NAFTA and Cross-Border Relations in Niagara, Detroit, and Vancouver

International audienceFirst, does free trade, and particularly economicintegration, lead to a process of functional interdependency and to cross-border linkages inNorth America? Second, do politics and institutions mediate this process? Specifically, howdoes the intergovernmental network linking local, regional, provincial/state, and federal institutionsmediate this process and impact local level initiatives? To investigate these questions, this work focuses on cross-border relations in three metropolitanborder areas: the Canadian-American border regions of Niagara-Niagara, Windsor-Detroit, and Vancouver-Seattle. This study takes a Canadian perspective and thus primarilyfocuses on Canada, Ontario, and British Columbia, and on Niagara, Windsor, and Vancouverand their border regions. The findings presented in this paper suggest that economic integrationmay lead to cross-border institution building when borderland communities also share the samevalue system

Rights Without Remedies: The Court Party Theory and the Demise of the Court Challenges Program

The author argues that the Court Challenges Program’s 2006 cancellation was based on claims that judicial review is undemocratic, including those made by three academics, Rainer Knopff, F.L. Morton and Ian Brodie; the Court Party Theorists (the “CPT”). Through a study of Charter equality cases, this paper examines the CPT’s arguments regarding judicial activism, interest groups and interveners and finds they are largely unsupported by statistical evidence. Further, the debate about judicial review and democracy obscures judicial review’s important auditing function over the legislature’s constitutional adherence. This audit depends on individuals’ capacity to pursue Charter litigation, an ability compromised by the access to justice crisis. The author examines this crisis and the efforts to fill the funding gap left by the CCP’s cancellation and concludes that a publicly-funded program like the CCP is best-placed to ensure that the Charter remains a relevant tool for enforcing fundamental human rights in Canada.MAS