The Invisible Constitution in Comparative Perspective



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The Invisible Constitution in Comparative Perspective by Rosalind Dixon (editor), Adrienne Stone (editor) (z-lib.org)

David Schneiderman

noted that the appropriate way to resolve “complex governance problems” 

in a federation such as Canada’s was “by seeking cooperative solutions that 

meet the needs of the country as a whole as well as its constituent parts.” 

This approach, the Court continued, “is supported by Canadian constitu-

tional principles” which “respect” the constitutional authority of each level of 

government.

104


 “Cooperation is the animating force,” the Court wrote: “The 

federalism principle upon which Canada’s constitutional framework rests 

demands nothing less.”

105


From this, Gaudreault-Desbiens describes the principle of federalism as 

having played “a crucial role in the court’s reasoning.”

106

 This does not seem a 



fair reading of the case. The Court’s decision was driven primarily by its prior 

interpretation of the textual division of powers (in GMC).

107

 Most surprising 



about the Securities Act Reference was the Court’s return to policing the divi-

sion of powers. This was a function the Court, up till now, appears to have 

abandoned.

108


 It is reminiscent of the period associated with classical legal fed-

eralism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the Judicial 

Committee of the Privy Council invoked a “watertight compartments” met-

aphor to describe the law of Canadian federalism. Rather than succumbing 

to the modern discourse of inevitable overlap (or “double aspect”), the Court 

vindicated traditional provincial authority over property and civil rights as 

Quebec, Alberta and others had argued before the Court. Again, text and 

precedent mostly persevered.

Which is not to say that there was no political context for the constitutional 

dispute. Karazavin and Gaudreault-Desbiens claim, for instance, that the 

Court’s legitimacy hung in the balance. So long as the Court issued reasons 

having “genuine normative stringency,” its legitimacy would be preserved. 

That is, so long as the Court applied the tests for federal trade and commerce 

authority persuasively, legitimacy concerns were less likely to arise. That 

the Court need only apply precedent persuasively was an implicit acknowl-

edgment that the stakes in the Securities Act Reference were not so high.

109

 

Having sought judicial rulings from provincial courts of appeal as a means of 



halting the federal scheme it could hardly be a source of complaint for the 

104 


Reference re Securities Act (note 87), paras 132–3.

105 


Ibid.

106 


Gaudreault-Desbiens, Supra note 99, 14.

107 


General Motors of Canada Ltd. v. City National Leasing [1989] 1 S.C.R. 641.

108 


Bruce Ryder, “Equal Autonomy in Canadian Federalism: The Continuing Search for Balance 

in the Interpretation of the Division of Powers” (2011) 54 Sup Ct L Rev (2d) 565.

109 

Noura Karazivan and Jean-François Gaudreault-Desbiens, “On Polyphony and Paradoxes in 



the Regulation of Securities within the Canadian Federation” (2010) 40 Can Bus LJ 1, 38–9.


 

Unwritten Constitutional Principles in Canada 

539


Quebec government to have the Supreme Court of Canada assume the task 

of authoritatively resolving the dispute.

To the extent that an unwritten principle of federalism played a role in 

the Securities Act Reference, it served, in the reading offered here, merely to 

smooth ruffled feathers. It was a rhetorical aid – a strategic device, one could 

say – a means by which the Court could convince its various audiences that 

it was doing the right thing.

110


 Particularly ironic is the fact that the Harper 

government was espousing a version of classical legal federalism and the res-

toration of “constitutional balance” in the federation, namely, withdrawal of 

the federal government from provincial jurisdictional space, in its campaign 

platforms.

111


 There was no need to make mention of unwritten constitutional 

principles in Conservative campaign discourse, just as it was unnecessary in 

the Securities Act Reference. The Court, from this perspective, acted consist-

ently with the expectations of many of the relevant political actors, though 

at odds with the federal government’s attempted power grab in this instance.

18.5. Conclusion

If the argument in this chapter has been that the identification of unwritten con-

stitutional principles is best explained by the Supreme Court’s strategic behav-

ior, this does not mean that unwritten principles will not evolve into something 

more legally robust having precedential value. Legal concepts have an ability 

to live well beyond the reasons for their initial prompting, and can take on a 

life of their own.

112

 As the personnel on the Court changes, and as law students 



are schooled in their utility, the Supreme Court may become more recep-

tive to unwritten constitutional principles. Some Justices, like Louis LeBel, 

who did not sit on the Secession Reference bench and joined in the minority 

opinion in Quebec v. Canada, have exhibited less timidity in this regard.

113

  

There is no reason to think that unwritten principles will not have more of a 



110 

Such a rhetorically minded approach to constitutional review was inaugurated, in Canada, by 

Marc Gold and expounded by Andrée Lajoie. See e.g., Marc Gold, “The Mask of Objectivity: 

Politics and Rhetoric in the Supreme Court of Canada” (1985) Supreme Court L Rev 455, and 

Andrée Lajoie, Jugements des valeur (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1997).

111 


Schneiderman, Supra note 94, 89–93.

112 


Karl  Renner,  The Institutions of Private Law and their Social Functions trans. Agnes 


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