By the Court decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada

Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada have the option of releasing reasons for a unanimous decision anonymously by simply attributing the judgment to "The Court". The practice began around 1979 by Chief Justice Laskin, borrowing from the US Supreme Court practice of anonymizing certain unanimous decisions.^[1] Unlike in the US, which uses it primarily for uncontroversial cases, in Canada, it is used almost always for important and controversial cases.^[2]

It has been suggested that the practice has been used to give greater authority to the decision by having the entire Court speak as a single voice.^[3]

Peter McCormick, a professor of political science at the University of Lethbridge who studies Canada's appellate courts, calls these 'per coram decision," but his terminology is not in general use. McCormick states that there were 9 reported per coram decisions prior to Bora Laskin's term as Chief Justice, 15 reported per coram decisions under Laskin's Chief Justiceship, and 51 reported per coram decisions under Dickson's Chief Justiceship.^[4]

List

The following is a list of anonymous decisions that are attributed to "The Court":

See also

• Per curiam decision

References

1. ↑ L'Heureux-Dubé, Claire. "The Dissenting Opinion: Voice of the Future?" 38 Osgoode Hall L.J. 495 at 500
2. ↑ McCormick, Peter. "The Political Jurisprudence of Hot Potatoes" (2002) 13 Nat'l J. Const. L. 271 at 176
3. ↑ Bzdera, Andre. "Comparative Analysis of Federal High Courts: A Political Theory of Judicial Review" (1993) 26 Canadian Journal of Political Science 3 at 25
4. ↑ McCormick, Peter. "The Supervisory Role of the Supreme Court of Canada: Analysis of Appeals from Provincial Courts of Appeal, 1949-1990" (1992), 3(2d) Supreme Court Law Review 1, at p. 27.

Cases and Reasons of the Supreme Court of Canada
Notable cases by era	Richards through Fauteux Court (1875–1973) Laskin Court (1973–1984) Dickson Court (1984–1990) Lamer Court (1990–2000) McLachlin Court (2000 to date)
Reasons by year	1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Reasons by Justice	Current McLachlin Abella Moldaver Karakatsanis Wagner Gascon Côté Brown Rowe Former Lamer Wilson L'Heureux-Dubé Sopinka Gonthier Cory Iacobucci Major Bastarache Binnie Arbour LeBel Deschamps Fish Charron Rothstein Cromwell
Cases and Reasons by type of judgment	Oral reasons "By the Court" reasons