This event is from the archives of The Notice Board. The event has already taken place and the information contained in this post may no longer be relevant or accurate.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12th from 12:00 noon - 1:30 p.m. in Turcotte Hall - 204
SPEAKER: Dr. PETER McCORMICK, Professor & Chair, Dept. of Political Science
TOPIC: 'BY THE COURT': THE SUPREME COURT ASSUMES A NEW ROLE
In the Senate Reform Reference last April, the Supreme Court’s sharp rebuke to the Harper government was not attributed to any specific judge (not even the Chief Justice), but cryptically and impersonally to THE COURT. Such a combination of unanimity and anonymity is doubly unusual: first, no comparable court does anything like it; and second, our own court does not do it often and has not been doing it for long. So: what is “By the Court”? When, how and why did the practice begin? How, and how often, is it used? And how is it a window into the Supreme Court’s recent self-transformation? Remarkably, this is a practice that has never been systematically examined; this presentation previews the book that will do so for the first time.
Contact:
Merle Christie | christie@uleth.ca | (403) 329-2518