Unwritten Constitutionalism Symposium (2025)

On September 19, 2025 the Centre for Constitutional Studies hosted a symposium at the University of Alberta in collaboration with the University of Ottawa Public Law Centre, the Barton Chair at Carleton University, and the Unwritten Constitutional Norms and Principles Project. The symposium was funded through a special project grant from the Alberta Law Foundation and brought together scholars to discuss the role that unwritten constitutionalism plays and ought to play in political and legal decision-making, as well as the place of specific unwritten principles -- whether legally recognized or not -- in the Canadian constitutional order.

A selection of symposium papers will be published as special issues of the Review of Constitutional Studies and the Constitutional Forum, likely in late 2026. To learn more about the focus of symposium papers, see the event program: https://www.constitutionalstudies.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Unwritten-Constitutionalism-Program.pdf