The Role of the Judiciary in Environmental Governance - Chapter 6: Canada

Jamie Benidickson 

University of Ottawa - Common Law Section

Dr. Heather C. McLeod-Kilmurrary 

University of Ottawa - Common Law Section
2009

In: Louis Kotze and Alexander R Paterson (eds.), 'The Role of the Judiciary in Environmental Governance: Comparative Perspectives' (Kluwer Law International) pp. 209-248, 2009 
Abstract:      
Major environmental issues currently confront Canadian society in its global context, including threats to natural resources, deteriorating water and air quality in certain communities, and policy challenges related to climate change. There is a variety of actual and potential roles for Canada's courts, which are powerful, independent and well-respected institutions. The courts have been called upon to make decision regarding prosecutorial authority, and the exercise of statutory authority related to the environment. As voluntary policy instruments gain traction, traditional environmental enforcement in the courts may decline; this threatens to restrict future development of private law principles in the environmental context. Factors that will continue to shape courts' enforcement of environmental requirements include increasing pressures for accountability and democratic legitimacy in the enforcement process, the shift to a service economy, globalization, and international developments in environmental law. Strong language in Canadian environmental statutes suggests that courts' implementation of environmental values will entail including sustainability as a fundamental principle.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 40

Keywords: Canada, Canadian, law, legal environment, environmental, global, natural resources, water, air, quality, climate change, court, judiciary, prosecution, prosecutorial, authority, statutory, enforcement, private law, accountability, policy, voluntary, principles, globalization, sustainability, values

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2297080