Finnis recounts path to the charter at Coxford Lecture
October 1, 2014
Steve Coxford, John Finnis and Bradley Miller
Influential constitutional scholar professor John Finnis provided an insider’s account of the role played by the U.K. Parliament in the 1982 patriation of the Canadian Constitution at the annual Coxford lecture held April 8.
As the legal advisor to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Finnis had been tasked with assessing the constitutional responsibilities of the U.K. Parliament to the Canadian federation in 1980-81. Was the U.K. Parliament bound by convention simply to accede to former prime minister Trudeau’s unilateral demand for a constitutional amendment that would diminish the powers of the provinces? If the impasse between Trudeau and the provinces continued, could the U.K. Parliament impose a solution over the objections of the federal government?
Finnis’ lecture, ”Patriation and Patrimony: the Path to the Charter,” explored this little-known aspect of the Canadian constitutional story. His detailed lecture drew on reports Finnis authored for the Kershaw Committee; the response of the Canadian Department of Justice and Trudeau; newly declassified material from the archives of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher; and Finnis’ own reflections on the nature of political authority and responsibility.
Finnis held the positions of lecturer, reader and chaired professor in law at the University of Oxford for over four decades until 2010. He is currently professor emeritus at Oxford and has held the Biolchini Family Professor of Law at Notre Dame University since 1995.
The Coxford lecture, Western’s leading public law lecture series, is generously supported by Stephen Coxford ’77, former chair of Western’s board of governors.
This article appeared in the Western Law 2014 Alumni Magazine.
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