The Impact of Legal Mobilization and Judicial Decisions

The Case of Official Minority-Language Education Policy in Canada for Francophones Outside Quebec

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4085447
AutoresTroy Q Riddell, Troy Riddell (University of Guelph, autor correspondente)
Ano2004
Volume38
Fascículo3
Páginas583-610
Data de publicação2004-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLaw & Society Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.0023-9216.2004.00058.x
OpenAlexW2019231297
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas16

The article investigates the impact of legal mobilization and judicial decisions on official minority-language education (OMLE) policy in the Canadian provinces outside Quebec, using the "factor-oriented" and "dispute-centered" theories of judicial impact developed by U.S. scholars. The Canadian Supreme Court's decision in Mahé v. Alberta (1990), which broadly interpreted Section 23 of the Charter of Rights to include management and control of OMLE programs and schools, along with federal funding to the provinces to implement OMLE policy, are important to explaining OMLE policy change as predicted by the factor-oriented approach. The dispute-centered approach, on the other hand, helps us understand how the Charter of Rights and judicial decisions shaped the goals and discourse of Francophone groups in the policy process and, more instrumentally, provided opportunity structures that Francophone groups exploited effectively. The article concludes that both approaches to explaining judicial impact could be accommodated within an institutional model of judicial impact that construes institutions as state actors, as sets of rules, and as frameworks of meaning and interpretation. Such an approach would allow for the development of a more comparative model of judicial impact

Charter · French · Interpretation (philosophy · Judicial interpretation · Judicial opinion · Judicial review · Political science · Sociology · Supreme court · Canadian Identity and History · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Political Systems and Governance · Public Administration