Limiting Rights: The Dilemma of Judicial Review

Through an extended analysis of Supreme Court decisions involving limits on protected rights, Hiebert explores the issues surrounding judicial review. She explores how difficult it is for judges to determine the reasonableness of legislative initiatives and examines the considerable influence exerted by Canadian politicians in decisions about which legislative activities will be considered justifiable limits on protected rights. Politicians have, in other words, helped define the very constraints that the Charter was intended to impose on them. Limiting Rights sheds light on one of the most contentious issues in a political system with entrenched rights.