Review 29.2 & 29.3: Our More Than Human Constitutions

The Centre is delighted to announce that our new special double issue of the Review of Constitutional Studies is now fully available to download via both Heinonline and EBSCO (Hein links provided below).

The special issue, which is titled "Our More Than Human Constitutions," was guest edited by Professors Jessica Eisen (University of Alberta) and Lindsay Borrows (Queen's University). It comprises contributions from scholars in an array of academic fields -- including Indigenous law, environmental law, and animal law -- on the ways in which our legal orders, Indigenous and state, approach the regulation of the more-than-human.

While the issue is currently only available for Hein and EBSCO subscribers, it will be available for free on our website one year after its initial publication.

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SPECIAL DOUBLE ISSUE: OUR MORE THAN HUMAN CONSTITUTIONS

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Issue 1: 29.2

Introduction: Our More-than-Human Constitutions
Borrows, Lindsay; Eisen, Jessica

Learning Anishinaabe Law from the Earth
Borrows, John

Transforming Constitutionalism from a More-than-Human Perspective
Nedelsky, Jennifer

Nehiyaw Pimatisiwin and Regenerative Constitutionalism
Lindberg, Darcy

Dark Innovations, Climate Justice, and the Canadian Charter
Majekolagbe, Adebayo

"A Hot Day in Iqaluit"? Environmental Rights in Canada's Constitutional Cul-de-Sac
Wood, Stepan

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Issue 2: 29.3

Making Space for Indigenous Legal Relationship with Plants in Aboriginal Law
Spalding, Pamela

Learning Law from Plants
Borrows, Lindsay

Re-Learning Reciprocity: Settler Treaty Obligations and the More-than-Human World
Askew, Hannah

Learning about Treaties with the Animal People: Lessons for Treaty 8
Gimenez, Rebeca Macias

Animals, Colonialism, and the Rule of Law
Deckha, Maneesha

The Unwritten Constitution and the More-than-Human World
Eisen, Jessica

Forum 34.1: Responsive Judicial Review

The Centre is excited to announce the publication of a new special issue of the Constitutional Forum! This special issue (34.1) flows from a workshop co-organized by the uOttawa Public Law Centre and the Centre for Constitutional Studies (uAlberta), held at uOttawa in March 2024. The workshop brought together a small group of constitutional experts to talk about Rosalind Dixon's landmark monograph, Responsive Judicial Review. This special issue comprises written versions of papers first presented at that workshop, along with a response to these papers from Professor Dixon. It encompasses reflections on a number of specific and currently contentious constitutional questions, including how courts should respond to the uptick in provincial recourse to the notwithstanding clause, the proper role of unwritten constitutional principles in judicial decision-making, and the limits that principles like democracy and federalism place on the practice of judicial review.

Special Issue 34.1: Responsive Judicial Review

Contents

Editors’ Introduction: Responsive Judicial Review
Richard Mailey, Vanessa MacDonnell

Living Dead Constitutionalism or Why Old Constitutional Worlds Are Never Lost for Good: A Comment on Rosalind Dixon’s Responsive Judicial Review
Jean-Christophe Bedard Rubin

Out of the Shadows: Responsive Judicial Review and the Resurgence of the Notwithstanding Clause
Marion Sandilands

The Regime Politics of Responsive Judicial Review
Geoffrey Sigalet

The Role of Democratic Majority Understandings of Rights in Rosalind Dixon’s Responsive Judicial Review
Vanessa MacDonnell

Deconstructing City of Toronto: Unwritten Constitutional Principles and Responsive Judicial Review
Richard Mailey

Responsive Judicial Review in Canada: Reflections on the Notwithstanding Clause and Beyond
Rosalind Dixon

Michael Pal Lecture Video: The New Right to Vote

Forum 33.4: Horizontal Effect and the Charter

We're delighted to announce the publication of a new special issue of the Constitutional Forum (Issue 33.4). This issue is predominantly comprised of papers by participants in a CCS workshop on the horizontal effect of Charter rights, held at UBC 's Allard School of Law in January 2024, and co-organized by professors at Allard. The workshop addressed some of the key issues surrounding the case of Cool World v Twitter, which involves a PR firm contesting Twitter's refusal to run paid ads for a documentary (The New Corporation) by arguing that Twitter's common law rights should be interpreted in a way that's consistent with the Charter value of free expression. Some of the papers address Cool World directly, while others address the surrounding legal framework derived from RWDSU v Dolphin Delivery and Hill v Church of Scientology. All engage with questions about the manner in which the Charter applies and should apply to private legal relations.

Editors' Introduction: Beyond Dolphin Delivery
Margot Young, Richard Mailey, Anthony Sangiuliano
i-ix

The Hidden Promise of Dolphin Delivery: Shields, Swords and Horizontal Application of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Joel Bakan, Sujit Choudhry
1-16

Towards a Less Woolly Conception of Horizontal Effect
Johan van der Walt
17-30

A Kick in the Caboose: Recovering the Judicial Horizontality of Constitutional Equality Rights
Anthony Sangiuliano
31-48

Charter Horizontality, the Public/Private Divide, and Responding to Injustice
Sina Akbari
49-66

“We do not really know why this approach was taken”: Explaining and Modifying the Supreme Court’s Approach to the Indirect Horizontal Effect of Charter Rights
Richard Mailey
67-80

Constitutional Theory Series Videos: Teng Biao, Thomas Bustamante, and Philip Pettit

These are the first three videos from our Constitutional Theory Series, featuring Dr. Teng Biao, Professor Thomas Bustamante, and Professor Philip Pettit.

These sessions were co-organized with Professor Josh Nichols (McGill Law).

New sessions will resume in Fall 2025.

Debra Thompson Videos: Race, Democracy, and Politics without Guarantees

Professor Debra Thompson (McGill University, Political Science) delivered a public lecture through the CCS on Nov 27, 2024. The first video below is her full lecture; the second video is her response to an audience question about the 2024 US election.

Constitutional Forum: Issue 33.3

We're delighted to announce the publication of a new issue of our journal, Constitutional Forum. Issue 33.3 is an open issue featuring contributions from Joel Bakan, Angela Fernandez, Robert Diab, and Paul Chartrand. Articles can be accessed by clicking the links below.

Issue 33.3:

Table of Contents (PDF)

Articles:

Negating Positive Rights: A Note on Mathur v Ontario
Joel Bakan

Ontario’s Ag-Gag Law, Where do Things Stand?
Angela Fernandez

What is Most Bothersome About Section 33: Or What Hasn’t Yet Been Said
Robert Diab

Bill C53: An Ill-Advised Adventure of State Interference in the Constitutional Evolution of the State-Aboriginal Relationship
Paul Chartrand

Event Video: Seána Glennon on Deliberative Minipublics and Constitutional Change

Video: Richard Moon on the Life and Death of Free Expression

Review of Constitutional Studies: Issue 28.2

The Centre is excited to announce the publication of our latest issue of the Review of Constitutional Studies, which is now available via EBSCO and will be available in due course on Heinonline. This latest issue, issue 28.2, is an open issue that also features two reprinted articles by Professors Robert Brandom and Cheryl Misak. These articles are reprinted to commemorate the Centre's "Law and Pragmatism" lecture series, which ran from late 2023 to early 2024 and was organized by the Review's Co-Editor-in-Chief, Professor Josh Nichols (McGill). We're grateful to Professors Brandom, Misak, and Nichols for facilitating the republication of these exceptional papers, and for giving us the opportunity to bring them to a new audience. We're also grateful to the other contributors to this issue: David Dyzenhaus, Maguid Nicholas, Johnny Mack, and Jean Leclair.