Divine Intervention: The Role and Impact of Interveners in Canadian Religious Freedom Litigation
Professors Shauna Van Praagh and Angela Campbell of McGill's Faculty of Law welcome Professor (BCL/LLB'06), Faculty of Law, University of Calgary.
Abstract
What roles do non-governmental interveners play in Canadian religious freedom cases? Profs. Kathryn Chan and Howard Kislowicz are undertaking a project employing a range of methodologies to address this question.
Specifically, the research aims to answer:
(1) When and how do non-governmental actors intervene in cases involving religious freedom claims?
(2) How do these interveners influence the judicial development of constitutional norms?
(3) What are the implications of the collected evidence for theories of whether and how interventions are valuable to the adjudication of constitutional claims?
Prof. Kislowicz will discuss the team’s quantitative analysis, which confirms the frequent intervention of a limited number of non-governmental actors in religious freedom litigation in Canada, along with the infrequent intervention of a larger and more diverse group of non-governmental actors. He will also discuss the team’s qualitative analysis, which modestly supports the view that interveners affect the substance of judicial decisions on religious freedom in Canada.
