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Legal Commentary

: Prawfs

Questions for the Chief?

By Dan Markel, Ethan Leib, Rick Garnett, Matt Bodie, Paul Horwitz , Steve Vladeck, and Orly Lobel

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I'm happy to announce that Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada (not "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada," just like John Roberts is Chief Justice of the United States"), will visit the University of Alabama School of Law to deliver the annual Albritton Lecture on Monday. It should be an interesting occasion. Drop by if you're in Tuscaloosa! I wonder, given our wonderful transnational readership, whether any readers have any suggestions for questions you would like the Chief to answer. I am, alas, not as steeped in Canadian constitutional law as I once was.

For my money, the most interesting area of recent scholarship in Canadian constitutional law is the revival of interest in originalism; I find the scholarship that has emerged in recent years on this subject fascinating, far more sophisticated than Canadian discussions of originalism used to be, and surprising, given how overwhelmingly originalism was rejected -- not just as a method, but even as a subject of interest -- by the prior generation of Canadian constitutional theorists. I'm not saying I agree with all of this scholarship, but I think it makes a strong case for itself and demands that Canadian courts and legal scholars start confronting the issue with something other than dismissiveness. I expect to ask her whether this scholarship has crossed her radar screen and whether the courts are not, in fact, obligated to confront it rather than just quote tritely from the early decisions on the Canadian Charter of Rights.

Are there other questions my Canadian or American readers are also interested in? Let me know. If I get a chance to ask them, I'll report back.

Full post as published by Prawfs on March 06, 2009 (boomark / email).