CONSTITUTIONAL ROUNDTABLE
presents
Hugo Cyr
Université du Québec à Montréal
Autonomy, Subsidiarity and Solidarity:
The Foundations of Cooperative Federalism
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
12:30 – 2:00
Solarium, Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
What does the constitutional principle of federalism entail? Instead of a detailed set of specific rules, the principle of federalism relies on a series of principles that distinguish federations from other political forms. I propose that three such principles stand out from within our constitutional instruments and jurisprudence: autonomy, subsidiarity and federal solidarity. The combination of these three interrelated constitutional principles forms the normative structure that gives Canadian federalism its internal logic. And it is my contention that this internal logic is one of cooperative federalism. It is these principles that must guide the judiciary when it fulfills its special duty as “guardian of the Constitution”, and as such, as guardian of the principle of federalism.
Hugo Cyr, LL.B., B.C.L. (McGill), LL.M. (Yale), LL.D. (U. de Montréal). Full Professor, Directeur des études supérieures en droit, Faculté de science politique et de droit, Université du Québec à Montréal, Member of the Québec Bar. Professor Cyr has been a law clerk to the Honorable Justice Binnie, a Visiting Researcher at the European Academy of Legal Theory, a Boulton Fellow and Visiting Professor at McGill University and a Schell Fellow at the Yale Law School. He teaches and does research in Constitutional Law and Legal Theory.
For more workshop information, please contact Nadia Gulezko at n.gulezko@utoronto.ca
