This blog will feature updates on recent developments in case law, scholarship, or relevant events. If you would like to submit a blog post, email lawandlanguageuwo@gmail.com with your proposal and we will review as quickly as possible!
- Fall updateWe hope everyone is having a nice fall. In this first newsletter update, we are proud to share what the Legislative Intent and Ordinary Meaning project on law and language at Western Law has been up to lately. Upcoming talk On November 13, 2025, we are delighted to be hosting Professor Luciana Moro (Deakin Law).… Read more: Fall update
- Telus v FCM and “Starting With The Text”Mark Mancini The modern approach in statutory interpretation requires courts to consider the text, context, and purpose(s) of the enactment. That much is clear. But alongside this instruction, there is another: courts should start with the text (CISSS A, 2024 SCC 43, at para 27). This instruction is ambiguous because, as Vanessa MacDonnell says, there… Read more: Telus v FCM and “Starting With The Text”
- What Does it Mean to Say that Statutes are ‘Always Speaking’?Andy Yu Statutes are “always speaking”. That’s “trite law”, or so it’s been said (by Andrew Burrows, before he joined the UK Supreme Court). But the metaphor has also been described as “arresting but enigmatic” (Lord Leggatt (concurring), in the recent UK case of News Corp [2023] UKSC 7). What does it mean to say that statutes are… Read more: What Does it Mean to Say that Statutes are ‘Always Speaking’?
- Interview with Lindsay Borrows
LINDSAY BORROWS is an Assistant Professor at Queen’s University, Faculty of Law, where she teaches special topics in Indigenous law. She is Anishinaabe and a member of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation. Lindsay has worked as a lawyer and researcher at the Indigenous Law Research Unit (University of Victoria Faculty of Law), and as… Read more: Interview with Lindsay Borrows
Legislative Intent and Ordinary Meaning 