The Time Has Come: Standard of Review in Canadian Administrative Law

Abstract

This paper explores standard of review in Canadian administrative law. Part I reviews the organizing principles distilled by the Supreme Court of Canada. Part II examines some of the recent cases that have plagued and perplexed practitioners in this field. Part III considers how our understanding of legislative supremacy and the rule of law – the seemingly omnipresent source of tension in this area of law – has matured over time. Part IV explores how a contextual standard of review for reasonableness could operate in a principled yet practical way.