Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Marie-Eve Sylvestre (University of Ottawa - Civil Law Section) has posted The Redistributive Potential of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter: Incorporating Socio Economic Context in Criminal Law and in the Adjudication of Rights (Ottawa Law Review, Vol. 42, No. 3, 2012) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This article contrasts two series of arguments put forward by litigators for including social and economic context in the adjudication of rights protected by section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in order to assess the impact of 25 years of Charter litigation on the rights of the poor in the wake of the Re BC Motor Vehicle Act. The first series of arguments focuses on the inclusion of poverty and social disadvantage in the definition of principles of fundamental justice relevant to the determination of criminal responsibility and in sentencing. The second series of arguments articulates a broader conception of the right to life, liberty and security of the person. In light of the mitigated results obtained for the poor in both cases, this article discusses whether the problem lies in the constitutional nature of Charter litigation itself or in the ideological nature of social and economic arguments.