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In a series of controversial decisions in the last thirty years, including the Reference re Secession of Quebec rendered in 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada has given full legal force to unwritten constitutional principles. These principles, which bind both courts and governments, may not only guide the interpretation of the constitutional text but constitute the premises of constitutional arguments that culminate in “the filling of gaps in the express terms of the constitutional text” and in certain circumstances, “give rise to substantive legal obligations … which constitute substantive limitations upon government action.” Conferring such a normative force to unwritten constitutional principles raises a series of theoretical, epistemological and normative questions. What is the status of these principles? What is their source or foundation? How may they be determined? What is the foundation of their legitimacy? What right does the judiciary have to use them to create substantive legal obligations? The purpose of the text is to consider these questions.
