The Place of Constitutional Conventions in the Constitutional Architecture, and in the Courts

The Supreme Court's recent invocation of the “constitutional architecture” in theSenate Reform Referencehas led a number of scholars to question the status of constitutional conventions in the legal, as opposed to political, constitution. Has the Court, without expressly saying so, transformed at least some conventions into constitutional law? This would be a serious rupture, not only from existing precedent on the justiciability of conventions but also from the traditional understanding of conventions as binding political rules. In light of this recent scholarly debate, an exploration of the profound consequences of entrenching conventions in the legal constitution is warranted, as it implicates the meaning of constitutional conventions, their creation, their relation to law, and their enforcement. Judicial entrenchment of conventions would be a dangerous violation of the separation of powers and would have negative consequences for the functioning of Canada's system of government and for the future of constitutional change

Constitution · Constitutional law · Enforcement · Invocation · Justiciability · Meaning (existential · Political question · Political science · Politics · Supreme court · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal Language and Interpretation · Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies · Philosophy

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