THE JUDICIALIZATION OF CANADIAN ENVIRONMENTAL-POLICY, 1980-1990 - A TEST OF THE CANADA-UNITED-STATES CONVERGENCE THESIS

Observers of the development and evolution of Canadian environmental p olicy have noted evidence of what appears to be a pattern of lagged em ulation of United States environmental initiatives by Canadian authori ties. The record of recent Canadian court activities in the area of en vironmental assessments is cited as evidence that Canadian environment al policy is converging with that of the US. Other commentators, howev er, have failed to observe the increase in litigation required to just ify the convergence hypothesis. Using evidence gleaned from a database of over 150 Canadian superior court decisions on the environment betw een 1980 and 1989, this article finds little evidence of a systematic pattern of convergence in the judicialization of Canadian environmenta l policy, and suggests that the reasons for this lie in the different institutional and constitutional structures which define the roles and relationship of the judiciary, legislators and administrative agencie s in each country.