Seeking the court's advice : the politics of the Canadian reference power /
Author / Creator: | Puddister, Kate, 1986- author. |
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Imprint: | Vancouver ; Toronto : UBC Press, [2019] ©2019 |
Description: | xii, 277 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. |
Language: | English |
Series: | Law and society series Law and society series (Vancouver, B.C.) |
Subject: | |
Format: | Print Book |
URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11888236 |
Summary: | Can Parliament legalize same-sex marriage? Can Quebec unilaterally secede from Canada? Can the federal government create a national firearms registry? Each of these questions is contentious and deeply political, and each was addressed by a court in a reference case, not by elected policy makers. Reference cases allow governments to obtain an advisory opinion from a court without a live dispute and opposing litigants - and governments often wield this power strategically. Through a reference case, elected officials can insert the courts and the judiciary into political debates that can be both contentious and normative. Seeking the Court's Advice is the first in-depth study of the reference power, drawing on over two hundred reference cases from 1875 to 2017. With novel insight and analysis, Kate Puddister demonstrates that the actual outcome of a reference case - win or lose - is often secondary to the political benefits that can be attained from relying on courts through the reference power. |
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Physical Description: | xii, 277 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. |
Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [253]-267) and index. |
ISBN: | 9780774861106 077486110X |