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Double Aspect

Double Aspect

Canadian public law and other exciting things


  • June 5, 2015

    Help Us. Or Maybe Don’t?

    Here’s another point that I found interesting in the Supreme Court’s decision in R. v. Tatton, 2015 SCC 33. (I wrote about Justice Moldaver’s comment regarding mandatory minimum sentences yesterday.) The issue in Tatton was whether self-induced intoxication could be invoked as a defence to a charge of arson ― but Justice Moldaver, writing for the…

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    Criminal Law/Policy, Legal philosophy
    law reform, Rule of Law, Supreme Court of Canada
  • June 4, 2015

    Minimum Agreement

    In R. v. Nur, 2015 SCC 15, Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the mandatory minimum sentence Parliament had imposed for the crime of possessing a restricted or a prohibited firearm, either loaded or with ammunition nearby, without the appropriate license. Justices Rothstein, Moldaver, and Wagner dissented, arguing that the majority’s approach to assessing the constitutionality of mandatory…

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    Criminal Law/Policy
    mandatory minimum, sentencing, Supreme Court of Canada
  • May 23, 2015

    Rights and Votes, Again

    The Irish referendum on same-sex marriage has brought a common trope back into the public discourse: rights should not be subject to voting. There are actually a number of distinct claims that can be advanced under this heading, although they are often run together, as for instance in this piece by Saeed Kamal Dehghan in the Guardian. These…

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    Political philosophy
    judicial review, referendum, rights, same-sex marriage, social ordering, voting
  • May 22, 2015

    Let’s Hear It

    I’ve mentioned Aniz Alani’s challenge to the constitutionality of the Prime Minister’s apparent and admitted policy of not making any Senate appointments before. The federal government moved to strike Mr. Alani’s application for judicial review, arguing that it had no chance of success, and also that the Federal Court had no jurisdiction to hear it. Yesterday, that…

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    Constitutional law
    Alani, Canada, constitutional conventions, justiciability, Senate reform
  • May 20, 2015

    In Defence of Judicial Majorities

    First of all, apologies for my silence of late. Partly, I just couldn’t find anything interesting to write about. Partly, I have been much more diligent about my dissertation-writing, and that hasn’t helped with the blogging. Actually, as I’m trying to finish a draft over the next couple of months, I’ll compensate by occasionally posting…

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    Legal philosophy, The Justice System
    courts, judges, majority, voting, Waldron
  • May 7, 2015

    Plus ça change…

    This is the fourth and last post in the series about my most recent article, “‘Third Parties’ and Democracy 2.0″, (2015) 60:2 McGill LJ 253. On Monday, I introduced the paper, which deals with the repercussions of political and technological changes on our framework for regulating the participation of persons other than parties and candidates in pre-electoral…

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    Law of Democracy, New Technologies
    Canada, election law, politics, Québec, third parties
  • May 6, 2015

    Free Speech

    This is the third post in the series about my most recent article, “‘Third Parties’ and Democracy 2.0″, (2015) 60:2 McGill LJ 253. On Monday, I introduced the paper, which deals with the repercussions of political and technological changes on our framework for regulating the participation of persons other than parties and candidates in pre-electoral debate. Yesterday,…

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    Law of Democracy, New Technologies
    freedom of expression, politics, social media, third parties, Web 2.0
  • May 5, 2015

    The Party’s Over

    This is the second post in the series about my most recent article, “‘Third Parties’ and Democracy 2.0”, (2015) 60:2 McGill LJ 253. I introduced the paper, which deals with the repercussions of political and technological changes on our framework for regulating the participation of persons other than parties and candidates in pre-electoral debate, yesterday. Today,…

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    Law of Democracy, Political philosophy
    Canada, election law, elections, Manin, politics
  • May 4, 2015

    “Third Parties” and Democracy 2.0

    The McGill Law Journal recently published a paper of mine, “‘Third Parties’ and Democracy 2.0”, (2015) 60:2 McGill LJ 253, about which I haven’t yet had the chance to brag here. Unfortunately, I won’t be able (pursuant to the Journal’s policy) to upload the full text of the paper to SSRN for a while. But…

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    Law of Democracy
    Canada, election law, elections, politics
  • May 3, 2015

    No, no, no!

    In his guest-post, for which I thank him, Maxime St-Hilaire offers three critiques of the judgments that have upheld the constitutionality of Justice Mainville’s appointment to the Québec Court of Appeal ― that of the Québec Court of Appeal in Renvoi sur l’article 98 de la Loi constitutionnelle de 1867 (Dans l’affaire du), 2014 QCCA 2365,…

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    Constitutional law, The Justice System
    Federal Courts, judicial appointments, Justice Mainville, Supreme Court of Canada
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Recent Posts

  • Baguette magique ou nez de clown
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Recent Posts

  • Baguette magique ou nez de clown
  • How Power Corrupts VI
  • Jurisdictional Jiu-Jitsu

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