The Civil Servant's Role in the Implementation of Constitutional Rights

Posted: 10 Aug 2015

See all articles by Vanessa MacDonnell

Vanessa MacDonnell

University of Ottawa - Common Law Section

Date Written: August 10, 2015

Abstract

This article examines the role civil servants play in ensuring that politicians fulfill their constitutional obligations. Scholars have not generally identified civil servants as a positive force in constitutional implementation. Rather, the literature tends to criticize the emergence of civil servants, and government lawyers in particular, as new drivers of the policy process. Taking the Canadian policy process as my starting point, I push back against this criticism and suggest that civil servants, legally trained and otherwise, are uniquely positioned to insist that constitutional implementation be an explicit policy focus.

Keywords: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, civil servants, bureaucracy, rights implementation, positive rights, constitutional law

Suggested Citation

MacDonnell, Vanessa, The Civil Servant's Role in the Implementation of Constitutional Rights (August 10, 2015). (2015) 13:2 I•CON 383, Ottawa Faculty of Law Working Paper No. 2015-25, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2641818

Vanessa MacDonnell (Contact Author)

University of Ottawa - Common Law Section ( email )

57 Louis Pasteur Street
Ottawa, K1N 6N5
Canada
613-562-5800 (7917) (Phone)

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