Leonid Sirota
@doubleaspect
Legal academic; mostly Canadian and comparative public law. Associate Professor @unirdg-law.bsky.social; Senior Fellow, Macdonald Laurier Institute; blogger,
ICYMI: I have resigned as Senior Fellow of the Macdonald Laurier Institute, because I think it has turned away from, and indeed against, judicial independence and the Rule of Law. doubleaspect.blog/2026/06/24/n...
So this is happening! Many thanks to the reviewers, and to those who have read my proposal and sample chapter draft, and heard me present ideas that will be going into this over the years. I'm looking forward to sharing more as the manuscript takes shape.
Finally published, in the Dalhousie LJ: a piece looking at widespread, and sometimes wilful, forgetting of some constitutional conventions in Canada, and wondering what, if anything, might be done about it. Paper available at: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
I guess the shambles of a "constitution" wasn't enough to save Mr Legault's political career, whose highlight will remain banning teachers from wearing headscarves. Good riddance to him, and, hopefully, to the "constitution" gambit too.
New paper with @guyjbaldwin.bsky.social, in which we argue that, in finding whole life sentences to be contrary to human rights, the ECtHR and the SCC have made important doctrinal and philosophical mistakes. Forthcoming in the EHRLR, but pre-print available on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Hot off the @publiclaw.bsky.social presses, my review of Lord Sumption's recent book is now available on Westlaw, or in its pre-publication format on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers..... Many thanks to @lewisgrahamlaw.bsky.social for inviting me to do this!
I'm not persuaded by the argument that a province can't repeal the oath of allegiance for its legislators. But you know who was? Quebec's constitutional-reformer-in-chief, whose government proceeded to do just that, and who is now trying to get rid of the Lieutenant Gorvernor for good measure.
This builds on my article on the oath of allegiance required of naturalized citizens, available here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
My newest piece, forthcoming in the Constitutional Forum, is a comment on the Fair Voting BC decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, which upholdds the constitutionality of first-past-the-post elections. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Email from a well-liked editor at a major academic press, in response to a request for an update on a proposal and sample chapter I submitted (with the editors encouragement) three months ago. If anyone wants to suggest careers outside academia, I'd love to hear from you.
George Brown on Canadian union and American insanity. (The American government was, in fact, insane; not for the last time.)
George Brown on the people whose opinion you want to get on the right side of when you have ambitions and aspirations for your country's future.
Been called "some clown in England" at the other place, by some sad creature who goes by @TheKaiserSpeaks, which means I'm required to share this. I didn't make the rules!
Sir John A Macdonald stating the obvious during the Confederation Debates, February 6, 1865. The population of Canada at the time: a bit over 3 million. Being ambitious for your country means being open to immigration. Is there any country today that has this much ambition?
Sir John A Macdonald, describing the heights of political enmity during the Confederation Debates (February 6, 1865)
Profound commentary from the longtime member of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. ¿Por qué no te callas?
What's left is an argument about vibes. It was bad enough when that carried the day in the Nadon affair, but there was a plausible textual argument there too. Not so here. I hope this goes nowhere fast. 5/5
Now statute: the Judges Act is where 10-year requirement comes from, but it can be met by bar membership in "any province", not necessarily the one from which the judge is ultimately appointed. The French text is a smidgen less explicit, but to the same effect. 4/5
That's not exactly the case. Consider the Constitution first. The relevant provision is s 98 of the Constitution Act, 1867. Neither it nor the other provisions in the Judicature part specify a minimum length of bar membership. 3/5
For the record, here's what I said in my earlier post (doubleaspect.blog/2025/08/28/o...). I do not want people to not be considered for academic positions because of the school or movement they belong to. I've reason enough to think that I'm a victim of that myself.
I have written about this before: doubleaspect.blog/2023/09/26/d.... Ideological bias in hiring is antithetical to a university's mission and indeed its status as a genuine academic institution.
Woke may be ending elsewhere but, in Canadian legal academia, ideological favouritism is still going strong. This is an ad from @windsorlaw.bsky.social (www.uwindsor.ca/faculty/recr...).
But this, I am afraid, is flatly wrong: an obiter dictum per incuriam if there ever was one. 6/6