legislation
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Protecting Consumers from the Rule of Law
What the failures of consumer-protection legisaltion teach us about the Rule of Law Continue reading
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Nice Try
New Zealand’s government wants better regulation. Is it going about it the right way? Continue reading
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Canadian Sausage
What the flaws in the Pharmacare Bill tells us about the indignity of legislation Continue reading
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Can Do Better
An interesting, but seriously flawed, decision on the separation of powers Continue reading
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Shapes and Sizes
Public lawyers (and public law students) should think about government size―and shape Continue reading
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No Way to Make Law
The legislative process is being disgracefully abused in Ontario. Constitutional lawyers need to pay attention. Continue reading
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At the Executive’s Pleasure
When Parliament delegates power to agencies, it does so for any number of reasons. At least in theory, Parliament could delegate to a tribunal because it genuinely believes that some particular problem requires expert treatment. Parliament could also delegate as part of a “make or buy” decision, in a Coasian sense: the costs of crafting Continue reading
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Acting Like Grown-Ups
Is there a point to legislating when judges can do it for us? I would like to elaborate on a point I made in my last post, which discussed arguments at the Supreme Court on Monday about whether the suspension of the declaration of unconstitutionality of the across-the-board criminalization of assisted suicide should be extended. Continue reading
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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 Continue reading
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Precedent and Democracy
“Long-standing” precedent is generally regarded as more authoritative than one of recent vintage. But there is reason to question that assumption, too. The more ancient a rule, the more likely it is that the reasons that made it sensible or good (whatever one’s criteria for the goodness of legal rules!) at the time it crystallized Continue reading
Double Aspect 