Administrative Law (0101) (LAW202H1S)

Administrative law is the set of principles and rules that defines the government’s powers to tell people what to do. It is the most practical application of our commitment to the rule of law – the idea that government and administrative officials cannot exercise power that is not grounded in law. At the same time, administrative officials frequently exercise discretion in their attempts to realize statutory and policy objectives, in ways that the black letter of the statute may not anticipate. This tension between predictable application of the law and official conduct aimed at advancing fundamental principles and values is a long-standing dilemma in legal thinking about the rule of law, which administrative law tries to navigate. Administrative law is thus both a limit and a guide to government conduct, constraining the exercise of public power to ensure it is consistent with constitutional rights and values while holding government accountable to the objectives encoded in legislation. Administrative law is the live edge of our constitutional and common-law commitments to liberty, equality, dignity and Indigenous rights.  

This course is an introduction to administrative law in Canada, covering four main themes: lawfulness, merits review, procedural fairness, and the evolving public-law relationship between the Crown and Indigenous communities. We consider under each theme how administrative law upholds both the rule of law and constitutional principles.