Keywords
Supreme Court of Canada, judgement, reasons, courts, appeal courts, Canada
Abstract
In recent decades, the Supreme Court of Canada has developed a distinctive and unusual way of organizing its reasons for judgment; concomitantly, it has developed a comparably distinctive style for its minority reasons as well. This article describes this new decision format and the elements into which it is typically divided, and compares it with the practices of appeal courts in other common law countries. It concludes first by theorizing about the purpose and the functions of decision formats and format changes, and then by defending the current Canadian style.
Recommended Citation
Peter McCormick, "Structures of Judgment: How the Modern Supreme Court of Canada Organizes its Reasons" (2009) 32:1 Dal LJ 35.
