Just Words: Constitutional Rights and Social Wrongs

Charlotte Neff is an associate professor of law and justice at
Laurentian University and the co-author of The Annotated Competition Act
1992.

In this book, constitutional scholar Joel Bakan sets out to determine
whether the “fine-sounding” words of the Canadian Charter are words
of justice or words that are worth little more than the paper they are
written on: he concludes the latter.

Bakan begins by critiquing the arguments that are used to justify
judicial review of the scope of government power. The only appropriate
judicial response, he concludes, is restraint. He devotes much of the
rest of the book to demonstrating the limitations of rights discourse
within Charter litigation and, more broadly, within public political
debate over Charter rights. He finds that within Charter litigation,
rights tend to be interpreted in the context of the dominant ideology,
in part because judges generally subscribe to that ideology.

Similarly reflective of the dominant ideology, the arguments of rights
advocates tend to be presented and interpreted in the media as promoting
classical liberal views of individual rights. Viewpoints based on
nationalist or class struggle are marginalized and delegitimated,
thereby limiting the potential of public rights discourse to address the
problem of social injustice. Bakan concludes his book by arguing that
class analysis and state activism are necessary components of the
struggle to achieve social justice. The dominant liberal ideology that
he believes underlies Charter and rights discourse attempts, by
contrast, to curtail government action.

Just Words, which is supplemented by extensive notes, a comprehensive
bibliography, and a table of cases, will appeal primarily to
constitutional and social science scholars with an interest in the
promotion of social justice.