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This book tackles the important topic of the relationship between three parts of the public law regime in a common law jurisdiction: the common law of judicial review or the unwritten constitution, the written constitution and public international law. Thematic coherence is ensured by the fact that the papers were presented at a conference in early 2003 and then extensively revised and by a general focus on a path-breaking decision of Canada's Supreme Court (Baker). The book thus contains a highly productive exchange between an international group of scholars on such themes as the rule of law, judicial deference, the separation of powers, the role of human rights in common law reasoning on immigration and security matters, and the nature of legal authority.
- 1. Introduction
- Mark Elliott, Jason NE Varuhas and Shona Wilson Stark
- 2. The Unity of Public Law?
- Dame Sian Elias
- Part 1. Doctrinal and Theoretical Perspectives
- 3. Taxonomy and Public Law
- Jason N.E. Varuhas
- 4. On Being Reasonably Proportionate
- Audrey Macklin
- 5. Administrative Law: Characteristics, Legitimacy, Unity
- Paul Daly
- 6. Unity, Disunity and Vacuity: Constitutional Adjudication and the Common Law
- Roger Masterman and Se-shauna Wheatle
- 7. A Matter of Feel? Public Powers and Functions in South Africa
- Cora Hoexter
- 8. Fault and Accountability in Public Law
- Ellen Rock
- 9. Interpretive Presumptions Assessed against Legislators' Understanding
- Hanna Wilberg
- 10. 'It All Depends on the Circumstances': The Decline of Doctrine on the Grounds and Intensity of Review
- David Stratas
- Part 2. Comparative Perspectives
- 11. The Globalisation of Public Law: A Quilting of Legalities
- Robert French AC
- 12. Comparative Public Law in the UK Supreme Court
- Robert Reed
- 13. Transplants in Public Law
- Cheryl Saunders
- 14. Unity and Diversity in the United Kingdom's Territorial Constitution
- Aileen McHarg
- 15. Moving Beyond the Constitutionalism/Democracy Dilemma: 'Commonwealth Model' Scholarship and the Fixation on Legislative Compliance
- Claudia Geiringer
- 16. Vindicatory Damages for Violation of Constitutional Rights: A Comparative Approach
- Johannes Chan
- 17. Decolonising Jurisprudence: Public Interest Standing in New Constitutional Orders
- Elizabeth A. O'Loughlin
- 18. Constitutional Convergence? Some Lessons from Proportionality
- Anne Carter
- 19. Jurisdictional Error: Do We Really Need It?
- Janina Boughey and Lisa Burton Crawford
David Dyzenhaus is Professor of Law and Philosophy at the University of Toronto.
Desire for an autonomous social life of law, a life that dares speak to the supreme power, and even arrest its exercise, has always animated the work of lawpersons, legal theorists especially among them. In this work, David Dyzenhaus and his eminent colleagues insist that this is a rational desire summoning the futures, or the fates, of the 'unity of public law'. The diversely framed disciplinary traditions fragments it through specialisms labelled variously as the constitutional, administrative, public international, and international human rights law. The idea of the 'unity of public law' is expressed here at many levels.
Upendra Baxi
The Law and Politics Book Review
November 2004
Professor David Dyzenhaushas edited this superlative work, consisting of 17 finely-tuned essays, by as many renowned contributorsThis collection of essays is suffused with comparative law and it resonates with integrated analysis, poise and erudition. It ought to be required reading for all Judges and senior public officials.
Gerard McCoy
New Zealand Law Journal
December 2004
…the book is a celebration, of common law philosophy, flexibility and durability…a collection of uniformly well-written and informative essays…
Patrick Birkinshaw
Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal
vol.4 no.2 winter 2004
