Stéphane Bernatchez and Maxime St-Hilaire, professors of Law at the University of Sherbrooke, will be animating a discussion on the controversial heritage of Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court for his interpretation of the American Constitution based on "originalism", which interprets the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution according to the meaning they held at the moment of their adoption. They will address the question of the reception of this approach within Canadian constitutional law, as well as on the international level. 

This activity is addressed to researchers interested by legal theory.

Where: University of Sherbrooke Law Faculty, room A8-245.

Suggested readings

Theory

Justice Scalia summarizes his constitutional interpretation theory

Dworkin on "Moral Reading"

Justice Posner on Justice Scalia

A very interesting book review of Jack Balkin's "Living Originalism"

Justice Scalia locates his originalism in relation to Balkin's "Living Originalism"

Pratique

Short text in the New Yorker on the contradictions of Justice Scalia

A critic by one of the most important American constitutional experts, Laurence Tribe, on the heritage of Justice Scalia

(Non-)Réception à l'étranger (non reçu)

Former judges from the CSC "dissent from Scalia"

Adam Dodek on the way Justice Scalia's national retreat contributed to making Canada a "constitutional superpower"