Thesis (Ph. D.)--Northeastern University, 2008. / Title from title page (viewed March 26, 2009). Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Political Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 541-552).

published_or_final_version / abstract / Law / Master / Doctor of Legal Studies

Not available

2007. Titre de soutenance: Médiation et modernité, approche communicationnelle de l'institution judiciaire--Texte remanié de : Thèse de doctorat : Sciences de l'information et de la communication : Toulon : , 2007. / Bibliogr. p. 265 - 291.

Not available / text

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has significantly changed the functions of the Canadian courts. Ever since its entrenchment in 1982, the third branch of government has enjoyed a powerful status in the Canadian polity. Countless Charter decisions, affecting the lives of all Canadians, have been rendered. The courts have been asked to rule on cruise missile testing, abortion, aboriginal rights, minority language rights and a whole range of other issues of a political, economic or social nature. Our political system, whose traditional foundations lay in the principle of parliamentary supremacy, has become one of constitutional supremacy. The new and powerful status of the nonelected judiciary has raised serious questions not only regarding the legitimacy of judicial review under the Charter but also the institutional capacity of the courts to face the Charter challenge. The author examines the nature of the judiciary's policy-making function under the Charter in order to determine the extent to which the courts are equipped to fulfil their task. The thesis suggests that in order to face the Charter challenge effectively, the courts can no longer operate within the framework of the traditional adversary process. Instead, the courts must constantly look to the prevailing values in our society as well as examine thoroughly social and scientific phenomena before rendering an "informed" policy decision. This can only be achieved through a coherent framework of Charter analysis and effective ways in handling extrinsic materials. The focus of the present paper is on section 1 of the Charter which, due to its open-ended language, most clearly invites courts to make policy-type decision.

This thesis highlights the emergence of a wrongful system conception of rights violations. In the modern welfare state, many constitutional rights violations are not discrete, one-off events but instead result from the combined conditions and dynamics of a state-sponsored system. These rights violations are pervasive and ongoing and are detected not through the existence of malevolent intent, but through an assessment of the outcomes and effects of the system on particular groups of individuals. / This thesis explains why wrongful system rights violations can only be effectively remedied through detailed structural reform programs. It identifies the nature and main features of such programs. It asks whether and what capacity the courts have to sponsor these kinds of programs. / The question of court-sponsored structural reform is approached from an institutional competency perspective that focuses on the courts' remedial capacities. Accordingly, this thesis examines the courts' remedial powers---concentrating on equity---and also the courts' remedial limits. / To examine remedial limits, the courts' dominant remedial framework---corrective justice---is examined. The inability of the corrective remedial framework to ground structural reform remedies is discussed, and the disjuncture between court remedial rhetorical and court remedial practice is highlighted. This thesis argues that a strictly corrective remedial framework is inappropriate in constitutional rights adjudication and advocates the development of a broader remedial framework in this field of adjudication, a framework more suited to the development of structural reform remedies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-247). Also available online.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Political Science, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-84).