Constitutional Forum (Journal)
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UNDERSTANDING LAW AND RELIGION AS CULTURE: MAKING ROOM FOR MEANING IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE
No full textThe relationship between law and religion in contemporary civil society has been a topic of increasing social interest and importance in Canada in the past many years. We have seen the practices and commitments of religious groups and individuals become highly salient on many issues of public policy, including the nature of the institution of marriage, the content of public education, and the uses of public space, to name just a few. As the vehicle for this discussion, I want to ask a straightforward question: When we listen to our public discourse, what is the story that we hear about the relationship between law and religion? How does this topic tend to be spoken about in law and politics – what is our idiom around this issue – and does this story serve us well? Though straightforward, this question has gone all but unanswered in our political and academic discussions. We take for granted our approach to speaking about – and, therefore, our way of thinking about – the relationship between law and religion. In my view, this is most unfortunate because this taken-for-grantedness is the source of our failure to properly understand the critically important relationship between law and religion
THE ISRAELI CONSTITUTION AND THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM
No full textThe obvious security difficulties in Israel also carry problematic political, economic and social consequences. The unique Israeli condition — as a young democratic state, whose mere existence is still not self-evident to all — also has legal implications. In Israel, the law and the courts of law are often involved in resolving political issues, including issues pertaining to foreign and security policy. This involvement is more intensive in Israel than in many other democracies.1 That is why one might be interested in comprehending some legal aspects, especially those of constitutional law, that are present in the background of Israeli reality
LE DOSSIER CONSTITUTIONNEL : PERSPECTIVES DE CHANGEMENT*
No full textAyant suivi avec attention l’évolution du dossier constitutionnel depuis le référendum tenu au Québec en octobre 1995, j’accueille avec plaisir l’occasion que nous fournit ce colloque de l’Institut de recherche en politiques publiques de mettre en commun les impressions et les conclusions que nous pouvons en retenir
ABORIGINAL SELF-DETERMINATION WITHIN CANADA: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW
No full textABORIGINAL SELF-DETERMINATION WITHIN CANADA: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LA
The Constitutionality of Prorogation
No full textAt 10:20 a.m. on 4 December 2008 — some forty minutes after Prime Minister Stephen Harper entered Rideau Hall to request that the Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, prorogue Canada’s fortieth Parliament — the media re- ported an exciting development: the front doors opened. Reporters began to speculate that the meeting had been decisive, and an anxious na- tion awaited the Prime Minister’s appearance to announce the Governor General’s decision. But then, other than the descent of a few er- rant snowflakes, nothing happened. “It’s been 6 minutes since you reported the front door opened — what’s going on over there?” a des- perate commentator pleaded on the National Post’s live blog.2 For over thirty minutes the doors remained curiously ajar, and then — at 11:01 a.m. — they closed. When the Prime Minister finally did emerge nearly an hour after that, having spent a total of two and a half hours inside Rideau Hall, he informed Canadians that the Governor General had agreed to follow his advice and prorogue (or suspend) Parliament until 26 January 2009
Charkaoui: Beyond Anti-Terrorism, Procedural Fairness, and Section 7 of the Charter
No full textThe Supreme Court of Canada’s unanimous decision in Charkaoui v. Canada1 has attracted much public attention. Perhaps most newswor- thy is the fact that these cases —challenges by three men to provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA)2 under which they were detained — represent the first time since September 11, 2001 that the Supreme Court has delivered a defeat to the government in its anti- terrorism efforts
Invalidity and Retrospectivity under the Irish and Canadian Constitutions
No full textThe question of the temporal effect of a finding that a statute is unconstitutional has arisen in a number of common law jurisdictions. In any legal system that allows its superior courts to strike down legislation, certain practical problems will inevitably emerge. This article explains this aspect of Irish constitutional interpretation and compares the manner in which these difficulties have been addressed under the Canadian and Irish constitutions. It notes that the Supreme Court of Canada was required to address these practical problems directly at an early stage and thus developed a more doctrinally coherent approach to findings of constitutional invalidity than the Irish Supreme Court. The article goes on to analyze a recent decision of the Irish Supreme Court that has highlighted the difficulties with the approach adopted in that legal system and concludes with some reflections on the relative merits of the Canadian approach to findings of invalidity
MARSHALLING THE RULE OF LAW IN CANADA: OF EELS AND HONOUR
No full textMARSHALLING THE RULE OF LAW IN CANADA: OF EELS AND HONOU
THE PREAMBLE, JUDICIAL INDEPENDANCE AND JUDICIAL INTEGRITY
No full textTHE PREAMBLE, JUDICIAL INDEPENDANCE AND JUDICIAL INTEGRIT