Title

Charter Dialogue Revisited – Or Much Ado About Metaphors

Authors

Wade WrightFollow
Allison Thornton
Peter Hogg

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2007

Volume

45

Issue

1

Journal

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

First Page

1

Last Page

65

Abstract

This article is a sequel to the 1997 article “The Charter Dialogue Between Courts and Legislatures (Or Perhaps The Charier of Rights Isn't Such A Bad Thing After All).” In the present article, the authors review various academic critiques of their “dialogue” theory, which postulates that Charter decisions striking down laws arc not the last word, but rather the beginning of a “dialogue,” because legislative bodies are generally able to (and generally do) enact sequel legislation that accomplishes the main objective of the unconstitutional law. The authors also examine the Supreme Court of Canada's dicta on the “dialogue” phenomenon, and update the data on which their 1997 article was based. They conclude that the dialogue phenomenon is alive and well and that the critique of the original article is largely “much ado about metaphors.

Notes

This and other articles available from The Osgoode Hall Law Journal.

This article is the subject of a special edition of the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, and was published with 8 commentaries.

Citation of this paper:

Hogg, Peter W.; Thornton, Allison A. Bushell; and Wright, Wade K.. "Charter Dialogue Revisited: Or "Much Ado About Metaphors"." Osgoode Hall Law Journal 45.1 (2007) : 1-65.