Deference on Questions of International Law

The majority of the Federal Court of Appeal in Hernandez Febles v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2012 FCA 324 refused to defer to the immigration authorities' interpretation of Article 1F(b) of the Refugee Convention (as implemented by s. 36 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act).

Administrative Law and Assange

Julian Assange is currently hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy, where he may be for some time. The British government's suggestion that he could be arrested there is wide of the mark, however.

Due Process and Drone Strikes

Last week, the New York Times published a lengthy article on the 'secret kill list' being maintained by President Obama. Whatever the merits of targeted killings as a matter of international law, international human rights law, or justice, for students of administrative law, there are at least three aspects of interest to the story. To be clear, in what follows, I am not taking a position on the legality or morality of the strikes. But in the absence of formal due process through judicial review, it is worth considering the internal safeguards that administrative law norms suggest.