WHITHER JUDICIAL REVIEW?

Abstract

For some time, both Bench and Bar have called for simplification of judicial review of administrative action. In Dunsmuir v. New Brunswick, the Supreme Court of Canada went a long way in answering that call by reducing the number of review standards to two, correctness and reasonableness. It went even further. By suggesting that judicial and appellate review were converging in their approaches to review on the merits and to deference, the Court opened up the possibility that values such as rationality, consistency, equality, judicial economy, and the maintenance of respect for administrative justice could be more transparently taken into account when reviewing administrative action. This raises the possibility, once accommodation is made for procedural and remedial considerations, that the need in the future for a distinction between judicial and appellate review might fade altogether.