SCC Re-Rewrites The Standard Of Review

The Supreme Court has revamped administrative law, setting out a new framework for judicial review of administrative decisions, and providing much-needed guidance on its application. 

What you need to know

• Statutory appeals. The Court reversed decades of precedent and held that, where a legislature has created a statutory appeal from an administrative decision, questions of law will be reviewed on a correctness standard, and questions of fact or mixed fact and law will be reviewed for palpable and overriding error.
• Presumption of reasonableness review. In applications for judicial review of administrative decisions, courts must presumptively apply the reasonableness standard of review. This new rule replaces the old contextual approach to determining the standard of review.