| This dissertation's subject is the myriad of judicial, adjudicative functions assigned by Canadian statutes to persons who are not judges and to institutions that are not courts. Taken together, these persons and institutions are now commonly said to comprise an "administrative justice system". It is a justice system with a pervasive, major influence on the life of all Canadians; the justice system to which the majority of Canadians must look for the recognition or vindication of their rights; the only justice system most people are likely to encounter. It is a system of tribunals which routinely make life-altering rights decisions in a broad range of contexts, and which are as capable as courts of inflicting injustice; a system that is as much a part of our rights regime, and as much a child of the rule of law, as is our traditional judicial system.;The dissertation addresses the system's record of justice-tainted institutional failures and its theoretical, legal and structural deficiencies; posits the elements of a theory of administrative justice on which to base transformative reform; and proposes a plan of reform and restructuring.;The dissertation demonstrates through the public record that, with the exception of the system in the Province of Quebec, Canada's administrative justice system, as traditionally, and currently, structured and administered, is in fact a shameful pretence of a justice system; one for which the most appropriate label is not "administrative justice" but the oxymoron label "executive branch justice"; a system of Dicey's "official courts" come to life; a system that is egregiously abused and neglected by the politicians and bureaucrats, and whose design and operation is blind to the principles of justice; a system in dire need of transformative structural reform. |
