Administrative and Citizen Interpretations of Unwritten Constitutional Principles and Constitutional Silences
Looking at Canadian law, this blog posts argues that administrative agencies should be able to interpret and articulate unwritten constitutional principles when exercising their discretionary powers, and that these interpretations ought to be deferred to by courts. This would also encourage citizens to put forward their own interpretations of unwritten constitutional principles, fostering a participatory approach to constitutional interpretation.
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Abortion in Canada: Always Legal, Not Always Accessible
In Canada, abortion is not a criminal offence. There are no legal restrictions on abortion, including no restrictions with respect to gestational age or on the reasons for which a pregnant person may choose to have an abortion. As lawful medical procedures, abortions fall under provincial jurisdiction over health and there is some regulatory variability between provinces. Information about abortion access is similarly affected by provincial jurisdiction over education. Prior to decriminalization, advocacy on abortion access was national in scope, but since 1988, most activism has been focused on access and funding and has been provincial or even local.
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The Dilemma of Mild Emergencies that are Accepted as Consistent with Human Rights
Amid the pandemic and the war in the Ukraine, Canada had a quiet emergency. On 14 February 2022, the federal government used the Emergencies Act to respond to a three week occupation of the Parliament building and various border blockades. This was a mild and quick emergency, as far as emergencies go. Mild emergencies that arguably respect rights are better than severe emergencies that do not, yet there is cause for concern.
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Das Dilemma der milden Notfälle, die als mit Menschenrechten vereinbar akzeptiert werden
Inmitten der Pandemie und des Krieges in der Ukraine herrschte in Kanada ein stiller Notfall. Am 14. Februar 2022 nutzte die Bundesregierung das Notstandsgesetz, um auf eine dreiwöchige Besetzung des Parlamentsgebäudes und verschiedene Grenzblockaden zu reagieren. Es handelte sich um einen vergleichsweise milden und schnellen Notfall. Milde Notfälle, bei denen Rechte angeblich Beachtung finden, sind besser als schwere Notfälle, bei denen dies nicht der Fall ist. Dennoch besteht Anlass zur Sorge.
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How Canada Capitalizes on Ukrainian Refugees
For those fleeing the war in Ukraine, Canada launched a new temporary residence pathway, the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program on March 17, 2022. Offered in conjunction with a special family reunification program, CUAET is open to an unlimited number of Ukrainians regardless of their existing ties to Canada. While seemingly an open and benevolent gesture, Ukrainians are welcomed inside the Canadian nation not as humanitarian subjects but primarily as workers to potentially contribute to the Canadian economy.
Continue reading >>Blockieren bis zum Ausnahmezustand
Am 14. Februar 2022 hat der kanadische Premierminister Justin Trudeau erstmals seit 1970 den Ausnahmezustand in Kanada erklärt. Die Maßnahme wird seitens seiner Partei vor allem mit den ökonomischen Folgen der Blockaden von Grenzübergängen und den Ereignissen in Ottawa begründet. Ob die Gerichte im Falle einer Anfechtung die Maßnahmen für rechtmäßig erklären werden, ist derzeit nicht absehbar.
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The Long Shadow of 9/11
At the broadest level, 9/11 exacerbated the chronic precarity of non-citizens’ status as legal subjects governed under the rule of law. In principle, the rule of law is indifferent to citizenship: after all, the legal subject is constituted through subjection to law, not to the state as such. And yet, the rule of law has always been insipid in the sphere of migration, and securitization diluted it even further. This is true across all jurisdictions, including those bound by human rights entrenched in constitutional texts.
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COVID-19 in Canada: Variable Forms of Power and Unvarying Judicial Deference
As of early 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across Canada. These are dark days. Although the arrival of vaccines suggests light will soon appear at the end of the tunnel, Canada is a long way from the end of its COVID-19 crisis. In this blog, I hope to illuminate readers, through the lens of pandemic-related public law litigation, about how Canada has responded to COVID-19.
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Boris and the Queen: Lessons from Canada
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s advice to the Queen that she prorogue Parliament for several weeks has sparked vociferous controversy. The unfortunate situation, which threatens to do real damage to constitutional, political and social relationships, has some analogues in former British dominions such as Canada.
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Reconciling Religion: Lessons Learned from the Triple Talaq Case for Comparative Constitutional Governance
The recent case of Shayara Bano v Union of India heard before the Supreme Court of India provide helpful guidance for how a secular democratic regime with a multiplicity of religious, ethnic, and cultural communities can manage constitutional governance with an increasing number of seemingly irreconcilable tensions. Pluralist societies such as Canada and the United States grapple with a variety of delicate balancing acts: in such instance, the need to reconcile accommodation for religious and cultural minorities with the protection of gender rights on the other.
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Data Protection, Data Transfers, and International Agreements: the CJEU’s Opinion 1/15
On 26 July the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) issued Opinion 1/15, which is its most significant ruling on the international dimensions of data protection law since its 2015 judgment in the Schrems case. In Opinion 1/15, the Grand Chamber of the Court found that the draft agreement between the EU and Canada for the transfer of passenger name record (PNR) data may not be concluded in its current form, since several of its provisions are incompatible with EU fundamental rights law. As the Court’s first ruling on the compatibility of a draft international agreement with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the judgment has important implications for many areas of EU law.
Continue reading >>Erlaubt und doch verboten: auch Kanada rekriminalisiert Prostitution
SexarbeiterInnen in Kanada haben es nicht leicht, ihrer Arbeit nachzugehen. Bordelle sind verboten, Werbung ist verboten, Zuhälterei ist verboten, Freier auf der Straßen anzusprechen ist verboten. Nur die Transaktion selbst, wie es der Kanadische Supreme Court 1990 formulierte, war bisher erlaubt. Doch seit dem 6. Dezember 2014 ist es auch damit vorbei. Denn Kanada hat nach schwedischem Vorbild das sogenannte „Sexkaufverbot“ eingeführt.
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Im Namen der Wahrheit? – Kritische Anmerkungen zu der mit Otto-Brenner-Preis geehrten Berichterstattung zu TTIP und CETA
Der "Otto-Brenner-Preis für kritischen Journalismus" geht in diesem Jahr an einen Artikel über CETA und TTIP aus der ZEIT. Eine "spannende Geschichte", wie es in der Pressemitteilung der Otto-Brenner-Stiftung heißt – aber in Teilen unzutreffend und dies nicht im Hinblick auf marginale juristische Details, sondern in zumindest einer zentralen Frage der kritischen öffentlichen Debatte um die europäischen Freihandelsabkommen.
Continue reading >>The Canadian Senate and the (Im)Possibilities of Reform
The framers of Canada’s Constitution had a vision for the Senate as a complementary, deliberative body bringing regional perspectives to national issues and genuine powers of oversight and sober second thought. It is widely agreed, though, that the Senate’s constitutional configuration stains Canada’s public institutions. The Senate needs change, but the impulse to reform is stifled by the reluctance of officials to open the constitutional amending formula.
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