Four questions about unwritten constitutional principles

Conférenciers :

Han-Ru Zhou, professeur adjoint à la Faculté de droit de l'Université de Montréal

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Le Centre de recherche en droit public vous invite à la deuxième séance de son cycle de conférences Les matinées constitutionnelles 2012-2013.

Présentée par le professeur Han-Ru Zhou, elle s'intitulera 'Four questions about unwritten constitutional principles' (Quatre questions à propos des principes constitutionnels non-écrits)

It is often said that most legal systems have a “partly written, partly unwritten” constitution. The written part typically refers to the “Constitution”, a foundational document (or set of documents) sitting at the apex of a country’s hierarchy of legal norms. However, these constitutional documents are often considered as incomplete in the sense that their Framers did not and could not conceivably foresee all the situations for which each section may apply, nor how it should apply. Moreover, the Framers themselves probably intended to address only a limited number of matters. It follows that (the interpretation of) these constitutional documents would need to be complemented with law that many judges and legal scholars characterise as “unwritten”.

This presentation will discuss four interrelated questions concerning the notion of unwritten constitutional principles. Firstly, what are unwritten constitutional principles? Secondly, do they exist? Thirdly, how can (or how do) they operate? And fourthly, how should they operate?

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Cette conférence s'inscrit dans le cycle de conférence « Matinées Constitutionnelles » du Centre de recherche en droit public (CRDP) de l'Université de Montréal

Cette conférence a fait l'objet d'une demande de reconnaissance auprès du Barreau du Québec