Social Science Evidence in Charter Litigation: Lessons from Carter v. Canada (Attorney General)

Abstract

In this paper, I offer the reflections of an academic who wandered well out of her wheelhouse. While I have graduate training in both philosophy and law, I am not an expert on the use of social science and humanities evidence in litigation. But, through the course of working on Carter v Canada (Attorney General), I had the opportunity to participate directly in the process of marshalling, preparing, analyzing, and critiquing the evidence. My hope is that, through this paper, I can bring a perspective that may be useful both for practitioners who might (or, I would say, should) be thinking about working with academics, and academics who might (and I hope will) be thinking about getting involved in constitutional litigation that relates to their field of study.