Administrative Law

Administrative officials influence our lives in all sorts of ways: deciding who can enter and remain in Canada, regulating entry to and guaranteeing professionalism and competence in professions like law and health care, setting rules for manufacturing or selling things, imposing safety standards on various industries, ensuring consumers are protected against unfair business practices, issuing or suspending drivers’ licences, or allowing or preventing us from renovating our homes.

These powers of administration are, on one hand, extensive. On the other hand, officials have these powers in the first place only because Parliament or a provincial or territorial legislature has conferred them on or delegated them to officials. Administrative law concerns the principles and rules that constrain and direct the way government officials exercise these extensive, delegated powers. Administrative law is not concerned with testing the validity or constitutionality of legislation, but rather with ensuring that the exercise of powers that legislation confers is lawful (that is, within the scope of the empowering statute), reasonable on its merits, and procedurally fair.

Administrative law is the most practical application of our commitment to the rule of law, because all exercises of public power must be grounded in and bounded by law. At the same, because administrative decision-making so closely affects our daily lives, the administrative law that constrains and directs administrative officials must reflect and uphold our commitment to constitutional values of dignity, equality, democracy and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

This course provides an overview of administrative law in Canada, covering four main themes of administrative law: lawfulness, substantive review, procedural fairness, and Crown officials’ obligations to consult and accommodate Indigenous peoples before making decisions affecting Indigenous rights.