This workshop took place on March 1, 2024 at the University of Ottawa and was co-organized by the University of Ottawa Public Law Centre and the Centre for Constitutional Studies (University of Alberta). The workshop brought together a small group of constitutional experts to discuss Rosalind Dixon's landmark monograph, Responsive Judicial Review (RJR). In particular, the workshop aimed to bring the representation-reinforcing theory articulated in RJR to bear on current constitutional issues facing Canadians, 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.
The workshop ultimately gave rise to a special issue of the Constitutional Forum, which includes papers written by almost all of the workshop's speakers as well as a generous response to these papers by Professor Dixon. You can access the full issue for free via the links below.
CONSTITUTIONAL FORUM 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
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