Law 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Legal Positivism, Legal Realism, Constitutionalism
Document Summary
Readings: con-2 to con-17, skim con-17 to con-35, con-35 to con-46. The hierarchy is: international > constitution > federal (legislation & regulation) > provincial (legislation regulation) > municipal > courts > tribunals. Constitution: constitutionalism is the idea that the power of government ought to be limited/constrained by the law, through federalism, through charter of rights and freedoms. What is law: law is the body of rules that can be enforced by the courts or other government agencies (isn"t just one thing and it isn"t a higher order) Rules must be capable of being complied with. Rules must be sufficiently stable to allow people to plan their lives. The making of orders applicable to relatively limited situations must be guided by relatively general, clear, stable rules. People with authority to make or administer laws in an official capacity: must be accountable; and, must actually administer the laws consistently with their tenor, concerns about arbitrary use of power, concerns about instrumentalism.
