Adjudication, Policy-Making and the Supreme Court of Canada: Lessons From the Experience of the United States

This article explores the relevance of studies of judicial policy-making in the United States to the decision-making of the Supreme Court of Canada under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The article suggests that literature concerning the political legitimacy of judicial policy-making is minimally relevant, since a broad form of judicial review appears to be well established in Charter jurisprudence. The literature on institutional decision-making capacity has greater relevance, since the Canadian Court faces the same information-processing constraints as its American counterpart. The article concludes by suggesting that attempts to overcome problems of institutional capacity may produce additional questions of political legitimacy.