qui, selon eux, ne devrait pas exister. Et la CAQ pense avoir trouvé une solution au problème que serait l’existence même de cette fonction dans notre ordre constitutionnel (j’expliquerai ci-dessous où exactement la CAQ a fait cette
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Why Codify (Encore)
In connection with yesterday’s post, in which I discussed the reasons for the codification of the civil law of Lower Canada that were expressed in the preamble of the statute which set up the commission responsible for the codification, my friend Alastair C.F. Gillespie pointed me to some speeches by Sir George-Étienne Cartier who was
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Why Codify
Apologies for my silence of late. I’m afraid blogging will be light for another week or so. In the meantime, however, here’s something related to the topic of my last post, the codification of law. It won’t be news to those versed in the history of Québec law, but it’s something that I, in my ignorance,
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Portalis versus Bentham (Part I)
A couple of years ago, I wrote about Jeremy Bentham’s pamphlet “Law as It Is, And as It Is Said to Be,” also (or better) known as “Truth versus Ashurst” (available here, at p. 145), most famous ― or infamous ― for its “dog law” diatribe against the common law. In the last part of the
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Upcoming Talks
Just a quick note about two presentations I’ll be giving in the next couple of weeks. The first one will be this Friday, at Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Law, at 11:30AM. I’ll be one of the presenters (the other one being Hoi Kong, of McGill’s Faculty of Law) at a “Constitutional Moments” event called “Gouvernements minoritaires
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A Civic Choice
This is the last substantive post in my duty-to-vote series. I have already addressed a number of instrumental arguments in favour of such a duty: claims that it allows better aggregation of information about the voters’ preferences, that it enhances the legitimacy of our political system, and that it improves the quality of election campaigns.
Double Aspect 