Looks like a first Canadian judgment that is full of AI hallucinations. If so, I hope Geoffroy J has the good sense to resign, and quickly. www.lapresse.ca/actualites/j...
06.03.2026 22:09
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Looks like a first Canadian judgment that is full of AI hallucinations. If so, I hope Geoffroy J has the good sense to resign, and quickly. www.lapresse.ca/actualites/j...
Pleased to be part of this. I defend the ONCA's approach to constitutional interpretation, criticize the SCC's persistent mishandling of the Charter's s 3, and caution that courts must remain vigilant in election law—misplaced deference is as wrong as unwarranted interventionism.
New post: introducing my new article on Canadian constitutional conventions being forgotten or disregarded. doubleaspect.blog/2026/02/24/f...
That is a good point. I have another, unrelated, paper that relies very heavily on Manin, but I hadn't thought of him here. Damn...
Merci!
Finally published, in the Dalhousie LJ: a piece looking at widespread, and sometimes wilful, forgetting of some constitutional conventions in Canada, and wondering what, if anything, might be done about it. Paper available at: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
New post: the Quebec Justice Minister says the federal government is negotiating to give the province a role in judicial appointments. If this is true, this must be brought to light — and stopped. doubleaspect.blog/2026/02/13/w...
Mon audience devant la Commission des institutions de l'Assemblée nationale, au sujet de la Constitution du Québec proposée dans le Projet de loi 1. Boules de crystal, fictions nationalistes, et impossibilité de constitutions accessibles au menu! www.assnat.qc.ca/fr/video-aud...
I guess the shambles of a "constitution" wasn't enough to save Mr Legault's political career, whose highlight will remain banning teachers from wearing headscarves. Good riddance to him, and, hopefully, to the "constitution" gambit too.
In your hypothetical, (ii) would be just as objectionable as (i), and the claims we address would be beside the point. So granted our argument works in a certain context, but not in a way that calls it into question, so far as it goes.
Our argument is pretty narrow: it addresses, specifically, the claims that irreducible life sentences (i) are categorically different from those subject to a mere possibility of release (ii). In a context in which (ii) is permitted, there is no good rights-based argument against (i).
Speaking for myself: solitary confinement or "El Salvador" become rights violations in a matter of weeks, if not days. The availability of release, maybe, in 20 years doesn't address them at all. It's just an entirely separate question from what we're discussing
Thanks! What do you mean by carceral regimes? Obviously conditions of incarceration are a rights concern, but I'd be inclined to say that's true regardless of the length of imprisonment, let alone of when, if ever, the prisoner becomes eligible for release (which need not be granted anyway)
ICYMI: My just-published review of Lord Sumption's recent collection of lectures and essays, with a focus on legal and political constitutionalism.
ICYMI: Why New Zealand's approach to life imprisonment without parole is doctrinally and philosophically sounder than that of Canada and the European Court of Human Rights — a new paper with @guyjbaldwin.bsky.social
New paper with @guyjbaldwin.bsky.social, in which we argue that, in finding whole life sentences to be contrary to human rights, the ECtHR and the SCC have made important doctrinal and philosophical mistakes. Forthcoming in the EHRLR, but pre-print available on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Hot off the @publiclaw.bsky.social presses, my review of Lord Sumption's recent book is now available on Westlaw, or in its pre-publication format on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers..... Many thanks to @lewisgrahamlaw.bsky.social for inviting me to do this!
Walking into a crowded cocktail party and looking over the heads of the guests to pick out your friends. Luckily, they're not too hard to spot, since they're all wearing togas and standing apart from everyone else because they were never invited in the first place.
Good thing he isn't also the historian-in-chief
I'm not persuaded by the argument that a province can't repeal the oath of allegiance for its legislators. But you know who was? Quebec's constitutional-reformer-in-chief, whose government proceeded to do just that, and who is now trying to get rid of the Lieutenant Gorvernor for good measure.
ICYMI: The Alberta CA strikes down the requirement that lawyers take an oath of allegiance; it's the right outcome, though reached for quite wrongheaded reasons, and no, it won't undermine the rule of law in Alberta. doubleaspect.blog/2025/12/18/t...
This builds on my article on the oath of allegiance required of naturalized citizens, available here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
New post: the Alberta Court of Appeal holds that requiring lawyers to swear allegiance to the Sovereign is unconstitutional. Or, why oaths are not like statutes, what allegiance means, and why proportionality balancing doesn't care about your feelings.
Question aux membres du Barreau du Québec: avez-vous eu à prêter un serment (d'allégeance ou autre) avant d'être inscrit? Je ne vois rien dans la Loi sur le Barreau, mais peut-être que ça m'a échappé. Merci!
I am on this week's The Curious Task podcast (by the Institute for Liberal Studies), talking about the Canadian Charter's notwithstanding clause. thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/whats-wron...
My newest piece, forthcoming in the Constitutional Forum, is a comment on the Fair Voting BC decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, which upholdds the constitutionality of first-past-the-post elections. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
My newest piece, forthcoming in the Constitutional Forum, is a comment on the Fair Voting BC decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, which upholdds the constitutionality of first-past-the-post elections. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
I am on this week's The Curious Task podcast (by the Institute for Liberal Studies), talking about the Canadian Charter's notwithstanding clause. thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/whats-wron...
Email from a well-liked editor at a major academic press, in response to a request for an update on a proposal and sample chapter I submitted (with the editors encouragement) three months ago. If anyone wants to suggest careers outside academia, I'd love to hear from you.