Description
Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive analysis of the Canadian reference power,
Seeking the Court’s Advice examines how policy makers use the courts strategically to achieve political ends.
Trade Reviewthis is an excellent book that completely fills a major and unfortunate lacuna in the academic literature. It is well organized, well written, thorough and balanced, and it winds up with recommendations for better squaring the practice with judicial independence concerns.
A first book, you say, and by a very junior author? It certainly doesn’t read that way—this is a polished work of mature scholarship. I recommend it highly.
-- Peter McCormick * Canadian Journal of Political Science *
[Puddister] manages to provide a superb and comprehensive analysis of the development, evolution, and purposes of the reference power. -- Emmett Macfarlane, associate professor, University of Waterloo * The Review of Constitutional Studies *
…Seeking the Court’s Advice will likely affect the way the power is exercised and conceived of by governments, interveners, and courts.
-- Jennah Khaled, JD, Osgoode Hall Law * Osgoode Hall Law Journal *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Reference Cases as a Mix of Law and Politics
1 Origins and Implications of the Reference Power
2 Contestation and Reference Cases
3 Routine Politics and Nonroutine Litigation: References after 1949
4 “It’s Always a Little Bit of Politics”: Why Governments Ask Reference Questions
5 Why Not Refer Everything? The Padlock Act and Blasphemy
6 Seeking the Court’s Advice and the Delegation of Decision Making
Conclusion: A Legal Solution to Political Problems
Appendix A: Canadian Reference Legislation
Appendix B: Reference Case List
Notes; References; Index
