William Schabas, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and International Human Rights Law

Abstract

More than thirty years have passed since the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into effect, and nearly twenty-five years since Professor Schabas submitted his initial important study of the use by Canadian courts of international law in their Charter jurisprudence. This chapter marks Professor Schabas’s scholarly contributions by taking stock of where resort to international human rights law in our Charter jurisprudence has brought Canadian courts and by outlining the challenges that lie ahead. It includes discussion of the impact of the Charter in the dawning of a new era of human rights in Canada, and the present situation regarding international law and the Charter, in particular the role of globalisation on the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Canada.