La nature, le rôle et l'influence de la doctrine universitaire en droit administratif québécois

In view of the increasingly divergent tendencies in legal scholarship, many authors are reconsidering whether « la doctrine » can really serve as a formal source of law. Since university professors are primarly responsible for producing this scholarly commentary, at least in the field of administrative law, it is worth asking two related questions : first, does university scholarship in law have a specific purpose or logic ? and second, does the nature of administrative law require that this scholarship have a particular direction ? In this essay, both questions are answered in the affirmative : University legal scholarship has a synthetic function not shared by ordinary legal writing, and given the case law foundations of the administrative law, this scholarship must also reveal the underlying conceptual structure of the subject

Accessibilité pour qui ? Selon quelles conceptions de la justice ?

Le rapport du Groupe de travail sur l’accessibilité à la justice du Québec, intitulé Jalons pour une plus grande accessibilité à la justice, a été présenté en septembre 1991. Ses diverses recommandations ont visé plusieurs matières : l'aide juridique, les programmes d'assurance frais juridiques, la Cour des petites créances, les modes non judiciaires de règlement de conflits, l'information et l'éducation juridique, et les besoins particuliers de certains groupes cibles tels que les communautés culturelles et les autochtones. Le présent essai a pour objet de situer les recommandations du Groupe de travail dans le contexte du débat actuel parmi les juristes québécois sur la « déjuridicisation », la déjudiciarisation et le droit préventif. Il soulève également la critique de notre système de justice évoquée par les tenants de la philosophie postmoderne. Le texte offre en conclusion quelques suggestions pour une reconceptualisation de l'accessibilité à la justice discutées au sein du Groupe de travail mais qui n'ont pas été traduites en recommandations formelles.The Report of the Quebec Task Force on Accessibility to Justice entitled Steps Toward a Greater Accessibility to Justice was submitted in September 1991. Its various recommendations treated subjects as disparate as legal aid, pre-paid legal insurance, the small claims court, alternative dispute resolution, legal information and education, and the special needs of non-mainstream groups such as cultural communities and aboriginal peoples. This essay situates the various recommendations of the Task Force within the larger debate about dejuridicization, dejudi-cialization and preventive law which is animating Quebec jurists today. It also raises certain challenges to our current conception of legal justice flowing from the post-modern critique of society. The essay concludes with a number of suggestions for broadening our conception of access to justice which were discussed by the Task Force but which were not the object of any formal recommendations

Entre l'efficience de Justinien et la justice de Locke

Aujourd'hui, il est courant de qualifier les rapports humains les plus importants comme étant les rapports économiques. Les économies nationales subissent toutes sortes de perturbations économiques (des perturbations naturelles, résultant de décisions politiques ou encore de nouvelles technologies. Nos gouvernements sont appelés à y répondre. Doivent-ils laisser ces changements s'effectuer d'eux-mêmes ou résister à ceux-ci ? Doivent-ils tenter de les freiner ou au contraire les faciliter ? Il est clair qu'il n'existe pas de réponse unique applicable dans toutes les circonstances. Chacune des situations particulières exigera la recherche d'un équilibre entre l'efficience économique et la justice sociale. Il ne faut pas présumer que la notion de justice dans le domaine juridique peut se réduire à la simple notion d'efficacité économique. Et il ne convient pas non plus de supposer que la notion de justice dans le domaine économique peut se limiter à la simple recherche de la richesse maximale.Today, the most important of our human relationships are typically cast as economic. National economies are subject to a number of different kinds of shocks (natural shocks, shocks resulting from political decisions, shocks resulting from technology. Governments are called upon to respond. Should they simply let the market take its course ? Should they intervene to slow down the pace of change ? Should they facilitate change ? Should they resist change at all cost ? One thing is certain : there is no response that is adequate to every situation. The appropriate response involves a careful balancing of efficiency concerns and concerns of social justice. We do ourselves a great disservice if we think that justice in the legal sphere can be reduced to the notion of efficient corrective justice. And we also do ourselves a great disservice if we think that justice in the economic sphere can be reduced to simple questions of wealth maximization

The Proposed Section 96B : An Ill-Conceived Reform Destined to Failure

L'objet de cette étude est d'identifier la véritable fin de l'amendement proposé par le gouvernement. L'article 96B prétend-il détruire l'hégémonie des cours supérieures ? Le but recherché par cet article est-il de permettre aux provinces de créer un vaste réseau de tribunaux spécialisés ? Le seul effet de l'article 96B serait-il d'imposer une barrière au pouvoir de surveillance des cours supérieures ? L'article 96B semble déficient et mal rédigé. La promulgation de cet amendement entraînerait une multiplication de tribunaux inférieurs dont la structure laisserait à désirer en plus d'encourager une vaste distribution de juridictions ainsi qu'une délégation subjective de pouvoirs. Même si l'on croit que l'article 96B(2) protège les attributs distinctifs des cours supérieures, la porte est néanmoins ouverte aux provinces pour exploiter l'amendement. Il en découlerait une politisation accrue des cours supérieures. Les articles 96 à 101 de la Loi constitutionnelle de 1867 ne procurent pas une garantie constitutionnelle de l'indépendance judiciaire. L'auteur, après avoir étudié l'amendement 96B, conclut qu'il ne peut être considéré sérieusement comme étant une solution valable aux problèmes soulevés par ces articles

...Meech Lake to the Contrary Notwithstanding (Part II)

In this essay, which has been published in two parts, the author argues that the Meech Lake Accord was more than a hastily cobbled together political deal between the Prime Minister and ten provincial premiers. Despite the unattractive process by which the Meech Lake Accord was struck, and especially defended, despite the disingenuous character of the arguments most often advanced for its adoption, and despite its close connection with other aspects of the federal government\u27s political agenda which many Canadians found suspicious, the Meech Lake Accord did respond to an important issue in post-patriation constitutionalism. A review of Canadian constitutional history, the evolution of French and English linguistic minorities in Canada, and the complementary motifs of French-Canadian and English-Canadian survivance leads the author to conclude that the forces which generated the Meech Lake Accord have been perennial features of British North American political life since 1759. The symbolic purpose of the Meech Lake Accord was to illustrate that, notwithstanding significant demographic and economic changes in Canada, and notwithstanding that the patriation exercise operated a profound transformation of the complex underpinnings of Canadian federalism, these traditional forces would still play a significant role in defining the values of the country. The failure of the Meech Lake Accord does not mean that these forces are now spent. Rather, it means only that the present federal structure within which they have been accommodated since 1867 probably is no longer appropriate for the task. The author concludes with a prognosis for what the institutional redesign likely to emerge over the next few years will be - a framework he characterizes as heteronomy

Law Reform for Dummies (3rd Edition)

Legal pluralist law reform engages citizens in dialogue through which they gain richer insight into their normative lives and learn to manage everyday interactions with each other. Noting that first- and second-generation law reform commissions have been critiqued for their narrow vision and goal of modifying individual legal rules, this article shifts the focus to the general public as a key player in the enterprise. This is how law reform responds to public concerns and engages the public’s assumptions about the reform process. The true ambition of law reform is to find opportunities for Canadians to examine their assumptions about what they ask of their law, engage in dialogues about where and why their expectations of law might be unrealistic, and involve them in the hard work of building more just official and unofficial legal systems—wherever and by whatever means it is actually carried out

Understanding Civil Law Scholarship in Quebec

Scholarship in law (la doctrine) plays a more important role in the civil law tradition than in the common law tradition given the existence of a code, the formal style of judgment writing and the pervasiveness of the view of law as legal science. Since the late eighteenth century, civil law scholarship in Quebec has gone through at least six phases, but only now does it seem to be emerging from the inward-looking didactic posture it has maintained since the turn of the twentieth century. Today, the prognosis for fundamental research in Quebec is excellent as a new generation of scholars trained in the humanities and social sciences shows renewed interest in private civil law subjects

...Meech Lake to the Contrary Notwithstanding (Part I)

In this essay, which will be published in two parts, the author argues that the Meech Lake Accord was more than a hastily cobbled together political deal between the Prime Minister and ten provincial premiers. Despite the unattractive process by which the Meech Lake Accord was struck, and especially defended, despite the disingenuous character of the arguments most often advanced for its adoption, and despite its close connection with other aspects of the federal government\u27s political agenda which many Canadians found suspicious, the Meech Lake Accord did respond to an important issue in post-patriation constitutionalism. A review of Canadian constitutional history, the evolution of French and English linguistic minorities in Canada, and the complementary motifs of French-Canadian and English-Canadian survivance leads the author to conclude that the forces which generated the Meech Lake Accord have been perennial features of British North American political life since 1759. The symbolic purpose of the Meech Lake Accord was to illustrate that, notwithstanding significant demographic and economic changes in Canada, and notwithstanding that the patriation exercise operated a profound transformation of the complex underpinnings of Canadian federalism, these traditional forces would still play a significant role in defining the values of the country. The failure of the Meech Lake Accord does not mean that these forces are now spent. Rather, it means only that the present federal structure within which they have been accommodated since 1867 probably is no longer appropriate for the task. The author concludes with a prognosis for what the institutional redesign likely to emerge over the next few years will be - a framework he characterizes as heteronomy

Law Reform for Dummies (3rd Edition)

Legal pluralist law reform engages citizens in dialogue through which they gain richer insight into their normative lives and learn to manage everyday interactions with each other. Noting that first- and second-generation law reform commissions have been critiqued for their narrow vision and goal of modifying individual legal rules, this article shifts the focus to the general public as a key player in the enterprise. This is how law reform responds to public concerns and engages the public’s assumptions about the reform process. The true ambition of law reform is to find opportunities for Canadians to examine their assumptions about what they ask of their law, engage in dialogues about where and why their expectations of law might be unrealistic, and involve them in the hard work of building more just official and unofficial legal systems—wherever and by whatever means it is actually carried out