Publication News | Preparing for a Midlife Crisis: Section 92A at 40

"Preparing for a Midlife Crisis: Section 92A at 40" examines the events that led to the adoption of section 92A (the resources amendment) and assesses both how litigants have invoked section 92A and how Canadian courts have interpreted its text in the 40 years since its adoption. According to co-authors Professor Emeritus Nigel Bankes and the University of Alberta's Andrew Leach, earlier decisions relied on section 92A to confirm the validity of provincial or municipal legislation, but, in more recent cases, section 92A has been invoked to question the validity or applicability of federal legislation.

"Section 92A arose out of conflict with respect to trade in resources and the right to appropriate the economic rent associated with developing those resources. The current conflicts focus on the power to make laws with respect to the development and exploitation of those resources."

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