Dominant Source of Canadian Law (Essay Sample)

Discussion: Dominant Source of Canadian Law
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Dominant Source of Canadian Law
Common and statute laws are two major categories of legal systems used by different countries across the world. Case laws are also known as common laws, and they entail laws that are made or interpreted by judges from all courts in Canada CITATION Dep17 \l 1033 (Department of Justice, 2017). In the case laws, judges use decisions from previous decisions or stare desis to solve cases before them. On the other hand, statute laws are those laws made by relevant authorities such as a parliament. The discussion on which legal system is dominant in Canada exists due to various reasons. One reason is because of multiple sources of law in Canada; for instance, both case law and statute law are the sources of laws in Canada. The two sources of law were introduced by French and British colonies and both are still used. Further, Canadian constitutional lawyers have admired the American Constitutional Law, which has brought a significant influence on the Canadian legal system.
Arguments
Case law is dominant over the statute law in Canada, as seen in the case of Tsleil-Waututh Nation v Canada. In this case, the indigenous groups had moved to court to challenge Trans Mountain Pipeline from constructing a multibillion-dollar oil pipeline citing that the government had not consulted the indigenous community. Defendants had also raised concerns that the project would bring environmental problems. The Federal Court of Appeal found that the defendant had conducted enough consultation with the applicants enabling the federal government to continue with the project CITATION Tsl18 \l 1033 (Tsleil-Waututh Nation v Canada, 2018). The Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal filed by the Squamish Nation, Tsleil-Weututh Nation and Coldwater Indian Band.
The case of Tsleil-Waututh Nation v Canada was decided using the case law because the decision was reached after judges analyzed the issue and evidence brought before the court and not based on the statutes. Statute laws usually are considered dominant over case laws because, in situations where statute law exists, common law cannot be used. However, this was not the fact in this case because common law was used to determine the matter. Common law is dominant because they cannot be used only where the statute laws exist. In the above case, for instance, the indigenous nations in British Columbia had not signed any treaty with colonial authorities like other regions of the country (Cecco, 2019). Lack of a statute gave judges the powers to decide the dispute before them using the case law. It was possible to decide a case in a situation where no law whether a statute or previous decision related to the matter using common law.
Although the case was seen as a big blow to the indigenous community who vowed to use other platforms to get justice, the decision was also important to them because the development of such project would contribute to economic growth and raise their standard of living. According to Boetttke et al. (2017), the best legal system must enhance economic development. Since the authority led by Trudeau