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Seven Absolute RightsRecovering the Historical Foundations of Canada's Rule of Law |
eBook Available
Redeeming the forgotten history of our rule of law and its categorical limits on executive power.
For 150 years, Canada's constitutional order has been both flexible and durable, ensuring peace, order, and good government while protecting the absolute rights at the core of the rule of law. In this era of transnational terrorism and proliferating emergency powers, it is essential to revisit how and why our constitutional order developed particular limits on the government's powers, which remain in force despite war, rebellion, and insurrection.
Seven Absolute Rights surveys the historical foundations of Canada's rule of law and the ways they reinforce the Constitution. Ryan Alford provides a gripping narrative of constitutional history, beginning with the medieval and early modern context of Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the constitutional settlement of the Glorious Revolution. His reconstruction ends with a detailed examination of two pre-Confederation crises: the rebellions of 1837-38 and the riots of 1849, which, as he demonstrates, provide the missing constitutionalist context to the framing of the British North America Act. Through this accessible exploration of key events and legal precedents, Alford offers a distinct perspective on the substantive principles of the rule of law embedded in Canada's Constitution.
In bringing constitutional history to life, Seven Absolute Rights reveals the history and meaning of these long-forgotten protections and shows why they remain fundamental to our freedom in the twenty-first century.
Seven Absolute Rights surveys the historical foundations of Canada's rule of law and the ways they reinforce the Constitution. Ryan Alford provides a gripping narrative of constitutional history, beginning with the medieval and early modern context of Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the constitutional settlement of the Glorious Revolution. His reconstruction ends with a detailed examination of two pre-Confederation crises: the rebellions of 1837-38 and the riots of 1849, which, as he demonstrates, provide the missing constitutionalist context to the framing of the British North America Act. Through this accessible exploration of key events and legal precedents, Alford offers a distinct perspective on the substantive principles of the rule of law embedded in Canada's Constitution.
In bringing constitutional history to life, Seven Absolute Rights reveals the history and meaning of these long-forgotten protections and shows why they remain fundamental to our freedom in the twenty-first century.
Details
264 Pages, 6 x 9
ISBN 9780228000785
May 2020
Formats: Cloth, eBook
"This is unlike any earlier work on Canadian law that I've come across. Strikingly novel in its approach, enormously informative, and immensely learned, Seven Absolute Rights is an impressive accomplishment that brings a valuable new perspective to studies of constitutionalism and the rule of law." Robert Diab, Thompson Rivers University
Ryan Alford is associate professor at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University, a bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, and author of Permanent State of Emergency: Unchecked Executive Power and the Demise of the Rule of Law.
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction: Finding the Content and Meaning of the Canadian Rule of Law in Its History 3
PART ONE UNCOVERING THE PITH: THE RULE OF LAW AT THE HEART OF THE LIVING TREE 25
1 The Courts, the Academy, and the Future of the Rule of Law in the Twenty-First Century 27
2 Contemporary British Approaches to Unwritten Constitutional Principles 47
PART TWO HOW THE CANADIAN RULE OF LAW GREW: UP FROM ITS ROOTS 73
3 The Middle Ages and the First Constitutional Statutes: Royal Authority, Law, and Process 75
4 Stuart Theories of Extraordinary Prerogative and Legal Impunity Rejected 93
5 The “Seal of the Constitution”: The Glorious Revolution and the Modern Rule of Law 113
PART THREE TRANSPLANTING THE RULE OF LAW: BENDING IN NEW WINDS OF CHANGE 135
6 The History of Constitutionalism in North America and the Canadian Settlement of 1849 138
7 Confederation and Beyond: Rule of Law from Universal Good to Chimera 166
Epilogue: The Meaning of Constitutional History for Judges, Lawyers, and Students 191
Notes 207
Index 231
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction: Finding the Content and Meaning of the Canadian Rule of Law in Its History 3
PART ONE UNCOVERING THE PITH: THE RULE OF LAW AT THE HEART OF THE LIVING TREE 25
1 The Courts, the Academy, and the Future of the Rule of Law in the Twenty-First Century 27
2 Contemporary British Approaches to Unwritten Constitutional Principles 47
PART TWO HOW THE CANADIAN RULE OF LAW GREW: UP FROM ITS ROOTS 73
3 The Middle Ages and the First Constitutional Statutes: Royal Authority, Law, and Process 75
4 Stuart Theories of Extraordinary Prerogative and Legal Impunity Rejected 93
5 The “Seal of the Constitution”: The Glorious Revolution and the Modern Rule of Law 113
PART THREE TRANSPLANTING THE RULE OF LAW: BENDING IN NEW WINDS OF CHANGE 135
6 The History of Constitutionalism in North America and the Canadian Settlement of 1849 138
7 Confederation and Beyond: Rule of Law from Universal Good to Chimera 166
Epilogue: The Meaning of Constitutional History for Judges, Lawyers, and Students 191
Notes 207
Index 231
