Volume 27, Number 3, 1986

FR:

Cet article discute d'abord des problèmes que pose le contrôle judiciaire en général. Il explique pourquoi l'expansion de celui-ci ne peut se justifier pour les raisons habituellement invoquées à cet effet.

Depuis l'avènement de la Charte canadienne des droits, ces problèmes se sont accrus. Selon l'auteur, la Charte est une erreur : elle est source de gaspillage et elle menace l'intérêt public sans vraiment protéger les droits de la personne. En même temps, explique l'auteur, nous avons raté une occasion des plus propices d'utiliser les cours de justice de façon conforme à l'intérêt public.

EN:

Since the adoption of an Act respecting land use and development, the council of a regional county municipality has a legal obligation to adopt a development plan.

Every municipality in the regional county community is also required to adopt a planning program, a zoning by-law, a subdivision by-law and a building by-law.

This program and those by-laws must be in conformity with the objectives of the development plan. In some cases, the local by-laws also must be in conformity with the local planning program.

In the first part, this essay establishes the difference between the obligation of conformity with the regional plan and the obligation of conformity with the local planning program.

In the second part, the essay analyses the principles of conformity ; first the principles of interpretation and second the principles of application.

FR:

A l'été de 1985, la traversée du Passage du nord-ouest par le brise-glace américain Polar Sea retint substantiellement l'attention du Gouvernement et des médias au Canada. Bien que les États-Unis n'aient pas eu alors pour but de mettre en question la juridiction du Canada sur les eaux du Passage du nord-ouest, le Canada fut néanmoins obligé de réévaluer sa position quant au statut juridique des eaux internationales de même que la nature imprécise de ses prétentions sur certaines d'entre elles.

L'article qui suit examine certaines questions, juridiques et extrajuridiques, soulevées par le voyage du Polar Sea. Il s'intéresse spécialement à la position prise par le Gouvernement canadien à cette occasion.

L'attachement à la liberté de naviguer fit prendre aux Américains une attitude qui rendit difficile la riposte canadienne. Les mesures que prit le Canada, à savoir le tracé de lignes de base droites et l'annonce de la construction d'un nouveau brise-glace, furent minutieusement pesées afin qu'elles n'amènent pas les États-Unis à contester directement les prétentions canadiennes tout en ayant pour effet de rendre plus crédible l'affirmation voulant que les eaux du Passage du nord-ouest soient des eaux intérieures canadiennes dans lesquelles un bateau étranger ne peut naviguer sans permission.

EN:

Administrative justice implies a speedy resolution of a large number of cases, employing methods that are more informal, more accessible, and less costly than those which are inherent in the functioning of the traditional court system. Given these fundamental differences, the jurist can ask whether administrative tribunals, on the one hand, and traditional courts, on the other, arrive at similar judicial resolutions to similar legal problems. More pointedly, « Is administrative justice comparable in quality to that rendered by the traditional civil courts ? »

This problem is addressed here through a methodical examination of the decision-making process, as employed by the Superior court of Quebec, and the Commission des affaires sociales, to give effect over the medium term (1976-1984) to two legal rules. A corpus of pertinent judgements and decisions is studied, with a view to discover how these rulings reflect the institutional and procedural differences underlying the decision-making process of the Superior court and of the Commission des affaires sociales. It is assumed that this process is the same for both institutions, and can be artificially fragmented and examined, in the light of the selected judgements and decisions. The result is a step-by-step, comparative commentary on the quality of justice as rendered by a traditional civil court and an administrative tribunal.

EN:

The rule of law is one of the foundations of our society. In England where it first developed, it symbolized the subjection of royal power to new parliamentary supremacy. Towards the end of the 19th century, A.V. Dicey provided the concept with a description expressed in three well-known premisses. As a component of unwritten law in Canada, the rule of law was to experience many interpretations until finally it was enshrined in the preambule of the Canadian Charter. Henceforth a part of the Constitution, it would now acquire a more formal meaning in its applications to parliaments, administrative acts in general and even to royal prerogatives. Furthermore, the rule also carries with it a content that will be more precisely defined by the courts in years to come. The rule of law now is a dynamic concept that can be placed in the service of protecting and promoting human rights.