The Principles of Fundamental Justice: The Constitution and the Common Law

This article examines the application of the principles of fundamental justice in section 7 of the Charter to administrative law, and in particular its relationship to non-constitutional grounds of judicial review. The author argues that in this area of the law the common law should generally be regarded as the source of the basic tenets of our legal system that section 7 has been said to embody. The author suggests that the traditional grounds of judicial review of administrative action represent the courts\u27 accommodation of individual rights and the collective interest, and thus cover much the same ground as the Charter. However, the article also identifies some extensions of the courts\u27 supervisory role over administrative agencies that are attributable to the constitutionally entrenched status of the principles of fundamental justice