Podcast
Runnymede Radio
Hosted by Runnymede Radio · EN
Official podcast of the Runnymede Society
22episodes
Episodes
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Measuring Jurisprudence with AI: Rules, Standards, and the Supreme Court of Canada
Mar 400:55:26Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Runnymede Radio, we feature an original interview with Professor Norman Siebrasse (University of New Brunswick). Professor Siebrasse discusses his recent study using artificial intelligence to examine long-term trends in Supreme Court of Canada decisions. By analyzing thousands of judgments from 1974 to 2025, the study places cases on a rules–standards spectrum and identifies a marked shift toward more standard-like reasoning beginning in the early Charter era. The conversation also explores the idea of “Charter contagion,” the relationship between increasingly lengthy decisions and declining rule-likeness, and the broader promise and limits of AI in legal and academic research. This episode offers a careful examination of artificial intelligence as a research tool and of the evolving character of Supreme Court reasoning in Canada.
Transcribe →Carissima Mathen: Advisory Opinions
Feb 18, 2020Tap to summarizeThis episode of Runnymede Radio features Carissima Mathen, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. Interviewed by Mark Mancini, the National Director of the Runnymede Society, Professor Mathen discusses her book entitled Courts Without Cases: The Law and Politics of Advisory Opinions, released in 2019 by Hart Publishing. Below is a blurb describing the book. We hope you enjoy this episode of Runnymede Radio! Since 1875, Canadian courts have been permitted to act as advisors alongside their ordinary, adjudicative role. This book offers the first detailed examination of that role from a legal perspective. When one thinks of courts, it is most often in the context of deciding cases: live disputes involving spirited, adversarial debate between opposing parties. Sometimes, though, a court is granted the power to answer questions in the absence of such disputes through advisory opinions (also called references). These proceedings raise many questions: about the judicial role, about the relationship between courts and those who seek their 'advice', and about the nature of law. Tracking their use in Canada since the country's Confederation and looking to the experience of other legal systems, the book considers how advisory opinions draw courts into the complex relationship between law and politics. With attention to key themes such as the separation of powers, federalism, rights and precedent, this book provides an important and timely study of a fascinating phenomenon.
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