Realism, Federalism, and Statutory Interpretation during the 1930s: The Significance of Home Oil Distributors v. A.G. (B.C.)

R. Blake Brown

ABSTRACT

In this article, the author surveys the Canadian Legal Realist scholarship of the 1930s pertaining to statutory interpretation, and explores the possibility that this scholarship affected the judicial consideration of Home Oil Distributors v. Attorney-General of British Columbia et al. In this case, several Canadian courts considered the constitutional validity of a British Columbia statute that regulated the price of gasoline and heating oil during the Depression. The author concludes that the Home Oil decisions are historically significant because they represent a subtle break with formalist principles of statutory interpretation. Rather than determining the purpose of the impugned legislation by identifying its plain meaning, several judges referred to a provincial royal commission report in their construction. Home Oil also demonstrates, however, that the Canadian Legal Realists' argument for a broadening of the evidentiary basis for statutory interpretation had the potential to undermine, as well as support, legislation in the face of a constitutional challenge.

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Citation: (2001) 59(1) U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 1.
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