Research
Public law seeks to understand and facilitate the relationships between individuals, groups, and the state. The Public Law Research Group (PLRG) strives to advance existing knowledge and understandings of these relationships through rigorous, bold scholarship. At present, in response to notable gaps and persistent legal puzzles, the PLRG’s research agenda orients around two broad themes: pluralism and structuralism. With its focus on pluralism, the PLRG explores the many and varied sites, sources, and modes of public law, testing the accuracy of dominant narratives. With its focus on structuralism, the PLRG investigates the animating principles, assumptions, institutions, and other oft-neglected structural elements at work within and across constitutional orders, mapping architectures of governance, offering routes for institutional reform, and rethinking foundational matters like federalism and democracy.
Western Law work exploring these themes of pluralism and structuralism
Manish Oza, “The Personality of Public Authorities”, forthcoming in Law and Philosophy.
Athanasios Psygkas, "When the Administrative State Encounters the Constitution" in Peter Lindseth et al., eds., Comparative Administrative Law, 3rd ed. (Edward Elgar, 2025) (forthcoming).
Athanasios Psygkas, "Administrative Democracy and Federalism" in S. Rose-Ackerman, ed., Public Administration and Expertise in Democratic Governments: Comparative Public Law in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2024), 166-188.
Erika Chamberlain, Patrick Monahan and Wade Wright, Hogg’s Liability of the Crown, 4th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2024) (forthcoming).
Rory Gillis, “Rethinking the Division of Tax Room and Revenue in Fiscal Federalism” (2023) 73:2 University of Toronto Law Journal 174-215.
Manish Oza, “Structural Analysis and the Canadian Constitution” (2023) 101 The Canadian Bar Review 205-236 (With Malcolm Rowe).
Thomas Telfer & Virginia Torrie, “A Historical Account of the Orderly Payment of Debts Act Reference: Limiting Provincial Efforts to Protect Insolvent Debtors” (2023) 46:2 Dalhousie Law Journal 707-739.
Thomas Telfer & Virginia Torrie, “Debt Postponement, Debtor Protection, and Creditor Interests: The Role of the Saskatchewan Moratorium Act Reference Case in Reinforcing the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Power” (2023) 86 Saskatchewan Law Review 41-82.
Rory Gillis, “Federalism and Interprovincial Infrastructure Disputes in Canada” (2022) 55:1 UBC Law Rev 1-50.
David Sandomierski, “The Limits of Adjudication in the First-Year Curriculum: The Recurring History of Legal Process at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law” in Ian Pilarczyk, Angela Fernandez and Brian Young, eds., Law, Life, and the Teaching of Legal History: Essays in Honour of G. Blaine Baker (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022).
Virginia Torrie & Thomas Telfer, “Bankruptcy and Insolvency as an Expanding Field: An Historical Analysis of Reference Re Debt Adjustment Act, 1937 (Alta.)” (2022) 59:4 Alberta Law Review 807-832.
Thomas Telfer & Virginia Torrie, Debt and Federalism: Landmark Cases in Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law, 1894-1937 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021).
Wade K. Wright, “Against Privileging the Charter: The Case of Federal Pre-enactment Constitutional Review” (2020-2021) 25 Rev Const Stud 49-78.
Michael Coyle, "E Pluribus Plures: Legal Pluralism and the Recognition of Indigenous Legal Orders” in Paul Schiff Berman, ed., Understanding Global Legal Pluralism: From Local to Global, From Descriptive to Normative (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).
Michael Coyle, "Shifting the Focus: Viewing Indigenous Consent Not as a Snapshot But As a Feature Film” (2020) 27 International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 1-20.
Athanasios Psygkas, “The United Kingdom’s Statutory Constitution” (2020) 40(3) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 449-481.
Athanasios Psygkas, “Accountability” in Peter Cane, Herwig Hofmann, Eric Ip & Peter Lindseth, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Administrative Law (Oxford University Press, 2020).
Athanasios Psygkas, “Accommodating legal pluralism and ‘pluralizing’ the constitution: The example of the United Kingdom” in Guillaume Tusseau, ed., Debating legal pluralism and constitutionalism: New trajectories for legal theory in the global age (Springer, 2020).
Wade K. Wright, “Canadian Federalism’s Underlying Question: What It Is and Why It Matters” (2020) 53(2) UBC Law Rev 531-589.
Athanasios Psygkas, “The Hydraulics of Constitutional Claims: Multiplicity of Actors in Constitutional Interpretation” (2019) 69(2) University of Toronto Law Journal 211-247.
Athanasios Psygkas, “Celebrating Canada’s Sesquicentennial: Lessons from and for the World” (2019) 17 International Journal of Constitutional Law 332-341.
Wade K. Wright, “Provincial Non-enforcement of Constitutionally Suspect Federal Criminal Laws” in Richard Albert, Paul Daly and Vanessa MacDonnell, eds., The Canadian Constitution in Transition (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019).
Wade K. Wright, “Federalism(s) in the Supreme Court of Canada During the McLachlin Years” in D. Jutras and M. Moore, eds., Canada’s Chief Justice: Beverley McLachlin’s Legacy of Law and Leadership (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2018). Also published as: (2018) 86 SCLR (2d) 207.
Constitutional Law of Canada Treatise
In 2020, Professor Wade Wright, who co-directs the PLRG, agreed to assume the authorship of Peter Hogg’s seminal Constitutional Law of Canada treatise, which is the most cited book in the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada. In this role, Professor Wright is responsible for preparing the yearly updates to the treatise, which is published as both a two-volume, loose-leaf book (comprising 60 chapters) and as an abridged annual student edition.
Current Versions of the Constitutional Law of Canada Treatise
Peter W. Hogg and Wade K. Wright, Constitutional Law of Canada, 5th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Reuters/Carswell, 2007+, loose-leaf version) (2023 update).
Peter W. Hogg and Wade K. Wright, Constitutional Law of Canada, 2023 Student Edition (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2023).
Public Law Research at Western
Western Law is an active hub of scholarly inquiry into the pressing questions of public law. Our faculty members are deeply engaged in conversations across the spectrum of public law, often pushing the frontiers of traditional categories and drawing links across notions of public and private law.
Recent public law work by Western Law scholars
Erika Chamberlain, “Diceyan Equality and Public Authority Liability: Floor or Ceiling”, forthcoming in Private Law and the State.
Ryan Liss, “International Criminal Law as Cosmopolitan Right in Reverse”, forthcoming in Jurisprudence.
Colin Campbell, Administration of Income Tax 2023 (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2023).
Rory Gillis, Canadian Income Tax Law, 7th ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2023) (with David Duff, Geoffrey Loomer and Bradley Bryan).
Shimelis Kene, “Work of the Ethiopian Eritrean Boundary Commission” (The Springer Encyclopedia of Territorial Rights, 2023).
Valerie Oosterveld (with Kathleen Maloney and Melanie O’Brien), “Forced Marriage as the Crime Against Humanity of ‘Other Inhumane Acts’ in the International Criminal Court’s Ongwen Case” (2023) 23 (5-6) International Criminal Law Review 705–730.
Alex Zhou, Valerie Nwaokoro, Valerie Oosterveld, and Adam Sirek, “Building a One Country One Licensure Framework: Applications for the Future of Canadian Space Physicians” (2023) IEEE Open Journal in Medicine and Biology.
Colin Campbell, Administration of Income Tax 2022 (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2022).
Colin Campbell, A History of Canadian Income Tax. Volume 1: The Income War Tax Act 1917-1948, (with Robert Raizenne) [published jointly by the Canadian Tax Foundation and the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal history in May, 2022].
Rory Gillis, “The Limits of Legal Substance: Tax Avoidance and Equitable Remedies after Collins Family Trust” (2022) 66:3 Canadian Business Law Journal 323-337.
Randal Graham, Nether Regions (ECW Press, 2022).
Shimelis Kene, “Self-Alienation: Ethiopia’s Identity in Postcoloniality and its Implication for a Future Ethiopian Social Contract” (Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and Northwestern University) (Online, 2022).
John Currie, Craig Forcese, Joanna Harrington, and Valerie Oosterveld, International Law: Doctrine, Practice and Theory, 3rd ed. (Irwin Law, 2022), 936pp.
Indira Rosenthal, Valerie Oosterveld, and Susana SáCouto, eds., Gender in International Criminal Law (Oxford University Press, 2022), 442 pp [Winner, American Society of International Law (ASIL) Women in International Law Interest Group (WILIG) Scholarship Prize for Best Book].
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Includes: Indira Rosenthal, Valerie Oosterveld, and Susana SáCouto), “Introduction” and “Chapter 1: What is ‘Gender’ in International Criminal Law?” 11-46.
Manish Oza (with Malcolm Rowe), “Tort Claims Against Public Authorities” (2022) 60 Alberta Law Review 1-34.
Ryan Liss, “Criminal Law in a World of States” (2022) 43:2 Michigan Journal of International Law 263.
Colin Campbell and Robert Raizenne, “Countering Tax Avoidance in Canada before the General Anti-Avoidance Rule” in Harris and de Cogan (eds.), Studies in the History of Tax Law, vol. 10 (Oxford: Hart, 2021), 333-362.
Colin Campbell, Administration of Income Tax (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2021).
Erika Chamberlain, “Francis v Ontario: Can the Crown Restore its Own Immunity?” (2021) 99:3 Canadian Bar Review 645-667.
Erika Chamberlain, “McKitty v Hayani: Time for Canada to Clarify its Legal Definition of Death” (2021) 14:2 McGill Journal of Law and Health 219.
Margaret Margin, "Re-visiting Raz: A Reply to My Critics” Isonomía, 2021.
Margaret Margin, “Method Matters: Non-Normative Jurisprudence and the Re-Mystification of the Law” in Jorge Luis Fabra-Zamora and Gonzalo Villa, eds., Elucidating the Concept of Law: Contemporary Disputes (Springer, 2021), 53-72.
Robert Solomon (With N. Giesbrecht et al.), “The Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation (Cape) Project: Findings from a Review of Provincial and Territorial Alcohol Policies” (2021) 40(6) Drug and Alcohol Review 1-9.
Robert Solomon (With N. Giesbrecht et al.), “Alcohol retail privatisation in Canadian provinces between 2012 and 2017. Is decision making oriented to harm reduction?” (2021) 40(3) Drug and Alcohol Review 459.
Randal Graham, Afterlife Crisis (Toronto: ECW Press, 2020).
Claire Houston, “Case Comment: Undermining Children’s Rights in AM v CH” (2020) 39 Canadian Family Law Quarterly 99.
Claire Houston, “Respecting and Protection Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Children in Canada’s Family Courts” (2020) 33(1) Canadian Journal of Family Law 103.
Shimelis Kene, “Ethiopia’s War of Narratives” (McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism; Africa is a Country; Addis Standard (Ethiopia)) (Online, 2020, with Solen Feyissa).
Ryan Liss, “Whose Right is It Anyway? Adjudicating Charter Rights in the Context of Multiple Rights Holders” (2020) 94 SCLR (2d) 271.
Margaret Martin, “Postema on Hart: The Illusion of Value-Neutrality,” in Thomas Bustamante and Thiago Lopez Decat, eds., Reflections on the Work of Gerald Postema (Hart Publishing, 2020).
Margaret Martin, “Persuade or Obey: Crito and the Preconditions for Justice,” in Stefano Bertea, ed., Contemporary Perspectives on Legal Obligation (Routledge, 2020).
Valerie Oosterveld (with Indira Rosenthal), “Gender and the ILC’s 2019 Draft Articles on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity” (2020) 6(2) African Journal of International Criminal Justice 215-227.
Valerie Oosterveld, “The Special Court for Sierra Leone: Instigating International Criminal Law’s Consideration of Forced Marriage” (2020) 14(2) Florida International University College of Law (FIU) Law Review, Microsymposium on Charles Jalloh, The Legal Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (CUP, 2020).
Valerie Oosterveld (with Margaret deGuzman), eds., The Elgar Companion to the International Criminal Court (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020).
Robert Solomon (with L. MacLeod & E. Dumschat), “The Shifting Focus of Canadian Impaired Driving Enforcement: The Increased Role of Provincial and Territorial Administrative Sanctions” (2020) 25 Canadian Criminal Law Review 24.
Robert Solomon (with T. Stockwell et al.), “Cancer warning labels on alcohol containers: A consumer’s right to know, a government’s responsibility to inform, and an industry’s power to thwart” (2020) 81(2) Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs 284.
Robert Solomon (with A. Sohrevardi et al.), “Cannabis and Driving: The Provincial and Territorial Legislative Mosaic” (2020) 68 Criminal Law Quarterly 165.
Robert Solomon (with L. MacLeod & E. Dumschat), “The increasing role of provincial administrative sanctions in Canadian impaired driving enforcement” (2020) 21(5) Traffic Injury Prevention 298
Robert Solomon (with N. Giesbrecht et al.), “Alcohol retail privatisation in Canadian provinces between 2012-2017. Is decision-making oriented to harm reduction?” (2020) Drug and Alcohol Review 1-9.
Colin Campbell (with Robert Raizenne), “The Origins and Architecture of the 1942 Canada-U.S. Tax Treaty,” in Harris and de Cogan, eds., Studies in the History of Tax Law, Volume 9 (Oxford: Hart, 2019).
Colin Campbell, Income Tax Administration 2019 (Toronto: Thomson, 2019).
Colin Campbell, Taxation of Corporate Reorganizations, 3d ed. (Toronto: Thomson, 2019) (with P. Lamar and R. Juneja).
Ryan Liss, “Crimes Against the Sovereign Order: Rethinking International Criminal Justice” (2019) 113:4 American Journal of International Law 727. (Awarded the American Society of International Law’s Francis Leiber Prize for the best article on international humanitarian law (2020).)
Valerie Oosterveld, “The Construction of Gender in Child Soldiering in the Special Court for Sierra Leone” in Mark A. Drumbl and Jastine C. Barrett, eds., Research Handbook on Child Soldiers (Elgar Publishers, 2019), 74-94.
Valerie Oosterveld, “Gender, Enslavement and War Economies: A Case Study from the Special Court for Sierra Leone” in Solange Mouthaan and Olga Jurasz, eds., Gender and War: International and Transitional Justice Perspectives (Intersentia, 2019), 147-168.
Valerie Oosterveld, “Forced Marriage: Terminological Coherence and Dissonance in International Criminal Law” (2019) 27(4) William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 1263-1282.
Robert Solomon and Erika Chamberlain (With R. Purssell), “Canadian Physicians Support Mandatory Alcohol Screening” (2019) 61(3) British Columbia Medical Journal 135.
Robert Solomon and Erika Chamberlain, “Canada’s New Federal Drug-Impaired Driving Provisions: Challenges in Enforcement and Prosecution” in Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (Edmonton: The International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS), 2019).
Robert Solomon (With E. Dumschat & A. Murie), “MADD Canada’s Retail Cannabis Training Program” in Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (Edmonton: The International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS), 2019).
Robert Solomon (With E. Dumschat), “Developing Provincial and Territorial Cannabis-Impaired Driving Counter-measures in Canada” in Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (Edmonton: The International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS), 2019).
Robert Solomon, “Alcohol, Health Warnings and Canadian Law” in Proceedings of the 2019 Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Transportation Administrators (CCMTA) (Ottawa: CCMTA, 2019).
Robert Solomon, “Cannabis and the Law” in Cannabis: What Everybody Needs to Know (Thornhill, Ont.: JoliJoco Publications Inc., 2019).
Robert Solomon (with T. Stockwell et al.), Strategies to Reduce Alcohol-Related Harms and Costs in Canada: A Review of Provincial and Territorial Policies (Victoria, BC: Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, 2019).
Robert Solomon (with A. Wettlaufer et al.), Assessment of Federal Alcohol Policy Implementation in Canada (Victoria, BC: Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, 2019).
Erika Chamberlain, Book review of Ken Oliphant, ed., Public Authority Liability in Comparative Perspective (Intersentia, 2016) (2018) 61:2 Canadian Business Law Journal 272-282.
Claire Houston, “The Trouble with Feminist Advocacy Around Child Victims of Domestic Violence” (2018) 39 Women’s Rights Law Reporter 85.
Claire Houston, “Case Comment: In the Matter of M (Children)” (2018) 7 Reports of Family Law (8th) 95.
Dennis Klimchuk, “Punishment and Crime” in Randall Lesaffer and Janne Nijman, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Hugo Grotius (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
Valerie Oosterveld, “The ICC Policy Paper on Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes: A Crucial Step for International Criminal Law” (2018) 24(3) William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law 1-15.
Valerie Oosterveld, “Canada and the Development of International Criminal Law: What Role for the Future?” in Oonagh Fitzgerald, Mark Jewett, Valerie Hughes and Basil Ugochukwu, eds., Canada in International Law @150: Past, Present and Future (McGill Queen’s University Press: 2018).
Valerie Oosterveld, “Crimes of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and the Legacy of the Tribunals” in Michael Scharf and Milena Sterio, eds., The Legacy of the Ad Hoc Tribunals in International Criminal Law (Cambridge University Press, 2018), 197-220.
Robert Solomon & Erika Chamberlain, “The Road to Traffic Safety: Mandatory Breath Screening and Bill C-46” (2018) 23 Canadian Criminal Law Review 1-42.
Robert Solomon, J. Brubacher et al., “Police Documentation of Drug Use in Injured Drivers: Implications for Monitoring and Preventing Drug-Impaired Driving” (2018) 118 Accident Analysis and Prevention 200.
Robert Solomon, Erika Chamberlain & M. Vandenberghe, “Canada’s New Cannabis-Related Driving Legislation: The Elusive Quest for an Effective Deterrent” (2018) 23 Canadian Criminal Law Review 265.
Past Themes
In recent years, the PLRG’s scholarly agenda has focused on other themes of public importance, making expansive and influential contributions on proportionality, originalist constitutional thought, and constitutional theory more broadly. This research has culminated in a number of impressive and often-cited collections published by Cambridge University Press.
