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"In Canada since 1875, courts have been permitted to act as advisors alongside their ordinary, adjudicative role. This book offers the first detailed examination of that role from a legal perspective. When one thinks of courts, it is most often in the context of deciding cases: live disputes involving spirited, adversarial debate between opposing parties. Sometimes, though, a court is granted the power to answer questions in the absence of cases through a reference or advisory opinions. These proceedings raise many questions: about the judicial role, about the relationship between courts and those who seek their "advice", and about the nature of law. Tracking their use in Canada since the country's Confederation and looking to the experience in other legal systems, this book considers how reference opinions draw courts into the complex relationship between law and politics. Focusing on key themes such as the separation of powers, federalism, rights and precedent, this book provides an important and timely study of a fascinating phenomenon"-- Provided by publisher

The Canadian environmental assessment (EA) regime is broken. At a time when the Canadian economy is both increasingly sluggish and unsustainable, we have an obligation -- and perhaps a once-in-a-generation opportunity -- to fundamentally reform EA to enable it to finally live up to its promise of promoting sound and sustainability-based decisions. This task is even more pressing in light of the global commitment under the Paris Climate Change Agreement to rapidly transition to greenhouse gas emissions neutrality. Among the many priorities of meaningful EA reform -- moving beyond project-level assessments, focusing on net positive contributions to sustainability, avoiding costly trade-offs among interdependent economic, ecological, and social objectives -- we focus on the overarching need for polyjural collaboration and polycentric consensus-based decision-making. We argue that any serious effort to move from project-level EAs focused exclusively on adverse biophysical impacts towards a fully integrated, sustainability-based assessment (SA) regime requires a polyjural and polycentric approach capable of facilitating collaborative experimentation among multiple jurisdictional actors, including the federal government, provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous peoples, NGOs, academia, project proponents and industry groups, and the Canadian public. After examining the constitutional and political dimensions of the federal and provincial governments' role in EA, we provide two compelling rationales for transitioning to a SA regime. The paper concludes by setting out a series of possible forms of SA for the purpose of informing the federal government's review of its EA regime. In particular, we identify and analyze the competing options for jurisdictional cooperation, collaboration, and consensus-based assessment processes along with the constitutional and practical policy implications of each.

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The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012, which came into force on 6 July 2012, virtually eliminates the core of federal-level environmental assessment in Canada. Under the new law, federal environmental assessments will be few, fragmentary, inconsistent and late. Key decision-making will be discretionary and consequently unpredictable. Much of it will be cloaked in secrecy. The residual potential for effective, efficient and fair assessments will depend heavily on requirements under other federal legislation and on the uneven diversity of provincial, territorial and Aboriginal assessment processes. This paper reviews the key characteristics of the new law in light of 10 basic design principles for environmental assessment processes, and considers the broader international implications of the Canadian retreat from application of these principles.

Disclaimer: This summary was generated by AI based on the content of the source document.

This commentary assesses the key changes to the federal environmental assessment (EA) process contained in the 2012 Budget Implementation Bill. The resulting Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012 (CEAA 2012) is compared to the federal EA process that had been in place since the implementation of the original CEAA in 1995. The article concludes that the key changes brought about by the enactment of CEAA 2012, including the shift in responsibility for EA, the discretionary application of the process, the narrowed scope, new powers of delegation, substitution and equivalency, and the more restricted role of the public all function counter to the improvements to CEAA 1995 recommended in the academic literature. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

This is the first part of a 2-volume set that presents an in-depth investigation into the canon of constitutionally conforming interpretation. These volumes address the fundamental issues the canon raises in the national, supranational and international contexts. In volume 1, experts from 19 jurisdictions, including Brazil, Canada, India, the UK, and the USA, present reports which give concise overviews of the approaches and debates on constitutionally conforming interpretation. These reports cover the structural background, the conditions of application, as well as issues of competence. Further aspects discussed are its perceived normativity and popularity in everyday legal practice. Together with volume 2, which explores the canon’s use and theoretical impact beyond the national context in a comparative and critical manner, this book fills an important gap in legal scholarship and sets the stage for cross-national discourse.

"The fifth edition of Environmental Law, is a comprehensive introductory guide to environmental law in Canada which incorporates discussion of recent developments in environmental litigation and regulation alongside reference to key statutory developments from the past half decade. In addition, updating and revisions highlight significant developments in several key areas, notably federal and provincial climate change action following the 2015 Paris Agreement and issues associated with Aboriginal consultation, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and traditional environmental knowledge."-- Provided by publisher.

Loyalty has many meanings, within and without the law. There is a difficult question about whether loyalty is a virtue, inasmuch as one can be loyal to many causes, not all of them virtuous. For many jurists, the notion of loyalty evokes the common law’s fiduciary relationship and the norms that are particular to that … Continued

"L'obligation est l'instrument juridique élémentaire des rapports entre les personnes. Le droit des obligations est donc la colonne vertébrale du droit privé. Les trois parties de l'ouvrage (responsabilité extracontractuelle, contrats et quasi-contrats, régime général de l'obligation) exposent le droit positif actuel et les ferments de son évolution : influences étrangères et unification européenne, protection du consommateur, rôle du juge à l'égard du contrat, développement de l'unilatéralisme. L'ouvrage veut allier la précision des références à l'ouverture aux questions humaines. Cette onzième édition expose en particulier la réforme du droit des contrats et des obligations issue de l'ordonnance du 10 février 2016, telle que ratifiée par la loi du 20 avril 2018 : avant-contrats, offre, acceptation, contenu, cession de contrat, sanctions de l'inexécution, révision pour imprévision, effet relatif, nullité, cession de créance, de dette. L'ouvrage en rend compte, avec les débats et critiques qu'elle a suscités. Est aussi analysée l'évolution de la jurisprudence, toujours foisonnante, en matière de responsabilité civile. La crise sanitaire qui s'est abattue sur le monde en février 2020 a profondément éprouvé les contrats, car elle a ruiné les prévisions des parties ; elle a mis à l'épreuve le droit qui les régit, dans certaines de ses institutions, classiques (la force majeure) ou plus récentes (renégociation, révision pour imprévision, caducité). Les premières réponses jurisprudentielles montrent la résistance des principes classiques, invitant les parties à adopter des clauses anticipant ces risques, alors que d'autres crises s'annoncent. En matière de responsabilité civile, cette édition synthétise aussi l'évolution de la jurisprudence, toujours foisonnante en l'attente d'une éventuelle réforme législative. L'ouvrage s'adresse aux étudiants ainsi qu'à tous ceux - professionnels, universitaires qui sont soucieux de connaître et surtout de comprendre cette branche du droit."--Page 4 de la couverture