The Principles of Fundamental Justice and the 'Societal Consensus' Requirement

摘要

The Supreme Court of Canada's test for delineating the principles of fundamental justice requires that a proposed norm enjoy "significant societal consensus that it is fundamental to the way in which the legal system ought to fairly operate". The author examines the considerations that count in favour of recognizing that a proposed norm satisfies this requirement; they include: the standard employed---be it normative or empirical, the types of sources relied upon and the way a proposed norm is framed or reframed by the Court. The author argues a normative standard is preferable because it allows the Court to retain full competence to deal with those egregiously unfair outcomes that fall under section 7 but are unpredictable ex ante. It is the better standard for a liberal-democratic state which values dialogue as between the Court and Parliament. As for reformulating proposed principles, the author argues procedural safeguards should be introduced.