Seeking the Court’s Advice

this is an excellent book that completely fills a major and unfortunate lacuna in the academic literature. It is well organized, well written, thorough and balanced, and it winds up with recommendations for better squaring the practice with judicial independence concerns.

A first book, you say, and by a very junior author? It certainly doesn’t read that way—this is a polished work of mature scholarship. I recommend it highly. Peter McCormick, Canadian Journal of Political Science

[Puddister] manages to provide a superb and comprehensive analysis of the development, evolution, and purposes of the reference power. Emmett Macfarlane, associate professor, University of Waterloo, The Review of Constitutional Studies

…Seeking the Court’s Advice will likely affect the way the power is exercised and conceived of by governments, interveners, and courts. Jennah Khaled, JD, Osgoode Hall Law, Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In this timely, original, and outstanding book, Kate Puddister explores a neglected yet enduring and vital dimension of the judicialization of politics in Canada – the ability of cabinets to seek the advice of the highest courts through the reference procedure. In Seeking the Court’s Advice, Puddister clearly demonstrates, through a comprehensive analysis of every reference submitted since Confederation, the political calculations that motivate cabinets to submit constitutional questions to the court. This important book will be of great interest to Canadian and comparative scholars of federalism, parliamentary democracy, and the judicialization of politics. James B. Kelly, professor of political science, Concordia University, and co-author of Parliamentary Bills of Rights: The Experiences of New Zealand and the United Kingdom

Reference cases have an outsized influence on constitutional law and politics in Canada. Seeking the Court’s Advice explains how references are used as a political tool, why democratic elites are ceding decision-making authority to the courts, and how this practice affects Parliament, the executive, and the judiciary. This book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of law, politics, and democracy in Canada. Matthew A. Hennigar, associate professor of political science, Brock University